US embassy cable - 03TEGUCIGALPA753

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 000753 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SECSTATE please pass USAID for CJohnson 
STATE FOR OES/ETC Eskewes and FWS/DMA PThomas 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV, ETRD, ECON, HO 
SUBJECT: GOH PREPARATION FOR CITES II LISTING OF BIGLEAF 
MAHOGANY 
 
REF: SECSTATE 16166 
 
1. (U) Summary. The scientific authority in Honduras, made 
up of both governmental and private entities, is preparing 
for the Appendix II listing of Bigleaf Mahogany to the 
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species 
(CITES).  While Honduras does have some administrative and 
legal structure already in place, it lacks the additional 
technical training and funding to make their counter 
trafficking efforts and overall forestry management efforts 
fully successful.  Issues Honduras would like raised at the 
next Mahogany Working Group include certification, 
financing, information exchange, management issues and 
attracting private investment for plantations.  End Summary. 
 
2. (U) The scientific authority in Honduras, comprised of 
the Panamerican Agricultural School, the National Forestry 
Science School, the National Autonomous University of 
Honduras, and the National Forestry Department (COHDEFOR) 
meets monthly to discuss and give technical and scientific 
opinions on use of and exportation of CITES species. In 
previous administrations, the meetings were strictly run by 
the Honduran National Forestry Department, COHDEFOR.  The 
Office of Biodiversity in the Ministry of Natural Resources, 
SERNA, is currently the leading scientific authority for the 
group. 
 
3. (U) COHDEFOR is responsible for management of national 
forests, the land from which the largest portion of mahogany 
is harvested and exported.  COHDEFOR sells the wood by board- 
feet to agro-forestry groups and private businesses.  Agro- 
forestry groups and private businesses do the actual 
industrial transformation; both internal commercialization 
and export of industrialized products. 
 
4. (U) COHDEFOR has provided the following answers to 
specific questions raised in paragraph 4 of Secstate 16166: 
 
a) What is the host country outlook for implementing the 
Apendix II listing? 
 
The AFE-COHDEFOR is creating a special action plan in order 
to implement the requirements for the commerce of mahogany 
in accordance with the proposed Apendix II listing in CITES 
for bigleaf mahogany.  This process includes: 
 
-- Revision of the technical, regulatory and administrative 
norms and control mechanisms in the management plan. 
-- Training in a wide range of related subjects. 
-- Methods of control over illegal cutting in the forests 
and roadways, coordinated with the district attorney's 
office for environmental affairs, the Attorney General's 
office of environmental affairs, municipalities, organized 
civil society, the National Police, and the army. 
Additionally there is a need for controls in industrial 
centers. 
-- Measures to achieve a certification of forestry 
management. 
-- Continue the implementation of the certification program 
for forestry plantations. 
-- Intensify the efforts of mahogany plantations and other 
valuable species on national lands, community lands and 
private lands. 
 
Measures for the filing, collection and processing of 
documents required by CITES is more problematic. 
 
The GOH has encountered serious difficulties in the 
verification of the place of origin for mahogany, when 
applications for exportation of furniture and "transformed 
or semi-transformed" wood are presented. 
 
There are no means or mechanisms in place for export control 
(beside the fact that exports of mahogany are authorized, 
Honduras does not appear on the list of exporters of this 
species.) 
 
Due to the aforementioned and other situations, the 
feasibility of implementation of methods of control for the 
trafficking and sale of mahogany is low without the 
strengthening of the issues pointed out in the following 
responses listed below in numbers 3, 4 and 5. 
 
b) Will implementation fit into an existing system for 
sustainable management of forests and monitoring of trade? 
 
The implementation of CITES requirements falls under the 
current system for sustainable management in accordance with 
criteria and indicators already established. 
 
c) In what areas will the government need to build new 
capacity in order to implement the listing?  Do they appear 
to have the resources (financial, technical) and legislative 
framework to do so? 
 
The Government of Honduras needs to strengthen the 
systematic examination of biological information about the 
wild populations and/or plantations of the species.  This 
can be improved through the strengthening of the 
institutions that make up the scientific authority. 
 
Honduras also needs to improve public awareness and 
promotion of the certification of wood (environmental and 
social) as well as strengthen the mechanisms of 
administration of the Management Plan and control of illegal 
trafficking. 
 
The GOH and the scientific authority realize they need to 
develop a specific educational plan for: 
 
- Public defenders, attorney general's offices 
- Technical advisors working on Forestry Management 
- Customs Officials 
- National Police Officials 
- Organized Agro-Forestry groups 
- Private Companies: Forest owners, lumberjacks, wood 
     processors / finishers, exporters 
- Administrative authorities 
 
A national norm pertaining to the implementation of CITES 
(i.e. adaptation of the existing technical norms agreed to 
in the CITES) needs to be created. 
 
The legal instruments at the national level for the 
implementation of CITES is the CITES convention itself which 
Honduras has ratified.  Honduras also has forestry and 
environmental laws which provide institutions with clear 
legal mandates for the implementation of CITES. 
 
The technical capacity for the implementation of CITES 
exists both within and outside of Government agencies, but 
it requires up-to-date training. There is a lack of 
technical training of the management and use of plantations 
and natural forests for peasant groups involved in the 
exploitation of colored wood (such as mahogany) and the 
industrial or institutional technicians who act in 
compliance with scientific and administrative authorities. 
 
There is a lack of financial resources to carry out studies 
of wild populations (inventories, distribution, etc.)  There 
need to be more public awareness campaigns at a national 
level. 
 
d) What specific issues would the host government like to 
see addressed at the meeting of the Mahogany Working Group? 
 
Themes the GOH would like to discuss in the Mahogany working 
group are: 
 
-- Certification of forestry management and forestry 
products 
 
-- Financing for certain aspects of trafficking control, 
such as identification guides for CITES species of wood (for 
customs officials). 
 
-- Exchange of experiences and information between countries 
who have common interests (countries that share natural 
distribution of mahogany) 
 
-- Management and protection projects for natural forests. 
 
-- Programs for the attraction of private investment for 
plantations 
 
PALMER