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Meanwhile, what's going on with the forests of Honduras? [1]
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Date: 2025-01-15
We’ve been hearing about the forest fires in California and how Republicans are trying to blame everything but man-caused climate change. Carbon dioxide emissions and all, but, but… the Los Angeles Fire Department is too woke with its woman chief and diverse firefighters.
What’s going on with the forests of other countries? I spun a globe and my finger happened to stop it on Honduras. If you drive south from California to Mexico and keep going towards the Panama Canal, you will pass through Honduras.
According to Global Forest Watch,
From 2002 to 2023, Honduras lost 509 kha [kilo-hectares?] of humid primary forest, making up 37% of its total tree cover loss in the same time period. Total area of humid primary forest in Honduras decreased by 24% in this time period. From 2001 to 2023, Honduras lost 1.40 Mha [mega-hectares?] of tree cover, equivalent to a 18% decrease in tree cover since 2000, and 690 Mt [metric tons?] of CO₂e emissions. In Honduras from 2001 to 2023, 14% of tree cover loss occurred in areas where the dominant drivers of loss resulted in deforestation.
Be sure to follow the link to see the charts. I’m sorry I’m not completely clear on the measurements, but the main point is that these are bad things that are happening.
Of greatest interest to us in relation to California,
In Honduras the peak fire season typically begins in late February and lasts around 12 weeks. There were 1,705 VIIRS [Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite] fire alerts reported between 14th of January 2024 and 12th of January 2025 considering high confidence alerts only. This is normal compared to previous years going back to 2012.
For comparison, Global Forest Watch reports almost 25,000 VIIRS fire alerts in the United States for the same period from January 14 of last year to January 12 of this year. But Honduras is a much smaller country, only a tiny bit more than 1% in area of the United States. Clearly 25,000 VIIRS fire alerts is a lot less than 170,500. Not good, of course, but certainly not as bad as it would be if the situation here was proportionally as bad as the situation in Honduras.
In Honduras there have been 2 VIIRS fire alerts reported so far in 2025 considering high confidence alerts only. This total is low compared to the total for previous years going back to 2012. The most fires recorded in a year was 2020, with 4,598. From 2001 to 2023, Honduras lost 171 kha of tree cover from fires and 1.23 Mha from all other drivers of loss. The year with the most tree cover loss due to fires during this period was 2016 with 41.5 kha lost to fires — 22% of all tree cover loss for that year.
What I haven’t been able to find clear data on is the extent that unfair trade practices and illegal logging have contributed to deforestation in Honduras. Just a couple of years ago, the European Union and Honduras entered into an agreement to reduce illegal logging.
But the primary destination for Honduran lumber is the United States, accounting for slightly more than 25% of lumber exports. Neighboring El Salvador is a close second with slightly less than 25%. Other neighboring countries account for much of the roughly other half of the total. The European Union doesn’t even rate a bar in the chart I saw on the Timber Trade Portal.
The damage of American imperialism is seldom factored in the immigration debate.
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