Honduras grants Indians title to coastal lands

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Honduras grants Indians title to coastal lands

AP foreign, Friday September 13 2013

ALBERTO ARCE

Associated Press= TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - The government announced Thursday that it has granted title to more than 1.6 million acres (655,000 hectares) along Honduras' border with Nicaragua and the Caribbean coast to the Miskito Indian communities that inhabit the area.

The land lies in Honduras' northeastern corner, an area known as the Cape of Gracias A Dios. The government already awarded Miskito Indians title to an additional 265,000 acres (107,000 hectares) over the last year.

The executive director of Honduras' National Agrarian Institute, Reynaldo Vega, said the Miskitos can use the land titles to defend the area's natural resources. He said mining, gas, oil and lumber companies wanting to work in that area would have to deal with the Miskitos as owners of the land.

"This will allow them to defend themselves against third parties who illegally make use of the area's natural resources," Vega said. "Foreign companies that operate in the area will have to talk first to the Miskito community."

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/feedarticle/10972380

[lunasun]

1. Awesome move by the govmnt there

[classysassy]

2. Will America follow?

Too bad we as a nation refuse to act with compassion toward the Original people whose land was stolen.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Honduras Grants Land to Indigenous Group, in Bid to Help It Protect Forests

Honduras Grants Land to Indigenous Group, in Bid to Help It Protect Forests

By ELISABETH MALKIN

Published: September 12, 2013

MEXICO CITY — The Honduran government has granted more than 7 percent of its territory to the indigenous Miskito communities who live on the land, an initiative intended to help them protect their forests.

The title agreement, which gives the Miskito people ownership of almost one million hectares (about 3,860 square miles) of their traditional land, represents an acknowledgment of the rights of the most neglected citizens in one of the hemisphere’s poorest countries.

“The title is just the first step,” said David Kaimowitz, the director of natural resources at the Ford Foundation, who has been working with the Miskito communities. “The title won’t guarantee that drug traffickers and oil palm growers won’t move in, but it gives them a handle to resist these incursions.”

It is also an action that Mr. Kaimowitz and other experts say will help preserve the region’s dense pine forests and tropical rain forests. Conservation groups maintain that indigenous people have been the best stewards of their own forests. Honduras is following Nicaragua, Belize and Panama, which have all handed over title to forestland to indigenous communities.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/world/americas/honduras-grants-land-to-indigenous-group-in-bid-to-help-it-protect-forests.html?_r=0