North Coast Highway
Atlántida has one main highway that is the primary transportation and economic corridor along the north coast; this highway runs from east to west and transects the entire length of the department. South of the highway, after the piñeras (pineapple plantations) and African palm plantations, the land climbs up into the mountains that run like a spine along the north coast of the country.
Up in these hills there are many aldeas and caserios (very small communities – often no bigger than a few houses), some connected by a network of bumpy, rocky, dirt roads (often I find the term “road” to be a bit of a stretch). These “roads” are frequently close to impassable and often turn to roaring rivers in the rainy season. The families who live in the caserios that dot these hillsides mostly live at the margins of subsistence, living off the beans and corn they plant along the steep hillsides and sometimes supplemented with illegal timber extraction.
There is little to no work and several times when I’ve visited some isolated settlements their school isn’t open because they can’t keep a teacher. Access to a market is difficult (often requiring long journeys on foot or horseback to the nearest dirt road where they can pick up a bus), so selling any products they may have is nearly impossible, and they often have to sell to middle-men who don’t give them a fair price. Wealthier people also live in these hills or at least own land, and they are mostly involved in cattle-ranching (and perhaps some other illicit activities, so I’ve heard). Cattle-ranching often has a significant environmental impact and pushes farmers higher into the hills, clearing land for crops.
On the other side of the highway, stretching out towards the sea, the land flattens into more fields of pineapples and African Palm. Along the coast there are many beaches, and once there were vast tracts of mangrove forests, which can still be found in some parts of the department. Some communities are only accessible by boat. Artesanal fishing is a primary subsistence economic activity along the coast, and Atlántida is known for its fantastic lobster, shrimp and fresh fish. Some fishers sell their products to restaurants or in neighborhoods (every morning a man with coolers strapped to his bike rides through our neighborhood yelling “llevo langosta, filete, camarones!” – “I have lobster, fish, shrimp!”), but many fishers must also sell to middle-men.
Many people from these small communities find work in the pineapple, banana or African palm plantations owned by large companies such as Standard Fruit/Dole (which got its start here in La Ceiba). People I’ve spoken to have said this work is usually for three-month stretches and is very difficult, heavy work, often under the blazing sun.
I don’t know much about the chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides used on these crops, but I understand they are quite damaging to the environment and people who work in or live near the plantations. Plantations occupy the majority of the flat, fertile land in Atlántida, which is the land closest to the highway and thus closest to transportation and market access.
Driving along the main highway – and many of its branches – through the department, the fields of mono-crops (pineapple is most common around La Ceiba) seem to go on for miles. Mono-crops are notoriously detrimental – often disastrous – to land and the environment. As fertility is stripped from the soil, increasing amounts of energy inputs are required to maintain production, and crops are left exposed and vulnerable to disease and infestations that can wipe them out entirely. Coconut, a major crop here, has been devastated by lethal yellowing, a disease that affects palms.
There is much to see and learn by driving along this main artery of Atlántida – and even more to see and learn by getting off the highway. This is just a simple sketch, based on my own observations and conversations. In many ways, this highway represents the complexities and challenges the people of Honduras’s coast face.
Written by Shannon Clohosey, who is working in La Ceiba, on the north coast of Honduras, with LAC-Net, the Latin American and Caribbean Model Forest Network.