Protecting the micro-cuencas (eco-systems)

Solidarity Trip to Honduras – Development and Peace with the Canadian Catholic Campus Ministers

In the morning, we visited a community that is trying to practice sustainable agriculture. This community gives me hope. The community is funded by Caritas and they put into practice a whole system that is ecological and feeds 8 families of about 60 people.

Unfortunately their land is on slopes and the better land is kept for those who are rich.

The community is making sure that there is crop rotation on their fields, that the forest is protected and that the soil doesn’t get eroded. They still use chemicals but are gradually eliminating them to become totally organic. This transition to a chemical free agriculture is a slow process. At the moment they cannot do it because they need to make sure that their families get fed.

We then went further up where we saw an oven with Canadian technology that uses only 30% of the wood of the previous ovens. I also got suited up to get a close look at their bee hives. Bees are very important, not only for the production of the honey that they can then sell but also for the pollinization of the plants. People then have a greater interest in protecting the plants.

We also witnessed a sick horse trying to give birth. But it probably will die because of a lack of resources (no vet nearby).

In the afternoon, we visited a group of people that formed a committee to fight against a Canadian mining company (Goldcorp) that has poisoned their water and destroyed the environment. The company has left and there is no accountability.

The Honduran government has turned a blind eye to them saying that ‘yes’ there are sick people in the community but there is no proof that it is attributable to the mining company.

We need to help these communities by informing Canadians on how these mining companies operate in the Global South.

Norbert Gottfried Piché

VIDEOS: CAFOD’s Unearth Justice Trailer and Voices from Honduras – a meeting with with the same people we spoke with, in the Siria Valley.