Deforestation in Central America

In Honduras, forest coverage shrank by almost a third, from 57 percent in 2000 to 41 percent in 2015, explained by an increase of monoculture, extractive projects, livestock production and shifting cultivation. It is the Central American country with the greatest decline in forest cover, in a region where all of the countries, with the exception of Costa Rica, are destroying their forests. In neighboring Guatemala, losses are also reported in forest cover. In 2000, 39 percent of the territory was covered by trees; that proportion had fallen to 33 percent by 2015. The forest cover in Central America decreased from 46 percent in 2000 to 41 percent in 2015. Forest cover shrank from 32 to 26 percent in Nicaragua, from 66 to 62 percent in Panama, and from 16 to 13 percent in El Salvador. The exception was Costa Rica where more than half (54 percent) of the land is covered by trees, compared to 47 percent 15 years ago.

 Since 2000 Central America has lost forest cover and wetlands, vital to the preservation of aquifers, which has coincided with a widespread regional increase in greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.  Alberto Mora, a research coordinator for the interdisciplinary body of experts, the State of the Region, noted that the region could have 68 departments or provinces suffering severe aridity towards the end of the century, compared to fewer than 20 today.

“This greatly exacerbates the impacts of global warming and rising temperatures, on ecosystems and their species. It is really a serious problem in Central America,” he told IPS.

Jazziel Baca,  an environmental engineer active in the environmental NGO Friends of the Earth lives in the municipality of Esquías, in western Honduras,  explained that farmers are moving higher up the mountains, because the soil they used to farm is no longer fertile. Using the slash-and-burn technique, they grow their staple foods. But also, he said, “we have very long droughts and, without rainy seasons, the peasant farmers can’t plant their food crops, which gives rise to emergency situations in terms of food security.”

Agricultural engineer Ogden Rodas, coordinator of FAO’s Forest and Farm Facility in Guatamala, explained that the loss of forests is affecting Guatemala’s ability to obtain food in multiple ways. Currently, he said, peasant and indigenous communities have less food from seeds, roots, fruits or leaves and fewer jobs, which were previously generated in activities such as weeding and pruning. Their ability to put food on their tables is also affected, as the destruction of the forest cover impacts on the water cycles, affecting irrigated agriculture. Rodas believes that her country needs to strengthen the management of agribusiness crops such as sugar cane and African oil palm, to create alternatives for forest-dwelling communities and develop strategies for the sustainable use of firewood, a problem common to the entire region.