The festivities brought together their field representatives from all over the globe including: Belize, Fiji, Mexico, Indonesia, Honduras, almost anywhere coral reefs have become an endangered species. Over locally produced and multilayered Lagunitas IPA and tasty hors d’oeuvres the crowd mingled and discussed the state of coral reefs worldwide. Talking to the various field reps, we got the idea that they create awareness and educate many locals and tourists with little resources. It was as if the field reps paraphrased a quote from the film The Grapes of Wrath, “Wherever there’s a fight about coral reefs, I’ll be there.”

Read more of this story »

Seeking to respect the natural world surrounding the farm, Cueva labored to create an eco-friendly inn, one that would be as comfortable and charming as earth-friendly. Hacienda San Lucas is now an eight-room, idyllic inn nestled in the bucolic, emerald green hills of the Honduran countryside. In addition to being 80% solar powered, the inn has been involved in reforestation efforts and recycles and composts. At night, candles light the large rooms and pathways—all of which are constructed of locally-obtained, natural materials.

Evenings are as charm-filled as mornings are mellow. Dinners at the inn are magical (think candlelight, a cricket serenade and twinkling stars). Set on a patio and illuminated by the warm glow of candles, the Mayan-inspired, multi-course meals offer a chance to chat up other guests or to simply savor the balmy night air.

The antithesis of bland chain hotels, San Lucas seems to have popped off the pages of a book by Isabell Allende or Graham Greene. With its wide verandas slung with hammocks, rock-hewn walls and tranquil, otherworldly air, the inn is an ideal spot to get off the grid—literally and figuratively.

Read more of this story »

It seems that quite often small islands can provide a condensed view of world-wide problems: As long as it is cheap today it’s ok.

Residents of the small Honduran Isle of Roatan, situated in the Caribbean sea just south of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula have recently taken to the streets in protest of the price increases imposed on them by the island’s power company RECO. The protesters have on several occasions set up road blocks and picket lines all over the island, effectively bringing the island to a standstill for three days on one occasion and two on another. In fact, several cruise ships responsible for a major source of income to the island’s developing economy have been turned around and sent on their way costing the island an estimated $450,000 a day.

Read more of this story »

Editor’s note: Our friends at Eco-Libris are in the business of preserving forests by “offsetting” books. Today, they bring you a profile of another organization involved in forest conservation, and one of that organization’s success stories. This post was originally published on Friday, March 28, 2008.

We bring you from time to time stories and updates from our great planting partners, and today we have a mini-documentary about Honduran farmer Don Cheyo, who grows organic crops and lives sustainably thanks to help from our planting partner, Sustainable Harvest International (SHI).

SHI works in developing countries in Central America - Nicaragua, Honduras, Belize, Panama. Central America has lost more than half of its rainforests in the last 50 years, contributing to mass extinctions and global warming. Rainforest destruction also wreaks havoc on local populations who depend on the rainforest for their survival.

SHI helps many farmers like Don Cheyo in nearly 100 struggling communities across Central America to reverse rainforest destruction with sustainable land-use practices that allow them to take control of their environmental and economic destinies. SHI is involved in many activities - from trees planting and restoration and preservation of degraded land to educational programs and community loan funds.

Read more of this story »

Let me return to the Bay Islands and add a third and final player to the renewable energy triad: biodiesel.

As you know from my biodiesel mythbuster, biodiesel is a liquid, bio-based fuel that can be used in any diesel engine. This has important implications for tropical locales in general, but especially the Bay Islands, where 99.9% of electricity 99.9% of transportation needs are met by diesel engines. Even rapid and widespread implementation of wind and solar won’t change the transportation requirements for diesel. But biodiesel - if available in sufficient quantity on the islands - could offset the lion’s share of dirty-diesel fuel usage.

Yes, that’s a big “if,” supply being biofuels’ endemic problem. On the other hand, tropical environments are well-suited to biodiesel, with warm climates and productive feedstocks. It just so happens that mainland Honduras is already producing biodiesel. With Honduras still shouldering the highest gasoline prices in Central America, it could be time to consider a more ecologically and economically friendly alternative: Palm oil.

The price of diesel in Honduras continues to rise. The national average for March was $2.60, up fifteen percent from last year’s average. . .Of course, with no facilities for processing crude oil internally, all of Honduras’ gasoline is imported - around ten million barrels per year - with prices largely dependent on other countries’ export rates as well as the tax levied by the Honduran government. But there is an alternative. Once converted through a simple process known as transesterification, the oil of the African palm - one of Honduras’ major existing natural resources - can make an efficient biofuel to run diesel engines without the need for any modifications.”

We’re all familiar with the dangers of palm oil plantations, granted, but even without expansion the industry could easily meet the meager fuel needs of the Bay Islands. Biodiesel production would also create an entirely new industry and keep some of that oil money at home. Could palm oil production be sustainable? That’s a great question, and biodiesel production on mainland Honduras and greater Central America certainly warrants further investigation.

Back to the Bay Islands: Every morning, while subdued boats gently tug at the dock and the ‘clink…clink’ of scuba-tanks can be heard in the distance, diesel engines across the harbor sputter to life. Dive boats are the life-blood of the industry. Most shops have groups out in the morning, afternoon, and sometimes evening, with some trips lasting an hour each way. Before departing, boats typically idle at the dock for 20 minutes while they inject diesel exhaust directly into the water, nearly asphyxiating passengers when they finally push off. The smoke trail rising from the stern is just part of the experience - at least it always has been.

If you’ve ever been on any kind of diesel-powered marine vessel, you may fondly remember the noxious aroma of sooty diesel exhaust floating over the water. One thing I failed to mention in my last post was the dramatic difference biodiesel makes in visible smoke emitted by diesel engines. Using even a small blend of biodiesel cuts that considerably, even eliminating it (other factors, like cold weather contribute to smoke). Instead of dirty-diesel exhaust, how about the faint odor of french fries? Anyone?

Crude palm oil, of which around 250 million kilos will be produced in Honduras this year, is thick and dark red. When it is refined the biodiesel produced is pale yellow, has no odor, smells like frying potatoes when it burns and creates very little smoke. And even more importantly for a country crippled by the price of its gasoline, it could prove up to ten percent cheaper than its non-renewable counterpart.. . .Honduras currently imports just over 1.1 million tons of diesel fuel every year. Dinant Corporation statistics show that were all the palm oil from the 70,000 hectares in Honduras used to produce biodiesel, it would satisfy just over twenty percent of this national demand.”

Besides cutting the emission of most combustion products by 50% or more (in higher blends), biodiesel is also better for the environment when spilled. And yes, some amount of diesel fuel is going to end up in the water no matter how hard everyone tries. In an area dependent on the aquatic ecosystem for basic services (fishing) and the economy (tourism), it makes sense to avoid damaging the resource. Biodiesel is particularly suitable for environmentally sensitive areas like parklands and marine environments considering that it’s ‘non-toxic’ (comparable to table salt) and biodegrades as fast as sugar.

For an excellent introduction to biodiesel in marine applications, take a look at The Technical Handbook for Marine Biodiesel In Recreational Boats.

Biodiesel runs just as well in diesel generators as it does in boat engines, with the same reduction tangible benefits. While wind and solar technology are better long-term options for electricity generation, biodiesel could start offsetting diesel usage today, with no change in infrastructure. In case you aren’t familiar with them, yesterday I stumbled across an excellent description of life with diesel generators:

Chronic power shortages in Myanmar are leaving cities in the former Burma shrouded in almost permanent blackout, driving its citizens to despair and crippling an economy reeling from decades of military misrule…Small businesses such as photo-processing shops or Internet cafes need portable generators to get by and have to hike prices to reflect the high cost of diesel, nearly all of which is imported…But the use of generators comes with hidden costs for the wider population, mainly in the form of noise and air pollution. “With all the blackouts, generator noise, diesel fumes and flash floods in the rainy season due to the choked drains, life here has become horrible,” said Ba Tin, a retired civil servant. “My whole family has developed a sort of migraine. We often get headaches and nausea, especially when the big diesel generators in the restaurants next door are running,” he said. Doctors and psychiatrists say they are having to treat an increased number of respiratory ailments and stress-related conditions, which they attribute to the noise and fumes.”

This problem is clearly non-unique to Honduras, although diesel generators are much less conspicuous in the Bay Islands. Biodiesel can help alleviate these problems wherever it’s used.

To summarize things, over the course of these two posts I’ve learned that eliminating the economic and environmental problems associated with dirty-diesel fuel usage in the Bay Islands is feasible and extremely preferable. The technology is already available, it’s just a matter of connecting the dots…

Myanmar Learns To Live with the Lights Out
Oiling the Wheels of Change
The Technical Handbook for Marine Biodiesel In Recreational Boats

Photo Credits: Clayton B. Cornell