Honduras

THE REPUBLIC OF Honduras lies in Central America, and has coastlines with the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Honduras has a land area of 43,278 sq. mi. (112,492 sq. km.), with a population of 7,326,496 (2006 est.), and a population density of 166 people per sq. mi. (64 people per sq. km.). About 15 percent of the land in the country is arable, with another 14 percent meadows and pasture used for the extensive raising of cattle, which contributes to the production of methane gas. In 1990, the carbon dioxide emission per capita for the country was 0.5 metric tons per person, rising to 0.94 metric tons per person by 2003. Some 88 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions come from liquid fuels, with 12 percent from the manufacture of cement. Honduras gets 63.1 percent of its electricity production from hydropower, with 36.9 percent from fossil fuels.

Internal flights in the country are relatively cheap, contributing to further greenhouse gas emissions, but one of the largest potential threats follows the confirmation, in September 1999, of large oil deposits along La Moskitia, one of the most important native environments in the country. This might also affect the Bay Islands, leading to a large oil industry, and further greenhouse gas pollution in Honduras and abroad.

Over 54 percent of Honduras is covered with forest, including much virgin cloud forest, and one of the most extensive tropical forests in the region. The rising water levels and water temperatures will have [Page 512]the most obvious effects on the Bay Islands off the north coast of Honduras, with some coral bleaching noticed on the reefs there, especially after the El Nino event of 1997–98 and Hurricane Mitch on October 25,1998. The coral reefs affected by bleaching include the most famous in Honduras, the Black Coral Wall and Pretty Bush, off the north coast of Utila, as well as those around the islands of Roatán and Guanaja. Furthermore, flooding of the Aguan River caused the Cayos Cochinos and Roatán to be inundated with soil and debris washed down during soil erosion. Flooding can also result in a greater prevalence of malaria and dengue fever.

U.S. aid workers rush food, shelter, water and medicai aid to Hondurans made homeiess by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

The Honduran neo-liberal government of Rafael Leonardo Callejas ratified the Vienna Convention in 1993, and took part in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change signed in Rio de Janeiro in May 1992. The government of Carlos Roberto Flores Facussé signed the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on February 25, 1999, it was ratified on July 19, 2000, and took effect on February 16, 2005.