Effects On Climate Change On Honduras And Its Economy
Honduras is a developing country located in Central America, and is situated between Guatemala and Nicaragua. It borders both the Gulf of Fonseca and the Caribbean Sea. Its capital city is called Tegucigalpa. Although Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, its main productions for its natural wealth are timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, palm oil, lumber, coal, fish, and hydropower. Honduras and its economy has, and will continue to be, gravely affected by climate change, if other countries do not reduce their greenhouse emissions. This country’s contribution to climate change has been minimal in comparison. Due to its geographical location, Honduras falls victim to disasters such as floods, hurricanes, mudslides, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tropical storms. As climate change escalates, these disasters are predicted to change location and become more frequent. Even though Honduras is responsible for only 0. 1% of greenhouse emissions, it is considered as “one of the countries which is most at risk from climate change”. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch caused $3 billion in damage, killing around 10,000 and increasing deforestation. Its annual rate of deforestation is 2. 5%, which is the highest in all of Latin America.
According to the choropleth map to the right, Honduras was considered to be the second most affected country by extreme weather events from 1998 to 2017. The climate graph shows the monthly precipitation against the mean temperature of Honduras. The least amount of rainfall occurs during the beginning of the year, mostly in March (40mm). The greatest amount of precipitation occurs in June (250mm) and remains high all throughout until around October. The temperature is lowest in January (21. 5*C) and begins to increase through the months until March, which is the highest temperature (25*C), then it begins to decrease but remains somewhat the same through July, August and September, and then begins to decrease once again. The El Niño and La Nina influence temperature and precipitation. Rising temperatures and decreasing rain levels in Honduras, such as from February to May, cause droughts, lower groundwater levels and reduce surface water, which represents about 90% of its total water supply. In addition, hotter climates lead to outbreaks, such as the “bark beetle” in 2013, which resulted in deforestation in a quarter of Honduras’s forests, which severely affected the quality of surface water. Around 40% of the population of Honduras works in agriculture while its economy heavily depends on it, yet climate change is driving farmers to migrate to the US because of the lack of water which leads to a significant drop in their yield. Farmers receive loans in order to buy and plant their crops, yet the crops suffer from the changing climates that farmers cannot predict.
Once the crops have been destroyed, these farmers need to repay the loans given to them, and in most cases they are unable to do so. Profits and income has dropped, giving farmers and their families with no other choice than to relocate and change jobs. Crops such as beans and corn has been destroyed, and crops are now more likely to be affected by outbreaks of disease such as coffee, which has been struck by a rust fungus called “roya”. This gravely affected Honduras’s economy since it is the fifth largest producer of coffee in the world. Many families have little to eat because they depend completely on coffee. To make matters worse, rainfall is expected to reduce by 14% by 2050, leading to much longer and hotter droughts, which is extremely worrying since most of the farmers in this country do not have irrigation. The 1951 UN refugee convention recognises persecution and war as criteria for asylum, but not climate change. Over the next 30 years, the World Bank estimates that up to 3. 9 million climate migrants will flee Central America. Farmers began planting corn called “maicillo”, which is usually used as chicken feed, yet it is lower quality and more resistant to drought. Demand decreased as no one desired to purchase the corn. Meanwhile, farmers with more money would be able to install irrigation systems, yet very few were installed since the poverty is vast in Honduras. Also, in 2012 farmers decided to plant a new type of coffee called Lempira, since supposedly it was more resistant to the fungus “roya”. After three years crops were badly affected and the farmers were, once again, left without crops or income. These farmers need support to be able to adapt to the rapid climate change, such as provision of crops that are drought-resistant and help with the conservation of water. The farmers of Honduras need help from their own government, especially since President Donald Trump wanted his administration to cut funding, to climate and agriculture programs, dramatically to Central American countries as punishment for being unable to stop migration flows into his country. This is said to only stoke more migration.
Furthermore, Honduras has adopted “the UN Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration” in order to increase awareness over the migrants of climate change. Ecosystems like coral reefs, mangroves, cloud forests, rainforests and fisheries are threatened by climate change. Besides the deforestation, logging and mining, the extremely varied temperatures and precipitation leads to disorganization of the carbon and water cycles. Many species such as the tundra peregrine falcon, jaguar, seven species of mammals, four species of birds, thirty four plant species, seven reptiles, three species of turtle; green sea, hawksbill, and olive ridley, three species of crocodile; spectacled caiman, American, and Morelet's, and the Caribbean monk seal and the Swan Island hutia have become either endangered or extinct. Already gravely affected by tourism and marine fisheries, the Great Mayan Reef, the second largest coral reef in the world, is predicted to collapse by 2050 partially due to ocean acidification and rising temperatures of the seas surface. The Honduran Corporation of Forestry Development is an organization that manages protected areas and forest wildlife such as zoos, development programs, tourism, etc. Also, Honduras inforced the “General Law on Climate Change and the National Climate Change Strategy”, which consists of the protection, conservation and restoration of coastal marine and terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity. Every year, more than 500 premature deaths and acute respiratory infections, the most frequent form of illness, are caused by air pollution in Honduras. This is due to the rapidly increasing urban population and an increase in the production of vehicles. In addition, outbreaks of diseases affect the population heavily, along with inadequate regulations and monitoring done by the government. The Government of Honduras has begun to prepare an air quality management plan, following on the recognition of these issues. This consists of switching traditional stoves with improved stoves, and changing to cleaner fuels like LPG, in order to reduce indoor air pollution and other health matters, the installation of chimneys and smoke hoods, and advising parents to keep young children away from the smoke in their houses. Because of the stove switch, firewood consumed by home is expected to decrease by 39%, which helps reduce deforestation.
Furthermore, by 2030, the Republic of Honduras is committed to the reforestation of one million hectares of forests. Honduras’ primary derivation of renewable energy is from hydropower plants which takes up about 40% of its total energy generation. By 2022, the country’s goal is to increase its renewable energy to 60%, yet climate change makes this goal very unlikely. Decreased precipitation, increased evaporation, water scarcity, and longer lasting droughts reduce the inputs for hydroelectric power stations. The capacity of hydro-power is expected to reduce up to 53% by 2070, since about 20% less water has been coming in from the Lempa River Basin into major reservoirs. The Government of Honduras adopted the project of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, and has made the commitment in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Along with goals on poverty, hunger, health, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, decent work and economic growth, Honduras's Government mainly focuses on “13. 1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries” and “13. 3: Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning”. The Ministry of Natural Resources and SECPLAN (the Secretariat of Planning, Coordination, and Budget) have been assigned to work on environmental problems. Also, Honduras is party to organizations such as Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands. Honduras has developed a “Hoja de Ruta” that consists of 21 activities that are to be implemented over the next three years. This “identifies five priority areas for implementing the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement on climate change. ” Some of these activities include; “a comprehensive review of the country’s NDC; development of a national climate change investment plan; data collection and monitoring; capacity building; and increased public awareness. ” In order to help unite its sustainable development and climate agenas, and obtain financing and support, Honduras is currently developing national legislation. In conclusion, Honduras is amongst the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, and is highly vulnerable to extreme weather conditions caused by climate change has made the mistake of investing inadequately into other sectors that have nothing to do with climate change, which is currently the most serious and threatening matter the country faces. Also, most of the governments funds are diverted to combat Honduras’s gang problem, meaning that little money can go to aid movements against climate change.
In addition, many environmentalists have been regularly murdered during the past few years, yet the Honduran government has done nothing to solve these crimes, indicating that the environment is of little importance to them. However, the government has improved in some ways to fight back against climate change, yet little has been done, since the infrastructure is too poor that the people of Honduras are not protected enough from the constant disasters that strike. Not only does this affect living conditions but also the country’s GDP. As climate change increases the amount of natural disasters, it also puts a strain on the government to undertake development barriers such as are extreme inequality, low levels of education, environmental problems, and crime and violence.
