Conservation that Benefits Families

Senior Writer Roger Burks stands atop Honduras' Blue Mountains, with the national park's extensive forests and Lake Yojoa in the background. Photo: Mercy Corps

There aren't many places in the world where, from a single vantage point, you can get a clear view of Mercy Corps' work. I am fortunate that a 6,600-foot mountain in Honduras' Blue Mountain National Park offers just such an opportunity.

From this breathtaking vista, I can see dozens of communities that benefit from the park's environmental protection activities. I can also see Lake Yojoa, which provides livelihoods for hundreds of fishermen and supplies hydroelectric power to all of Honduras.

The Blue Mountain National Park, which has been managed and protected by Mercy Corps and local partner Proyecto Aldea Global since 1992, exists to conserve a vital watershed that provides clean water to thousands of families around the area. It also provides a self-sustaining operation, through eco-tourism and conference facilities, to maintain the area's abundant flora and fauna.

The park covers an area of 194 square miles and contains one of the highest cloud forests in Honduras. However, it is as just important for the everyday lives of local families as it is for its diverse ecosystem: the park supplies 70% of the water entering Lake Yojoa and provides clean, fresh water to families in 42 surrounding communities.

One of these communities is the tiny village of Los Pinos, where Mercy Corps helped pipe water from one of the park's springs to pumps situated throughout the town. The local primary school is also benefiting from the new water supply; instances of waterborne illness and preventable disease have decreased noticeably. Before Proyecto Aldea Global installed the water system, villagers depended on often-contaminated local ponds for their drinking water.

Environmental protection - and the benefits it brings to poor families - is a constant consideration in Mercy Corps' program strategy. The agency and its local partners aim to implement projects that not only preserve ecosystems, but also contribute to community health, sustainable agriculture and economic development.

In neighboring Nicaragua, Mercy Corps is helping traditional coffee farmers use environmentally-friendly techniques that not only protect the land, but result in higher sales prices at harvest time. Coffee farmers are using sustainable, low-impact agroforestry techniques such as live fencing, contour lines and soil conservation. Mercy Corps provides training to farmers who want to implement these conservation measures on their farms - and also pays them an extra premium on each bag of coffee during the harvest.

In dozens of other countries around the world - from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe - Mercy Corps is balancing environmental well being with the critical needs of children and families.

As I stand on one of the highest peaks of Honduras' Blue Mountains, I can see exactly what Mercy Corps is doing for the environment - and it is beautiful.