This reserve connects to proposed Patuca National Park, which stretches to the border with Nicaragua and that country's Bosawas Reserve. This extensive forested corridor was endorsed last year by the governments of Honduras and Nicaragua, which declared the shared parkland as the Solidarity Bi-national Reserve. Solidarity may be shattered, however, unless both governments can find a way to control forest clearing by squatters and loggers. Paseo Pantera, a joint project of Wildlife Conservation Society and the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, two U.S.-based groups, is leading the effort to consolidate the protected areas in Honduras and Nicaragua. Because the southern region of Honduras is so ecologically degraded, more colonists are coming east, using farming practices that are inappropriate in tropical forest.
Life is hard for the colonists.
Cleared rainforest land yields meager harvests and sparse grass for grazing cattle. Patrocina Perez lives with her four youngest children in a ramshackle house in the frontier town of Flor de Cafe. Ruben Matute made his way to the banks of the Blanco River 17 years ago. About 1,500 people now live in the area, he guesses. Politicians make promises, but don't do anything.