COEAS member Carmen Rodríguez, only 40 years old, left us very suddenly on August 19. 

This loss, along with the death of Luis Hernán Baca “Mero,” has left a huge hole in the hearts of our friends and colleagues at COEAS, but it has also left one in the hearts of the entire TWP team.

After a unanimous congressional vote, 12,620 acres of forest and a water source serving 5,000 families will be permanently protected as the Wildlife Refuge of Suyapa, Luís Hernán Baca Valladares, “MERO”.

This week, after almost 40 years of struggle to draw attention to their cause, Honduras’ National Congress will hold a vote on declaring COEAS’s forest a 12,000 acre National Wildlife Refuge, based on the rich biodiversity seen and recorded there.

Every fire season is an existential crisis for our friends in the Aldea de Suyapa, Honduras. Since 1987, a volunteer group of community members have organized to protect their centuries-old communal forest from firewood poachers, land grabbers, and the expanding agricultural frontier.