Deforestation Worsened Impact of Hurricane Mitch

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

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11/21/98

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

Forests are intimately responsible for maintenance of conditions

suitable for life. Indications are that impacts of Hurricane Mitch

(itself likely to have been strengthened by global warming) were

intensified by lack of forests to absorb the torrential rains.

Country after country is facing natural catastrophes that have been

magnified by lack of forest cover.

g.b.

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Title: Deforestation worsened impact of Hurricane Mitch

Source: AFP

Date: November 11, 1998

TEGUCIGALPA, Nov 10 (AFP) - Widespread deforestation in Central

America has contributed to the devastation triggered by Hurricane

Mitch, particularly in Honduras and Nicaragua, experts said Tuesday.

With an average of 48 hectares (118 acres) of forest lost every hour

in the region, experts say many mountainsides no longer have trees to

hold back landslides or stop the rain from sweeping away topsoil and

dumping it into rivers.

"The rain that fell in deforested regions could not be absorbed.

Instead it carried the soil into rivers, depositing sediments in

riverbeds. This diminished the rivers' capacities and worsened the

floods," said Juan Blas of the Central American Council on Forests and

Protected Zones.

Torrential rains drenched the region for a week, flooding rivers,

which swept away hundreds of kilometers (miles) of rail tracks and

roads, entire villages and thousands of hectares (acres) of crops.

They also triggered massive landslides, including one on the south

flank of the Casitas volcano in northeastern Nicaragua that buried

five villages and killed more than 2,200 people.

The total death toll has been estimated 11,100, with 15,300 still

missing across Central America.

Honduras and Nicaragua lost most of their crops and much of their

forests.

At the best of times, between 80,000 and 108,000 hectares (200,000 and

270,000 acres) of tropical forests disappear every year in Honduras.

In neighboring Nicaragua the figure is between 100,000 and 120,000

hectares, according to environmental organizations.

In both countries, deforestation is mainly carried out by

multinational companies, including banana producers and timber

industries.

And, with the best land held by multinationals and wealthy farmers,

many in this impoverished region chop down trees on the flanks of

mountains and volcanoes to cultivate a small parcel of land. When the

soil no longer produces enough, they move a little higher, chopping

down a few more trees to grow the corn and beans they need to feed

their families.

"The case of Casitas was foreseeable. Poor peasants deforested its

flanks without respecting any rule or taking into consideration the

fragility of the soil and the slopes. Unknowingly, they dug their own

graves," said environmentalist Jaime Incer.

The practice of burning forested areas to clear land for cultivation

also contributes to deforestation, as does the widespread use of wood

for cooking fuel in a region where only a minority has access to

electricity. In Honduras, 59 percent of city residents and 95 percent

of those who live in the countryside cook on wood fires.

The figures are similar in Nicaragua, where consumption of wood for

cooking purposes reaches two million tonnes a year, according to Juan

Jose Montiel, who heads the Nicaraguan Foundation for Conservation and

Development.

"If we continue to cut down our forests at this rhythm, we will not

have a single tree left by 2020," he said.

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