Honduras: Environmental Defenders

Alan Garcia, an environmental defender, shows off a plastic shell used against protestors from the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations ( COPINH) survived being shot at close range by the Honduran Military during a protest against the Agua Zarca Dam. The same incident took his father's life. Sandwiched between Guatemala and Nicaragua on the Caribbean coast, Honduras is blanketed in forest and rich in valuable minerals. But the proceeds of this natural wealth are enjoyed by a very small section of society. Honduras has the highest levels of inequality in the whole of Latin America, with around six out of ten households in rural areas living in extreme poverty, on less than US$2.50 per day. A recent report documents shocking levels of violence and intimidation suffered by rural communities for taking a stand against the imposition of dams, mines, logging, or agriculture on their land - projects that are controlled by rich and powerful elites, among them members of the political class. The root causes of the abuses are widespread corruption and the failure to properly consult those affected by these projects