Honduras - Context and Land Governance

The population of about 10 million inhabitants is ethnically diverse. The majority is white or mestizo, the indigenous population, the Miskitu (descendants of Bawinka and Tawahka Indigenous peoples, Africans and Europeans) [2] and the Garifuna (African descendants and natives of the Caribs and Arawaks) make up 7% of the population, and there is a black minority population.

Honduras, along with Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama, was one of the Central American countries known as the "Banana Republic." This designation had a pejorative character when it was used to describe countries that were considered corrupt, unstable, dependent on the export of low value-added products, and under the control of banana companies over governments. Its origins lie in an economy focused on foreign-owned banana production since the early twentieth century, when U.S. companies such as the United Fruit Company established themselves primarily on the North Coast to produce and distribute this fruit. The presence of these companies in the country lasted for decades and had a great influence on the country's economy and politics. They were not free of controversy over working conditions and sparked protests by their workers that culminated in a strike in 1954 [3].

It is no coincidence that the agrarian reform of the 1960s and 1970s had its greatest impact in the North. Enacted during a reformist military government, agrarian reform took place as part of the Alliance for Progress economic, political, and social assistance program promoted by the United States as a strategy to mitigate the spread of communism in Latin America. By the 1990s, 289,000 hectares had been handed over, 66% of which were distributed in the north of the country [4]. The land abandoned by the banana companies and returned to the state allowed for a colonization process organized by the state. In this part of the country, peasant settlements and the formation of cooperatives were consolidated and the agricultural frontier areas were expanded. In the 1990s, the cooperative sector declined due to the sale of land to multinationals for palm oil and sugar cane production, which led to numerous conflicts between the multinationals and the peasants. At this time, the so-called "agrarian counter-reform" was taking place, promoted by the government as part of a structural adjustment process. This involved the creation of a land market in areas where there had been agrarian distribution, which had a great impact on the rural population and peasant movements [5].

In recent years, Honduras has experienced the second highest economic growth in Central America, according to the World Bank, but remains one of the poorest and most unequal countries in the Western Hemisphere [6]. Before the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic, 25% of the population lived in extreme poverty and nearly half (4.4 million people) lived in poverty [7]. The situation in rural areas is particularly difficult. This is evidenced by the fact that extreme poverty in these areas has increased since 2014, while poverty in the rest of the country has tended to decrease. The lack of up-to-date land tenure data to inform effective policy and the weak institutional framework for land administration contribute to the difficulties in rural areas.

Land legislation and regulations

The 1982 Constitution "recognizes, promotes and guarantees the existence of private property in its broadest concept of social function and with no limitations other than those established by law for reasons of necessity or public interest" ( Art. 103). The Constitution includes a chapter on agrarian reform, which is defined as a comprehensive process "aimed at replacing latifundia and smallholdings with a system of land ownership, tenure, and use that ensures social justice in the countryside and increases production and productivity in the agricultural sector" ( Art. 344).

In 1992, the Agricultural Modernization and Development Law, also known as the Norton Law, was passed to theoretically modernize agriculture and promote an increase in production, its internal and external commercialization, and agro-industrial development [8]. This modernization brought with it a liberalization of the land market that allowed the leasing of land again, which had been prohibited by the 1974 Agrarian Reform Law. This resulted in many direct producers becoming co-investors or owners of leased land [9]. The Norton Act also led to a reduction in subsidies to rural people because it favored exports over production for the domestic market. It also allowed the sale of land distributed through agrarian reform, either voluntarily or by force, with up to 70% of the land in areas such as Bajo Aguán being sold [10].

According to the World Bank's 2014 assessment of land administration in Honduras, reforms implemented through the development of laws and the creation of institutions to regularize property rights and improve access to land have so far yielded few results [11]. One of the difficulties has been the lack of coordination and complementarity among the different laws and institutions, creating gaps or overlaps that have prevented effective land administration. For example, the Municipal Law and the Law on Land Administration lacked clear rules for their proper implementation [12]. As the World Bank noted, at least ten government institutions were responsible for state land administration in 2014.

Other challenges identified in the assessment include the need for a flexible legal system to allow for the coexistence of different land regimes and to recognize a wide range of rights; recognition of land tenure rights of indigenous and Garifuna peoples; creation of an inventory of state lands; fair compensation for expropriations; promoting the registration of individual properties without excluding women and other vulnerable groups; legal and institutional gaps and overlaps that increase the discretion of officials; inadequate collection of property taxes that prevent the provision of public services at the local level; and poor implementation of laws, as evidenced by the loss of forest cover [13].

At the governance level, the World Bank report also points to challenges related to issues of transparency, accountability, and management of public land administration, as well as the need to provide relevant, accurate, and affordable information to the public and accessible and affordable land administration services [14]. No recent studies were found to assess the extent to which land governance has improved since 2014, but there have been some concrete initiatives. For example, in 2015, the National Agrarian Institute (INA - acronym in Spanish) announced its participation in the government program to improve transparency, "Your Voice Counts... for Transparency" [15]. For example, INA created a unified transparency portal on its website with information about the institution's organizational structure, planning and accountability, finances, and regulation, and gave users the opportunity to make suggestions [16].

The World Bank assessment also points to some improvements, such as the Property Law, which introduced reforms to registry and cadastral procedures in 2004 through the introduction of technology, which reduced transaction costs and times [17]. In addition, the Property Law introduced other changes, such as the integration of cadastral and registry information to create a unique key per parcel, the creation of the Property Institute as the highest governing body in this area, and the creation of the National Real Estate Management System as a platform to integrate and manage property information [18].

In 2019, the Armed Forces were granted the authority to manage millions of dollars in funds for the development of the agricultural sector under the Honduran Agricultural Development Program (PDAH - acronym in Spanish) through Executive Decree PCM - 052-2019 [19]. Although the participation of the armed forces in agrarian reform was declared by the government to be covered by Article 274 of the Constitution [20], in 2022 the Constitutional Chamber declared the decree unconstitutional after the National Center of Agricultural Workers (CNTC - acronym in Spanish ) and the Council for the Integral Development of Peasant Women (CODIMCA - acronym in Spanish) filed a constitutional complaint in 2019 [21]. In 2020, the Prosecutor's Office also declared that the transfer of agricultural tasks to the armed forces violated the Constitution, as it violated the military's competence to defend integrity and sovereignty, established in Article 274, and defined agrarian reform as an integral process in Article 344 of the Constitution [22].

The interference of the armed forces in the agricultural sector, as well as the situation characterized by the disarticulation of small and medium agricultural production, rural poverty and conflict, food imports, migration, and environmental crisis, led Honduran peasant organizations to propose a solution in 2020 through the proposed Emergency Law for the Reactivation of the Agricultural, Livestock and Forestry Sector to Combat Poverty [23]. Through this law, La Via Campesina Honduras and the Center for Studies for Democracy (CESPAD - acronym in Spanish) propose: 1) the creation of a National Council for Agricultural, Livestock and Forestry Production as the superior planning body for agriculture; 2) the creation of an inventory of accumulated files awaiting a final solution to stabilize women and youth; 3) the reactivation of production through measures such as the construction and reactivation of massive irrigation systems; the production, conservation and rational use of water; granting agricultural loans to small and medium producers at 0% interest for five consecutive years; 4) a massive reforestation plan; 5) conversion of the agricultural production model to a small and medium production model; 6) design and implementation of an education and awareness campaign on the impact of the agrarian crisis; 7) implement a study plan through scholarships related to the agricultural, livestock and forestry sectors; 8) Application of the CREDIMUJER Law [24].

Land tenure classifications

One of the greatest challenges to land management in Honduras is the lack of up-to-date data on land ownership and land use in the country. The last agricultural census was conducted in 1992-1993, and the last national agricultural census was conducted in 2007-2008. In 2019, with support from the European Union and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), a pilot was conducted to conduct a national agricultural census [25], but there is no record that the census was conducted. The lack of data prevents an objective understanding of the problems that have historically shaped land tenure in Honduras, such as unequal access to land, and prevents the development of public policies that respond to the current reality. In December 2022, the government announced that Honduras will conduct a new National Agricultural Census, 30 years after the last one, for which it will create the Interinstitutional Commission for the National Agricultural Census [26].

The last Agrarian Survey of 2008 establishes as forms of land tenure the full domain, the useful domain, land in the process of legalization and other unspecified forms [27]. Freehold land is defined as land that has been legalized and has a title deed. According to the 2008 survey, at that time, freehold land occupied 70.9% of the survey sample area. People with usufruct land only have the right to use it, and at that time it represented 16% of the land. Other forms "of land tenure include land that has been expropriated with the agrarian reform and land that is family owned but has not gone through a legal tenure process. Together they represented 5.4% of the land [28]. It is important to emphasize that these figures are based on the 2008 survey sample, since a large part of farms in Honduras are not registered under any modality.

Traditionally, land concentration and unequal access to land has characterized land tenure in Honduras. According to census data, in 1992 land concentration did not change substantially with respect to the previous census in 1974, which showed that properties of 50 hectares represented 4% of the land and occupied 55% of the total area, while 63% of the properties were smaller than 5 hectares and occupied 9% of the total area [29]. However, the tendency shown by the 1992 census was a fragmentation of properties smaller than 5 hectares and a slight reduction of properties larger than 50 hectares [30]. This change coincides with the implementation of the 1975 Agrarian Reform Law.  According to the most recent data available, from the Agricultural Survey 2007-2008, in those years 70% of the land parcels were less than 5 hectares and occupied 8.6% of the land area [31]. Twenty-four percent of the farms were between 5 and 50 hectares and occupied almost 30% of the area. A level of concentration is perceived in the plots between 50 and 500 hectares, which are only 4.6% and covered 43% of the area. Finally, plots larger than 500 hectares accounted for 2.2% and occupied 18% of the total area [32].

The highest governing institution regarding property is the Instituto de la Propiedad (Property Institute) [33]. The National Agrarian Institute (INA - acronym in Spanish) only has authority over national lands.

Collective land rights

The demand for collective land rights in Honduras comes mainly from indigenous peoples and the Garifuna population. According to a study by ECLAC, the land claims of indigenous peoples cover approximately 2 million hectares (17.8% of the national surface) [34]. Up to date, there is no clear data on what percentage of the area claimed by indigenous peoples has already been titled.  

Although Honduras ratified Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the International Labor Organization (ILO) [35], and voted in favor of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, national legislation to protect the rights of these population is very limited. The 1982 Constitution recognizes in Article 346 that it is the duty of the State to dictate measures to protect the rights and interests of indigenous communities, especially the lands and forests where they are settled. There is no mention in the Constitution of Afro-descendant or Garifuna communities. At the moment, this duty has been translated into the 2016 Public Policy against Racism and Racial Discrimination for the Integral Development of Indigenous and Afro-Honduran Peoples (P-PIAH - acronym in Spanish) [36]. This policy aims to respond to some of the demands of these peoples and the situation of poverty they suffer through measures that promote their inclusion, but makes no mention of land, a key piece for their development. On the other hand, the government recognizes the Garifuna as one of the nine ethnic groups of the country, which explains why the Garifuna are part of the Confederation of Autochthonous Peoples of Honduras (CONPAH - acronym in Spanish) [37].

_{Group of Garifunas doing a demonstration of Punta on a Honduran beach. Photo: Alvaro Dia (CC BY-SA 4.0)}

The land rights of these peoples continue to be a demand that has not been fully met in Honduras. This was noted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, during her visit to Honduras in 2015. Tauli-Corpuz stressed that a fundamental problem faced by these populations is the lack of full recognition, protection and enjoyment of their rights over their ancestral lands, territories and natural resources [38]. In practice, one of the main threats is third party claims on indigenous lands, even when these are titled, for extractive and energy projects, cattle ranching, tourism and protected areas, including the illegal sale of lands. Often, the presence of third parties on indigenous lands resulted in conflicts as happened in Auka, in La Muskitia, due to the presence of settlers on native communal lands in 2015 [39].  The conflict ended with the signing of an agreement between the Honduran government and the community in which the government agreed to investigate what happened, sanction those responsible and clean up the land, among other things, however, there is no record that this agreement was fulfilled.  

In Honduras, the total area occupied by indigenous peoples is forest area (3.6 million hectares) [40]. The 2007 Forestry, Protected Areas and Wildlife Law [41] recognizes the right to forest areas in favor of indigenous and Afro-Honduran peoples located on lands they traditionally own and in accordance with national laws and Convention 169 (Art. 45).  However, the lack of prior consultation - in violation of the right enshrined in Convention 169 - on projects such as the creation of dams, the granting of logging and mining concessions, or tourism projects that affect indigenous and Garifuna communities has also led to conflict and violence. The Tolupán people, for example, have suffered 40 murders in 20 years, judicial harassment and attacks for opposing logging and mining projects in the department of Yoro [42]. In order to ensure the implementation of the right to consultation, the Honduran government promoted a bill called the Najera Law which, in 2020, was opposed by the indigenous communities for, in their opinion, encouraging resource extraction activity by multinationals and seeking to dispossess them of their territory [43]. Indigenous critics point to the need to align the national legal framework with internationally recognized rights. 

Another challenge for indigenous peoples has to do with access to resources on their lands and the demarcation of protected areas [44], which in many cases coincide with indigenous ancestral territories [45]. A central aspect of the divergence between the two is the different understanding of territory and resources between the indigenous peoples and the State. If for the indigenous people the territory is an integrated whole and the integration between man and nature is the basis for development, in the State's conception nature is seen as a good to be conserved without human beings being part of it [46]. The Forestry, Protected Areas and Wildlife Law prohibits new settlements in protected areas, and those who lived there before the law was enacted were resettled in "buffer zones". However, according to Article 133, indigenous and Afro-Honduran peoples living in protected areas are exempted from this provision. However, it is not clear whether the law links the ownership of these resources to the ownership of the land, so Article 133 would not apply in cases where the land of indigenous peoples is not titled. 

A similar situation may occur in relation to REDD+ territories (reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, conservation and enhancement of carbon stocks, and sustainable forest management). According to a USAID report, REDD+ on indigenous lands that have not been recognized could risk and restrict access to territory and resources, as well as incentivize land occupation by other actors [47]. Aware of these risks, the Popular Indigenous Council of Honduras (COPINH - acronym in Spanish) and the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH - acronym in Spanish) opposed the implementation of REDD+ [48] as, according to COPINH, another way to privatize their natural assets [49]. 

Without forgetting these challenges, it is worth highlighting the progress in how the recognition of indigenous land rights has been understood in the case of the Miskitu people. For two decades, the National Agrarian Institute (INA - acronym in Spanish) considered the indigenous community as the political and legal entity to deliver collective property titles and did so for relatively small areas, such as agricultural and livestock lands around indigenous settlements [50]. Such an approach changed with the titling of the 12 territorial councils of the Miskitu people, between 2012 and 2016. In this case, the titleholders were the territorial councils, not the communities, and the indigenous peoples' right to territory, understood as vast areas covering the entire functional habitat of a group of communities, was recognized [51]. Thus, the eleven titles issued in the 2012-2015 period measure on average 100,000 hectares each, while those issued previously measured an average of 590 hectares individually [52]. According to the latest data found, from 2021, the total number of titles delivered to the indigenous people of Muskitia is 1,114,976 hectares [53]. Since the 1980s, MASTA, the federation representing the Miskitus of the Muskitia, demanded the titling of their lands to prevent the expansion of the agricultural frontier, but it was not until after the 2009 state coup, and in the midst of a crisis of legitimacy, that the government of Porfirio Lobo, accepted to title 12% of the territory in the name of the Miskitus. The negotiation between the government, persuaded by the World Bank to include the regularization of Garífuna and Miskito lands in the Land Administration Program (PATH - acronym in Spanish), and MASTA responds, according to a study, in part to political agendas and clientelistic relations between both parties [54]. According to this study, the titling took place at a time of intense polarization, and did not prevent the government from continuing to occupy Miskitu land in the name of the war on drugs and the construction of extractivist and hydroelectric projects. 

With respect to the Garifuna population, their territories on the Caribbean coast of Honduras are often in demand for tourism projects. This was the case in the Garifuna community of Barra Vieja, where the Los Micos Beach and Golf Resort tourism project, later renamed Indura Beach and Golf Resort, was built. For its construction, government authorities sued the local population in court and ordered their forced eviction. Some sources have implicated the company Desarrollo Turístico Bahía de Tela (DTBT - acronym in Spanish) as responsible for these evictions, although they deny it [55]. 

Part of the Garifuna's difficulties in enforcing their land rights is that the State has not legally recognized them as indigenous peoples and therefore, in their opinion, Convention 169 does not apply to their situation [56]. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), however, has on several occasions accused the Honduran State of not respecting the collective land and consultation rights of the Garífuna population. In 2020, for example, the IACHR brought Honduras before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for the State's failure to protect the ancestral lands of the Garífuna communities of San Juan and Tornabé, and for threats against several of their leaders [57]. The IACHR concluded that "the lack of titling of the entire territory of the San Juan Community by the State, including failures to ensure peaceful ownership and possession and non-interference by third parties, as well as the failure to adopt legislation in accordance with international standards, violated the right to collective property against the community and its members"[58]. It also considered that the lack of prior consultation regarding the granting of tourism projects on part of the lands claimed by the community violated the community's rights to collective property, access to information and to participate in matters that affect them, as stipulated in Convention 169. 

_{Cochinos Cays, Honduras. Photo: Carlos Zacapa (Unsplash licence)}

Land use trends

More than half of the land area of Honduras is forest area (56.8% in 2020), which has been progressively decreasing (in 1990 it was 62.5%) [59]. According to a recent study, between 2000 and 2016 in Honduras the area of intact forest was reduced by 30% [60]. According to a study by the Ministry of Energy Natural Resources Environment and Mines (MiAmbiente+), the causes of deforestation, according to the perceptions of the actors linked to the forest, are the lack of enforcement of laws, contradictory public policies, lack of coordination and leadership, legal insecurity of land tenure, forest management, illegal logging, extensive cattle ranching, pests and diseases, among others [61]. To this must be added land grabbing related to drug trafficking in some parts of Honduras. Some studies show that drug trafficking is related to deforestation when land is cleared for agribusiness for money laundering, narco-ranching, or to establish territorial control over land supply routes [62]. 

Data from 2018 indicate that agricultural land occupies 30% of Honduras' land area [63]. The tendency in this regard has ranged in recent decades from 26% in 1961 to 31% in 1993, an increase that coincides with the approval of the Law for the Modernization and Development of the Agricultural Sector. But by 2000 it will decrease again to 26% and then increase in 2018 [64]. 

No current data have been found on crops in Honduras at the national level, but in the 1970s there were four important changes in Honduran agriculture with consequences today: the modernization of cattle ranching, the expansion of sugar production, the expansion of coffee cultivation and the expansion of African palm production [65]. Cattle ranching increased throughout the country, with 53.8% of the land dedicated to pasture for cattle in 2008 [66]. A structural change occurred in the 1990s when the export sector went from being mostly agricultural to mostly maquila. In 2010 export crops of coffee, sugarcane and palm, together with vegetables and fruits, reached 45% of agricultural production [67]. The production of basic grains fell by 18% between 1990 and 2010, which, according to some studies, caused a food security problem as it did not correlate with population growth [68].  

Migration to cities has increased significantly in recent decades, rising from 23% in 1960 to more than half, 58%, in 2020 [69]. In 2010 the urban land area was 3,702 km2 [70]. International migration is also significant and, according to some studies, among its causes are consequences of climate change such as the drought of 2018 [71].

_{Oil palm fruit stacked in the Aguán Valley, photo by ICIJ, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0}

Land investments

Land investments in Honduras are diverse in nature and are mainly engaged in the following activities: hydroelectric projects, tourism projects, pastures and agricultural monocultures. 

Honduras has 19 watersheds composed of 45 rivers. As of 2017 there were 34 hydroelectric power plants in the country [72]. Megaprojects for the construction of hydroelectric dams receive river concessions and are financed by foreign capital. For example, the megaproject Patuca I, II and III covers three departments (Olancho, El Paraíso and Colón) and is financed by the government of China [73]. So far only Patuca III located in Olancho has been completed. These projects are questioned for their environmental impact because they deviate the entire watercourse to a turbine, causing the natural life of the river to die, negatively affecting the environment and leaving the communities without water supply [74]. This causes conflicts with the communities. Hydroelectric companies are sometimes accused of being behind threats from environmental activists. For example, in 2021, a former executive of the hydroelectric company Empresa Desarrollos Energéticos (DESA - acronym in Spanish) was convicted as a co-conspirator in the 2016 murder of Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres [75]. According to Global Witness, Honduras is among the most dangerous countries for environmental activism as evidenced by the 120 deaths for this reason since 2010 [76].

_{Speaking on the megaphone: Berta Zúñiga Cáceres (daughter of Berta Cáceres). Photo: Daniel Cima (CC BY 2.0)}

Tourism is one of the main sources of investment in Honduras. It contributes more than 8% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs more than 200,000 families [77]. The National Sustainable Tourism Strategy 2006-2021 promoted the growth of tourism by prioritizing the consolidation of the main tourist destinations through the construction of infrastructure and tourism equipment [78]. By 2021, between US$30 million and US$80 million was expected for about 10 projects [79]. The objective has been to convert the North Coast, inhabited by Garifuna communities, into the main engine of tourism in Honduras, which has led to conflicts with these communities. Civil society, indigenous and black organizations denounce that tourism projects usually give concessions in protected areas and indigenous and black territories, violating Article 6 of Convention 160 on the obligatory protection of resources on indigenous lands, as well as the right to consultation and participation in investment projects on their lands [80].

The main agricultural monocultures invested in Honduras have been palm oil and sugar cane. Honduras is among the 10 largest palm oil producers in the world [81]. 190,000 hectares, mainly on the Atlantic coast from Cortés to Colón, were dedicated to this crop in 2019 [82]. Land grabbing and deforestation are worrying problems in practically all countries where oil palm is grown, but in Honduras it is becoming more worrying as it is expanding in areas linked to drug trafficking [83]. The seizure of water from oil palm cultivation and its cultivation in protected areas are also a concern. For example, in Punta Izopo and Jeanette Kawas national parks, sugarcane has occupied between 20% and 30% of protected areas [84]. Sugarcane cultivation is one of the pillars of the Honduran economy, employing more than 40% of the economically active population where the sugar mills operate and bringing in nearly US$70 million in foreign exchange through exports [85]. Honduras is the fourth largest producer of sugar cane in Central America. 

It is worth noting some recent decisions made by the Honduran government that have changed the course of certain investment plans affecting the land. On the one hand, in January 2022 Honduras declared itself a country free of open-pit mining, and the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources announced the review, suspension and cancellation of concessions and permits for extractive exploitation for being harmful to the country by threatening natural resources, public health and limiting access to water [86]. There are 217 mining concessions in Honduras, 42 of which are located in protected areas, covering an area of 131,515 hectares. Mining has been the cause of important conflicts such as that of Guapinol, in Colón, initiated in 2018 by the mining projects of the company Inversiones Los Pinares (ILP - acronym in Spanish) in the Carlos Escaleras National Park affecting the Guapinol River, and for repeatedly ignoring the request of the Municipal Committee of Tocoa to hold a consultation in the form of an open town hall to the mayor of that locality [87]. In 2022, the Honduran justice system sentenced six environmentalists who opposed the mining project to more than two years in, according to the United Nations, "unjustified pre-trial detention" [88].

On the other hand, in April 2022, the Honduran Parliament revoked the creation of the controversial Employment and Economic Development Zones (ZEDE - acronym in Spanish), also known as Model Cities, for considering that they violate the country's sovereignty [89]. This project consisted of creating these cities administratively independent from the rest of Honduras, and with their own political, legal and economic system, to attract investment and generate industrial and financial development according to a free market model. The project generated much controversy in Honduran society. One of the criticisms was that its creation would lead to the expulsion and expropriation of land of thousands of peasants, indigenous and Garifuna people.

Land acquisitions

Large land acquisitions in Honduras are associated with terms such as violence, migration and the Aguán Valley. It is claimed that less than 5% of landowners in Honduras control 60% of the fertile land [90]. But there is one area that has been especially in demand: the Aguán Valley, located in the departments of Colón and Yoro, on the country's Atlantic coast. In the 1950s, the Aguán Valley was the site of the United Fruit Company's banana plantations, and later, during the agrarian reform, its land was redistributed among farmer cooperatives. In the 1990s, policies that were tolerant of large-scale acquisitions facilitated the reconcentration of land in the valley for oil palm cultivation. 

Studies indicate that cooperatives and small farmers in the valley were coerced, intimidated and manipulated into selling their land [91]. This process was not spared from conflict and violence. It is estimated that between 2009 and 2012, 56 people were killed in conflicts related to oil palm plantations and land [92]. Since then the violence has not stopped. In July 2021, Juan Moncada, leader of a Honduran cooperative was murdered for the same reason [93]. 

The Honduran company Grupo Diant, owned by the now deceased Miguel Facusse, is accused of being associated with more than 100 murders of peasants and a campaign of terror to take control of the valley's land. What organizations such as Friends of Earth also denounce is the impunity with which the Honduran justice system responds to these abuses associated with Grupo Diant, which, in turn, receives funding from the World Bank's International Finance Corporation and the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism [94].

Another challenge caused by the concentrations of land in the Aguán Valley and the violence associated with it is the exodus of migrants to the United States. For example, the cooperative to which Juan Moncada belonged went from having 248 families to having half of them due to migration [95].  

Women’s land rights

The Constitution does not have gender-inclusive language regarding property or land rights. In the context of marriage, the legal equality of spouses is recognized. A specific provision for the protection of women on farms is contained in Article 128, and with respect to women's rights to rest before and after childbirth. In the Law for the Modernization and Development of the Agricultural Sector, the only reference to gender is that the same requirements are demanded of men and women for the adjudication of agrarian reform lands (Art. 79). The Equal Opportunities for Women Act of 2000 establishes equal access to land tenure, credit and housing [96]. According to its Article 74, peasant women will enjoy the benefits of the Agrarian Reform Law on equal terms with men. 

In 2022, the  Articulación de Mujeres de la Vía Campesina Honduras (Women's Articulation of La Via Campesina Honduras) and the Consejo para el Desarrollo Integral de la Mujer Campesina (Council for the Integral Development of Peasant Women) reported that of the two million women living in rural areas, only 14% have land titles [97]. Women denounce that they have no access to land, credit or technical assistance. This situation is reflected in the statistics that show that 70% of rural women live in poverty and, of these, more than 50% live in extreme poverty [98]. Of the 78,975 land titles delivered by INA between 2011 and 2020, 37% were delivered to women and the rest to men [99]. This difference is smaller in the departments of Valle and Cortés (50.98% for men and 49% for women, and 55% for men and 44% for women respectively) [100]. However, this advantage disappears if the extension of the titled areas is measured: in Valle 72% of the titled land went to men and 27% to women, and in Cortés the difference was 44% to 19% respectively [101]. The departments with the greatest inequality were Lempira, Ocotepeque and Comayagua. 

One way to increase women's land ownership is through joint titling promoted by the Law of Equal Opportunities for Women by making it obligatory to title land and other assets acquired in de facto unions in the name of the couple, regardless of civil status (Art. 73). However, this possibility is not always implemented due to women's lack of legal knowledge, the predominance of the macho culture in rural areas or the lack of political will among government officials to grant joint land titles [102].

Other barriers to women's access to land are the lack of coordination between different institutions, the patriarchal structure that organizes Honduran society [103], and the lack of access to credit, which has been worsened by the financial collapse of the National Bank for Agricultural Development (BANADESA), whose insolvency, according to some news media, could be related to corruption [104]. 

The National Women's Institute is the government organization in charge of promoting the full incorporation of women in the sustainable development of the country. Women's support initiatives such as Ciudad Mujer (Women's City) do not include issues of access to land for rural women. The Policy for Gender Equity in Honduran Agriculture (1999-2015) aimed to reduce the gender gap in agriculture but, studies indicate, its implementation was minimal due to lack of political will [105]. In 2015, the Law for the National Solidarity Credit Program for Rural Women was approved, giving rise to the Credimujer program, a national solidarity credit program for rural women, however, according to some studies, it is an unfulfilled promise on the part of the government and, in other cases, not all rural women are aware of it [106].

An additional problem is the criminalization of the defense of land and violence against women land defenders. According to a study, between 2016 and 2019, 48% of the aggressions suffered by women in Honduras were against women defenders of land and territories, surpassing other countries in the region [107]. From 2016 to 2021 such aggressions have cost the lives of 8 women [108].  

Where to go next?

The author's suggestion for further reading 

Land and housing dispossession is among the causes of forced population displacement in Honduras. Experts indicate that the absence of mechanisms for registration, protection and restitution of land and housing could cause new and deep conflicts between the original rights holders and those who exercise possession of the property. In 2017, UNHCR published the Report on Tierras, Viviendas y Desplazamiento Forzado en Honduras (Land, Housing and Forced Displacement in Honduras) with the objective of exploring in depth the dispossession as a cause of displacement, clarifying the gaps in the legal and institutional system that limit the protection of rights, and identifying alternatives to strengthen the cadastral and registration systems. In Honduras, migration to cities due to precarious conditions in the countryside has been significant, but once in the cities, the situation is not always easier. Prindex published in 2019 the report Global perceptions of urban land tenure security where it is possible to compare the perception of urban land tenure security in Honduras with that of 32 other countries in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The questions this study seeks to answer are how tenure security is linked to de facto legal status in urban areas, who is affected by perceived tenure insecurity among cities, and whether the data collected through surveys reveal any implications for the design of more effective policies. Among those who stay in the countryside, several studies highlight the role of women in land defense. The report Luchas de Alto Riesgo. Las mujeres en primera línea en la defensa de la tierra y el territorio (High Stakes Struggles. Women on the Frontline in the Defense of Land and Territory), published by the organization We Effect in 2020, describes the relationship between unequal land distribution, impoverishment processes, conflicts and social inequality. The study focuses on peasant and indigenous women threatened by the interests of state and private actors in Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia. 

Timeline - milestones in land governance

1900s - United Fruit Company arrives in Honduras

The United Fruit Company arrived in Honduras first for banana exports and later for banana production. During this period the Honduran governments made 71 concessions to foreign companies, in addition to the United Fruit Company, they also granted concessions to the Tela Railroad Company that operated with the transnational company Chiquita Brands International dedicated to the production and distribution of bananas. These companies had a great influence on the economic and political situation of the country.

1960s-1970s - Agrarian Reform

The Agrarian Reform Law of 1962 sought the eradication of latifundios and minifundios. With this objective in mind, the National Agrarian Institute was created to distribute land. Decree Law 70 of 1974 established different limits to the maximum size of rural properties according to the different zones of the country. During the 1970s, more than 400,000 hectares were distributed, benefiting 60,000 peasant families (representing 12.3% of the rural population) [109]. In general, the agrarian reform was more intense in the north of the country, where the peasant movement also emerged in 2000 [110]. 

1969 - Conflict with El Salvador

Known as the Soccer War or the Hundred Hours War, the tensions between Honduras and El Salvador were triggered by the Honduran government's expropriation of the lands of the many Salvadoran immigrants (around 300,000) who migrated to Honduras due to the lack of access to land in their country and to work in the Honduran banana fields since 1911. 

1990s - Privatization of land and expansion of export crops.

The 1992 Agricultural Modernization and Development Law allowed the sale of land following agrarian reform to private landowners. During this decade, the sale of land to multinationals for the production of palm oil and sugar cane multiplied.

2004 - Reform of the Property System 

The Property Law introduces registry and cadastre reforms reducing costs and time between transactions. The Property Institute is also created. 

2019 - Armed Forces involved in agricultural administration.

Through an Executive Decree, the government empowers the Armed Forces to manage the Honduran Agricultural Development Program. This measure was criticized by many sectors. In 2022 the decree was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Chamber. 

2020 - Law proposal by peasant organizations

Peasant organizations propose a solution to overcome the agrarian, food and environmental crisis in Honduras through the proposed Emergency Law for the Reactivation of the Agricultural, Livestock and Forestry Sector to Combat Poverty.