Houses on stilts built from local material are the norm in the Mosquitia in areas that are flooded regularly. (Photo by Edgardo Benitez.)

By MARIA FIALLOS

(First of two parts) 

The Mosquitia, an area covering 22,000 square kilometers, is inhabited by 60,000 people living in 190 communities and villages.  The people of the Mosquitia are comprised of five different ethnic groups, Miskitos, Garifunas, Pech, Ladinos and Tawahkas.

Approximately 70 percent of the Mosquitia can be considered wetlands, made up of open coasts, estuaries, river valleys, flood plains, fresh-water swamps, lagoons and mangroves.  During the rainy season, the whole area is linked and therefore navigable through natural and artificial channels among lagoons, rivers and the ocean.

Over-fishing, illegal hunting and logging, and the ever-extending agricultural front are depleting the area's natural resources, muddying up natural waterways and endangering fragile eco-systems. (Photo by Edgardo Benitez.)

During the last five years, several local indigenous organizations have been discussing the issue of the Mosquitia wetlands, their concern based on the fact that nearly 60 percent of the population's livelihood depends directly on natural resources found in the area: fish, shrimp, iguanas, alligators, turtles, manatees and ducks, among others.  These resources have been on a decline during the past few years due to the encroaching agricultural front and illegal logging, hunting and fishing.

For this reason, a local NGO, the Committee for Integrated Development and Ecological Action (CIDCA), is planning to implement next year in coordination with five other Central American indigenous organizations the Biodiversity, Wetlands and Indigenous Communities in Central America project.  Although CIDCA is based in Tegucigalpa, the focus of the project in Honduras will be the municipality of Brus Laguna.

Due to fact that only one part of the Mosquitia, the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, has received international attention, CIDCA is proposing designating the whole area for inclusion on the Ramsar List, a list of the world's most important wetlands  protected under the Ramsar Convention adopted in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran.

Accordingly, a strategic conservation framework is being implemented based upon the "Vision for the Ramsar List" that is "to develop and maintain an international network of wetlands which are important for the conservation of global biological diversity and for sustaining human life through the ecological and hydrological functions they perform."

So far 123 countries have signed the Convention, including Honduras, 1,038 wetland sites have been designated for a total of 78.2 million hectares.  In Honduras, four areas have been included on the list: the Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge, the Jeanette Kawas National Park, the Punta Izopo Wildlife Refuge, and the wetlands of southern Honduras.