Browse Honduras Daily Stories

The National Congress's environmental committee met with Honduras's forestry institute to assess the bark beetle infestation affecting 488 hectares in Yoro Department; officials say rainy conditions are providing time to implement control measures before the pest spreads.

A UNESCO mission will visit Honduras late 2026 to assess conservation efforts at the Plátano River Biosphere Reserve, Honduras's largest protected area, which remains on the World Heritage in Danger list due to illegal land occupation, poaching, and deforestation linked to organized crime.

A Tegucigalpa man was sentenced to four years and six months in prison and fined 9,000 lempiras (about $360) for unauthorized farming, illegal pond construction, and tree-cutting in the Guacerique River watershed, a protected area that supplies the capital's Los Laureles reservoir.

Environmental prosecutors are investigating the unauthorized clearing of a road through a protected water-source buffer zone in Morazán, Yoro, where inspectors found illegal logging to create vehicle access.

Honduras's Congressional Environment Commission announced it will meet Thursday with the Forest Conservation Institute director to plan action against the pine bark beetle, which has already damaged pine forests in four departments.

Honduras is mobilizing 350 technical teams to georeference coffee farms and issue non-deforestation certificates required by the European Union's deforestation regulation, which affects roughly half of the country's coffee exports to Europe.

A National Congress member from Yoro has called on Honduras's Forest Conservation Institute to take drastic measures to halt the spread of the destructive bark beetle pest, which threatens forests nationwide.

National Congress member Juan Sauceda of Colón warned that deforestation could intensify future droughts and called for forest protection and adaptation measures such as silvopastoral systems and livestock feed reserves.

The Public Ministry's environmental prosecutors arrested eight people caught clearing protected forest in Esquías, Comayagua, to plant crops; satellite monitoring had flagged the site.

The Public Ministry's environmental unit filed charges against Olman Osorto Cruz and his son Sergio Gustavo Osorto Guzmán for illegal forest exploitation in Las Peñitas, with evidence gathered in July raids; both men also face murder charges.

Honduras's Environmental Police (DPI) have arrested 97 people for environmental crimes so far in 2026, according to the National Police.

A man has been formally charged with illegal urbanization and aggravated damage to public property in a protected forest area near Tatumbla, according to the Special Environmental Prosecutor.

Military environmental patrols found about two manzanas of illegally cleared forest near a river in La Masica, Atlántida, and announced an investigation to establish responsibility.

Military patrols halted the illegal clearing of about 8 acres (two manzanas) of forest in La Másica, Atlántida, where workers were felling large timber trees and converting land for farming near Río Cuero, a watershed officials say is vital to the community's water supply and flood protection.

Honduras is accelerating geo-mapping of coffee farms by December to meet European import requirements that all coffee be free of deforestation since 2020, protecting about 60% of the country's coffee exports.

Annual forest losses from fires, illegal logging, and beetle infestations—between 60,000 and 70,000 hectares—are severely damaging Honduras's timber industry, according to government sources and the country's largest forestry company.

Military police arrested two suspects for illegal logging and seized a chainsaw in the Lagunitas sector of Santa Bárbara, recovering about 2.5 acres of mixed forest cleared for coffee cultivation.

The near-threatened white bat (Ectophylla alba), a thumb-sized mammal found in Honduras's Mosquitia rainforests, constructs tent-like shelters from Heliconia leaves and faces threats from deforestation and habitat loss.

Communities in Choluteca and Valle say a decade of foreign-financed solar projects has destroyed forests, contaminated water sources, and displaced fishing and farming, yielding only six permanent jobs while Congress debates an electrical-industry law expected to favor private energy companies further.

Honduras's 50,279 hectares of mangroves, concentrated in the Gulf of Fonseca, store an average of 346.6 metric tons of carbon per hectare and support 75% of commercial fish species, but lost 1,224 hectares between 2000 and 2018 mainly to shrimp and salt farming.

The Forest Conservation Institute (ICF) discovered environmental damage in the buffer zone of Sierra de Agalta National Park in Olancho, including about 1.5 hectares of illegal land clearing, agricultural plots, and evidence of fires set to prepare land for planting.

An aerial reconnaissance by Honduras's military environmental battalion found three active illegal mining sites with at least 10 workers and seven floating dredges in the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, plus an illegal road network facilitating deforestation in Gracias a Dios.

A forestry engineer warns that El Niño arriving earlier than usual from June through September will reduce water supplies for drinking and power generation, harm planting of beans and corn, and increase wildfire risk across Honduras.

An Environmental Protection Battalion patrol in Las Agujas, Catacamas, Olancho stopped the illegal felling of about 98 mixed hardwood trees following a citizen report; two chainsaws were seized and the suspects fled.

Environmental prosecutors inspected the protected zone of the Río Oloma in El Negrito, Yoro, after a report of illegal cutting of mahogany, hormigo, and sangre trees.

Military forces seized 126 pieces of milled pine wood and two chainsaws during an operation in Olancho and arrested a man suspected of illegal logging that damages Honduras's natural resources.

Honduras recorded 1,007 forest fires during the extended dry season, scorching 93,634 hectares nationwide, with Olancho suffering the worst damage and officials warning of serious risks to water supplies.

The arrest this month of the alleged killer of Carlos Luna, a forest-rights activist murdered 28 years ago, has brought some relief to his family and renewed attention to the dangers faced by environmental defenders in Honduras.

A decree transferring authority over the El Merendón mountain range to the national forestry agency ICF has alarmed the local conservation group Guardianes del Merendón, which warns of deforestation and threats to San Pedro Sula's water supply.