José© Nick Sireau/ Progressio

Nick Sireau describes Progressio's work with MAO

The hills of Olancho, in the east of Honduras, used to be beautiful: covered by 12 million acres of the most biodiverse forest, with countless species of plants and animals. Peasant communities used to live well off the land, farming and gathering water for drinking and cooking.

Then the loggers came. Backed by powerful interests going to the top of the Honduran government, they began a programme of illegal logging that has so far destroyed half the forest. Hill after hill decimated, trucks with trailers full of downed trees rumbling up and down the dirt roads, loggers with machine guns guarding their precious produce destined for the furniture malls of the global North …

Fighting poverty

Deforestation in Olancho has led to severe poverty, as Maria, who lives in a small village called El Rosario, explains. When the loggers destroyed the forest in their area, the soil became more compact and lost its richness. Rain water then washed the soil down the hillside and left the countryside barren. The water sources dried up and villagers had to walk miles to find some. The harvest failed over several years, leading to malnutrition and health problems. More mosquitoes started to breed and cases of malaria increased. The young people began leaving the land, emigrating to the capital city or to the USA, often driven away by threats from the loggers.

Maria says: 'We have been living a dark story. All our resources have been taken away from us.'

Villagers around Olancho knew they had to do something. So five years ago, under the leadership of Father Andres Tamayo, they organised themselves into the Environmental Movement of Olancho (known as MAO). They began to take on the might of the illegal loggers, which at times led to farmers being assassinated and threatened.

Reforesting the land

This is where Progressio came in. We had been in contact with MAO and Father Tamayo for some time and identified with them the need for a development worker to help the communities reforest the land and defend themselves against the loggers. This is what Progressio does best: placing a specialist with a local community organisation to train its people in life-giving skills.

Francisco Hernandez Montoya took on the post. He's an environmental engineer, an expert in water resources - one of the most experienced around. He's worked with MAO to set up seven nurseries, each of which produces 4,000 small trees a month. These are then replanted and looked after. As they grow, they bring back nutrients into the soil, water is captured and seeps into the ground, and the hillsides take on a new life. The farmers start to regain their livelihoods as the harvest delivers more - farmers such as José, who lives in a small hut in a remote part of Olancho.

'MAO has given me seed for planting cedar trees and hoses for irrigation,' says José. 'I can now reforest the areas around my house that have been destroyed by illegal logging.'

Farming without chemicals

Francisco has also been training 30 farming families in ecological agriculture - farming without chemicals. This is vital to ensure higher food production and good quality produce and combat malnutrition. He hopes to expand this work to another 56 families by the end of the year.

MAO realised that it needed to learn the skills for the long-term sustainability of this work, which is why Francisco has been training 10 local young people. Heydi is 16 and has already carried out seven months of training. She's learnt how to assess the flow of water from a local water source, test it for bacteria and assess its mineral content. This helps her identify which water areas need protecting - something which is crucial for the survival of the farming communities.

Heydi says: 'Francisco has taught us well. We now know things we would never have known before. This is helping us regain our livelihoods.'

Fighting injustice

Just as importantly, Francisco helps MAO with its advocacy work, writing press releases and advising on lobbying. As I speak to people such as Maria, Jose and Heydi, their eyes light up with determination when they explain how they protest against the loggers. They have already taken a court case against a corrupt local mayor who was helping the loggers. They carried out a March for Life on the capital to denounce those in power who make a fortune from selling the wood abroad, while not a penny returns to the local communities. Last year, Father Tamayo won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Award for this work - proof that he has support internationally, and not just from Progressio.

This support - which is crucial to the people's ongoing fight for justice - does not go unrecognised. As José says: 'Having Francisco with MAO has helped us a lot. We have more strength because of him.'