Poverty and the Environment 

Lack of access to land, together with a vulnerable environment and low agricultural productivity are among
the problems at the root of poverty in Honduras. Seven out of ten peasant families are minifundistas
(very small-scale farmers, usually practicing subsistence agriculture) who have little or no access to land
that they can call their own. Land fragmentation is extreme, and many of those who own land have only
tiny plots to cultivate. Most small farmers are able to cultivate less than 5 hectares of land (roughly 12 acres),
which is not enough to feed and support their families.

This lack of access to stable, fertile land leads to the practice of "slash-and-burn" agriculture in which an
area of forest is cleared by cutting and burning and then planting, usually for several seasons, and then
abandoned as fertility declines and weeds invade. This practice has accelerated the destruction of forests i
n Honduras, with grave implications for the region’s ecosystem. Over the past generation, Honduras has
suffered the greatest percentage loss of forest cover of any country in Latin America.

In the mountainous regions, where small-scale farmers produce basic grains, slopes are often steep and
difficult to cultivate. This kind of terrain is also extremely vulnerable to erosion and much of it has become
severely degraded.