Central American campaigns quiet on green issues

Central America

Embattled Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández (above) is not standing for reelection, but his National Party is seen as having a good chance of retaining power behind presidential candidate Nasry Asfura, currently mayor of Tegucigalpa. (Photo by Shutterstock)

Efforts to advance environmental conservation and climate initiatives have lost ground in Central America, as in other parts of the world, since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold a year ago, analysts say. Given the massive challenge the region faces in combating Covid-19 and resuscitating its economies, this state of affairs is unlikely to change immediately. But experts agree it is critical that the region get effective green policies on track soon. They cite the isthmus’s extreme vulnerability to climate-change-driven weather events, and to the outsized damage these do as a result of the ongoing, human-caused destruction of natural buffers such as interior woodlands and coastal mangrove stands. The vulnerability was on display last year, as two tropical storms, Amanda and Cristóbal, followed by two hurricanes, Eta and Iota, delivered successive body blows. (See "Storms, again, point... [Log in to read more]

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