In the last two decades, deforestation and degradation in the water recharge zones of Tegucigalpa’s main water sources have destabilized the urban water supply.
Since 2000, the project area has lost 10,560 hectares of tree cover, with an additional 14,000 devastated by the pine bark beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis). The Cinturón Verde Landscape Restoration Project provides a nature-based solution to the region’s urgent water crisis, complementing urban infrastructure improvements to play a critical role in climate resilience while creating co-benefits for biodiversity and livelihoods.
The reforestation and restoration project spans multiple forest types rich in biodiversity, such as highland cloud forests, pine-oak, and broadleaf deciduous forests. The project works across the entire catchment of Tegucigalpa’s main water sources, prioritizing restoration across five protected areas, their buffer zones, and the biological corridors between them. By working across these areas, the landscape restoration project directly secures the water provision services of the landscape for over 1 million people, enhances biodiversity habitat, and develops sustainable livelihood programs for local communities.
We are collaborative with communities, governments, and other stakeholders to co-design programs that restore forests and address the drivers of deforestation and degradation.
By incorporating a holistic landscape approach, we are focusing on a mosaic of protected and unprotected forest types that support Tegucigalpa’s three main water sources – Las Laureles Dam, La Concepción Dam, and La Tigra National Park. Our approach to supporting landscape restoration in this region includes:
By working together on the Cinturón Verde Project in Honduras we will support the protection of water resources, prevention and management of forest fires, restoration of landscape connectivity, and stabilization of long-term climate resilience. Over the next 15 years, Eden’s anticipated impact will create substantial benefits for the environment and communities, including: