It’s hard to believe that this time a year ago we were just arriving back in the UK for our mid-term break and the birth of Amy-Ruth.  Amy is now a crawling, jiving, hand-clapping 10-month old,  into and interested in everything!

We’ve had a busy few months since our last Newsletter.  Steve has spent a lot of time away from home visiting different projects with Carlos, the local MOPAWI Coordinator, and also attending various meetings and courses.  Jude has been writing case studies and articles, analyzing research data and leading discussions in churches about family issues and AIDS. 

En route to Las Marías

Enjoying coconuts with the Ambassador

We have also enjoyed receiving lots of visitors including a group of English Tearfund supporters, the Bishop of Liverpool and the British Ambassador to Central America.  All here to learn more about La Mosquitia, the pressures the area is facing and MOPAWI’s work with different community groups.

At the moment the Pitt family are with us from Balerno and we have just had an excellent trip to Las Marías, several hours upstream from Belén towards the heart of the rainforest.  Whenever we go up there we are reminded afresh how privileged we are to live and work in such a beautiful part of the world.

It is no coincidence that many of the world’s last remaining large tracts of rainforest and pristine wetlands are inhabited by indigenous people.  They know how to live in a way that minimizes damage to the fragile ecosystems on which they depend.

However, many of these groups are marginalized by the governments of their countries and are struggling to receive official recognition of their ancestral land rights, leaving the way open for new colonists and business interests to move in from outside.  These often take a much more individualistic, short-term, commercial approach to the land, giving little consideration to whether the soil is able to support the more intensive agricultural techniques they are using or whether they are felling areas of forest used by local indigenous communities.

This is the case in the Río Plátano Reserve here in Honduras.  Although the influx of new colonists into the area and most large-scale deforestation is illegal, powerful commercial interests have repeatedly persuaded successive governments to give low priority to environmental protection and indigenous land rights issues.

However, after years of campaigning by MOPAWI and other local organizations, in June this year a new law was passed recognizing the value of traditional ways of life and stating that community titles should be granted for lands used by indigenous groups.

Whilst the approval of the new law is a major achievement, getting to the point where community land titles are a reality is still a huge challenge in the highly contradictory and unpredictable world of Honduran politics.  Just a week or so after the new law was passed, one of the country’s chief prosecutors was ‘removed’ from his post after trying to take action against corrupt government officials involved in illegal deforestation to the east of La Mosquitia!

Miskito boys playing in dugout canoes

☺    Write to your MP:  Ask what the UK government is doing to support and put pressure on governments in countries like Honduras to try and halt the uncontrolled felling of large areas of tropical forest.  You could cite the damaging effect such deforestation by outsiders is having on the indigenous people of La Mosquitia.

☺    Responsible buying: Try and find out more about some of the products you buy that come from the tropics such as cocoa (chocolate), coffee, bananas and mahogany furniture.  Buying Fairtrade foods or timber products with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) mark are as good a way as any to try and make sure your spending does not have damaging environmental or social repercusions.

☺    Ethical investments: Through our personal investments we can often inadvertently support companies that have little concern for long term sustainable environmental management or giving local people a fair deal.  However, many well known UK investment companies now offer clients the option of ethical investment policies.

☺    Giving financially: Look for charities that take an integrated approach to conservation by empowering local communities to take control of the sustainable management of their own natural resources. Christian organizations such as Tearfund and Arocha are involved in this kind of work.  The World Wildlife Fund also has a good track record.

☺    Pray: For the emergence of strong, honest leaders in countries like Honduras who recognise the need to protect their countries’ natural resources for future generations.

Homeward bound

For our holiday this year we will be spending a couple of weeks in the UK with our families. Our time will be limited so we won’t be able to travel about the country very much but at least we will be in more regular email contact between the end of August and the middle of September.  Please drop us a line if you get chance, we would love to hear your news.

Love, Steve, Jude & Amy-Ruth

Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.  Proverbs 31 v9

If you move house, change email address or would like to be removed from our mailing list, please let us know.   Please also drop us an email if you would like to receive our regular prayer bulletins.  Our contact details are:

Steve & Judith Collins, c/o MOPAWI, Residencial Tres Caminos, Apartado Postal 2175, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Central América

Email address: s-j.collins@tearfund.org