PBI-Honduras shares World Environment Day message from CEHPRODEC on the struggle against extractivism

Tweet by CEHPRODEC.

On June 7, PBI-Honduras posted: “We express concern for defenders criminalized for doing work to promote and protect human rights and territorial rights.”

They also shared the image above from CEHPRODEC that says:

“The struggle for the defence of the territory, the struggle against extractivism, the struggle against agrochemicals, the organizational strengthening of the people and the implementation of agroecology, are fundamental in rescuing the environment.”

PBI-Honduras also shared this article by the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CESPAD).

It notes: “From 2009 to date, 31 hydroelectric projects and 13 forest management plans for the use of wood have been granted by the State and Government of Honduras in an area that, at the same time, has left a scenario of threats, persecution, prosecution and even the murder of environmental defenders.”

Furthermore, “Since 2009, when the coup d’état against the government of Manuel Zelaya occurred, the department of Santa Bárbara has been the point of concentration of extractivist projects.”

That includes 29 mining concessions in 2018, as well as 31 hydroelectric projects and 13 “forest management plans” in 2019.

Canada and extractivism in Honduras

The Conversation has reported: “In the early 2000s, Canadian investment [in Honduras] surpassed $100 million, much of it concentrated in mining and exploration.”

“In response to popular discontent with the scale of these operations and their adverse environmental and public health effects, the centre-left President Manuel Zelaya proposed a series of modest checks on the industry following his election in 2005.”

That article adds: “When Zelaya was forced into exile during a 2009 military coup, the Canadian state threw its diplomatic weight behind his opponent, Porfirio (Pepe) Lobo, who was widely expected to implement laws favourable to the mining sector.”

In April 2014, MiningWatch Canada’s then Latin America program coordinator Jennifer Moore expressed concern to a Canadian parliamentary committee about the Canadian-backed mining law that was passed in Honduras in January 2013.

Moore stated, “This law was developed and passed with strong diplomatic support from the Canadian embassy, and with contributions from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the former Canadian International Development Agency.”

And Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams warned in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper not long before the mining law was passed:

“In creating this new law, the Honduran government has bent over backwards to meet the needs of Canadian and other mining companies, but has carried out almost no consultations with Honduran civil society and community organizations.”

PBI-Honduras has accompanied the Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development (CEHPRODEC) since May 2014.

Tweet by PBI-Honduras.