Honduras declares an environmental emergency in the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve

Honduras has declared an environmental emergency in the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, the country’s largest protected area. The presidential decree is dated 10 November.

$55 million over three years

The emergency will last 36 months and has 1.5 billion lempiras, more than $55 million, to stop the reserve’s decline. It will be coordinated by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Defence and the Forest Conservation Institute (ICF).

A huge, lawless forest

The reserve covers more than 832,000 hectares in the Mosquitia, across the departments of Gracias a Dios, Colón and Olancho. It is home to Miskito, Pech and Garífuna Indigenous communities. Part of it has been a World Heritage Site since 1982 and on UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger since 2011.

Being so remote, near the Nicaraguan border, it suffers from deforestation, drug trafficking, cattle ranching, gold mining and wildlife trafficking. Between 2023 and 2025, at least 6,691 hectares of forest were cleared, according to the ICF.

Edgard Herrera, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Honduras, describes it as “like the wild west”.

From paper to action

The decree hasn’t been published yet. Herrera expects the money to go mainly to law enforcement in the core zone, perhaps with new patrol posts. But he warns: “We have to turn what’s on paper into action.” In 2024 a forest emergency was already declared with a zero-deforestation plan that, according to several environmental groups, hasn’t been fully carried out.

Another Mesoamerican forest: La Caverna, in Chiapas, marks 99 years of care.