Context
The geographical location of Honduras between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans exposes it to numerous and diverse natural hazards and extreme weather events. The impacts of climate change vary across the country: in the Caribbean, cyclones are more common, while in the center and south drought is more prevalent, along with the recurrent effects of the El Niño and La Niña phenomenon. Due to the topography, landslides are also quite common.
Honduras is the second largest country in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 68% of the population lives in conditions of poverty or extreme poverty. This population is also the most affected by natural disasters. Hurricanes Eta and Iota devastated the country in 2020, leaving more than a hundred people dead, 3.5 million people affected and displaced, and thousands of hectares of crops destroyed. Technical assistance is needed for indigenous communities, in particular the Lenca People in the western part of the country located in Montaña de Celaque National Park.
CTCN Support
The CTCN, in conjunction with community resilience experts from the Government of Honduras (ICF), the UNESCO Chair in Sustainability, and the University of Aarhus and SDU, will support the implementation of strategies to develop nature-based solutions to increase the resilience of rural mountain communities in these areas affected by extreme weather events. They will conduct a demonstration pilot, codesigned with an indigenous community in Montaña de Celaque National Park. The technical assistance will support the creation of a multi-stakeholder working group for co-governance among all participating actors (government, communities and universities) for the development of an adaptation plan, develop a participatory model of disaster prevention through the use of nature-based solutions in the pilot community, and contribute to the development of multifunctional pilots for: 1) risk management of torrential rains; 2) reduction of the risk of erosion and landslides; 3) water conservation and water management in drought episodes; 4) use of rainwater; 5) treatment of diffuse pollution by agriculture and livestock and conservation of drinking water; and 6) sustainable sanitation for communities.
Expected Results
The technical assistance will bolster community resilience and disaster risk reduction, enhance adaptive food security by improving existing production systems, and promote equitable and inclusive sustainable rural community development for climate adaptation. With regard to gender, two inclusive sustainable business pilots will be developed for initiatives of women's and youth groups, based on the transformation of plastic waste from packaging and agricultural waste (bioeconomy).
