Below the Radar in Honduras
For months, much of the world has been preoccupied and exhausted by the twin crises of the pandemic and the chaotic US elections. With so little bandwidth to spare, many of us missed the news that two massive, Category 5 hurricanes struck Honduras back-to-back in the last few weeks. In the aftermath of hurricanes Eta and Iota, our local partners report that countless bridges, roads and crops have been demolished by the wind and floods that inundated the North Coast. Some villages are now accessible only by boat. These were the worst storms to hit the country in this century and part of the most active hurricane season ever recorded.
A truck crosses a flooded road near Copén, Honduras
The first question many of us ask when facing a humanitarian and environmental crisis of this magnitude is: What can I do? GreenWood confronted a similar question in 2018, when we were invited by the U.S. Forest Service to help build resilience in Puerto Rico after hurricanes Irma and María devastated an already fragile economy and laid waste to millions of cubic feet of tropical timber.
No advanced degree in climate science is needed to recognize that rising sea levels and temperatures are creating an existential threat to the Caribbean region. Understanding that climate change is causing increasingly frequent and violent natural disasters, which exacerbate migration and forest loss, what meaningful support can we provide?
Samuel works at a portable sawmill in Copén, Honduras
GreenWood looks to its roots. We are not a relief agency, like UNICEF or the Red Cross. Our fundamental goal is to create agency. Instead of charity, our toolbox includes training, product development and market opportunities. In Honduras, we will focus our immediate response on helping our community partners rebuild their productive capacity—needed now, more than ever. This involves training and equipment to mill lumber to rebuild homes and infrastructure, reforesting flooded landscapes and, as the water eventually subsides, providing the skills, products and markets that will enable local artisans to regain a livelihood from their own managed forests. ▪︎
GreenWood puts tools in skilled hands—a unique nonprofit model. Your contribution helps us respond to climate change and advance sustainable development.
