There is growing concern that the accelerated pace and increasing complexity of environmental change may be challenging people's ability to test, refine, and adjust livelihood strategies. This would be particularly challenging for poor households in hazardous environments, generating greater vulnerability to disasters. The context for this concern was examined in four rural communities from two different cultural realms along the Caribbean coast of Honduras. An ethnographic approach was used to understand how women household managers, community leaders, and elderly residents from Garifuna and Mestizo communities perceive and respond to hazards and other challenges in their environment. The analysis revealed how economic pressures combine with political context to contribute to an intensification of local land and resource use in the four communities. The consequent matrix of environmental hazards generates troubling uncertainties for these small-scale socioecological systems, particularly as the local ecological resources once available for livelihood adjustments become scarce. To make matters worse, institutional efforts to resolve environmental and economic challenges generating vulnerabilities for some rural communities are perceived as authoritarian, superimposed, and even culturally inappropriate. Confused or frustrated by so many uncertainties, households from both cultural realms try to adjust by increasing their dependence on an evolving web of political and financial resources beyond their communities, indeed from outside Honduras. / text

The Río Pláttano Biosphere Reserve, a tropical rainforest reserve in the northeastern corner of Honduras, is home to several subsistence-based indigenous groups, including the Miskito, Pech and Garifuna, as well as the non-indigenous Ladinos. Communities within the reserve depend on forest resources, swidden agriculture, marine resources and/or small-scale ranching as the foundations for local economies. Regulations placed on these subsistence practices, after establishment of the biosphere reserve in 1980, have created unique and new pressures and resulted in a blend of traditional and innovative resource use. A notable result is the promotion of ecotourism as a solution for meeting the economic needs of local populations while conserving local resources. This thesis documents current resource use in the Miskito and Ladino communities of Banaka, Brans, and Fuente de Jacob, in the Río Pláttano Biosphere Reserve and the potential of ecotourism to maintain both local economies and consumption of tropical rainforest resources in these communities. Analysis suggests that a community-based approach to ecotourism can result in economic benefits and maintain local culture. This thesis documents current resource use (agricultural crops and trees, gathered and cultivated plants, tree-use, and hunting), resident perspectives on ecotourism development and industry, and provides the foundation for long-term monitoring and analysis on the effects of ecotomism on forest resource and land-use in the greater Banaka region.

La réforme dans le domaine de la santé amorcée au début des années 1990 en Amérique latine reposait sur une volonté clairement exprimée d'améliorer la qualité, l'équité et l'efficacité des systèmes de santé. La présente étude visait l'analyse des changements introduits par cette réforme au Honduras, en considérant le contexte de mondialisation. Plus concrètement, on a étudié comment ces changements ont eu un impact sur les déterminants sociaux de la santé et l'équité, dans le but d'apprécier la situation du droit à la santé dans ce pays suite à plus de 10 ans de réformes. Un premier article présente les résultats d'une revue critique de la littérature sur les réformes de la santé en Amérique latine où nous proposons une analyse qui prend en compte les processus provoqués par la mondialisation, l'évolution du rôle des États et les relations entre les échelles globale, nationale et locale en regard des changements observés. Nous y identifions différents processus de transnationalisation de la santé, qui se sont manifestés sous quatre formes de mondialisation portées par un réseau d'acteurs globaux qui ont promu un projet réformiste orienté vers le marché. Le deuxième article porte sur une recherche action participative menée pour documenter le cas hondurien avec une combinaison de techniques : entrevues en profondeur, groupes de discussion, observation participante, analyse de données secondaires. À partir de cette analyse, une série d'actions a été mise en place : réunions avec des organisations, forum public, interventions dans les médias (presse, radio et télévision). Cette démarche méthodologique a aussi permis l'émergence d'une organisation toujours active trois ans après la fin de la recherche, la Iniciativa Hondurena por el Derecho a la Salud (Initiative Hondurienne pour le Droit à la Santé). Finalement, dans le troisième article, nous présentons les résultats empiriques du travail et nous concluons que les changements observés s'insèrent dans deux types de transnationalisation de la santé combinés avec deux modes de globalisation, s'inscrivant dans une logique contradictoire avec le droit à la santé et l'équité.

The small businessman in an undeveloped country often finds himself isolated from formal, institutional credit sources, either through ignorance or by his non-acceptability as a credit risk. Both his lack of credit and lack of education can limit his participation in national development, and in fact, such development might even work against him as it makes his competitors' easier access to these resources even more important. It was concluded that the educational level achieved by the small businessman in Santos Guardiola is roughly the sixth grade, that the lack of business and financial content in their formal education does not prevent their learning about business and finance, and that a large majority of them use credit in their business. It was further concluded that the loan officers with the four lending institutions have adequate education and training to administer the loans made, that business credit needs are generally satisfied without resort to an informal credit market, and that while the deposits and business loans are expanding for all four institutions the credit union has been able to expand most rapidly by attracting the small saver and the small borrower. In addition, it was concluded that development banks are primarily interested in large industrial projects that are generally not suited to Santos Guardiola.

The Roatan Spiny-tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura oedirhina) is endemic to the 146-km2 island of Roatn, Honduras. Harvesting for consumption, fragmentation of habitat, and predation by domestic animals threaten this lizard. It is currently listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as threatened by the Honduran government, and is on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This species has been geographically fragmented and genetically isolated into small subpopulations that are declining in density. With data gathered from use/availability surveys, resource selection functions were used to identify habitats and environmental variables associated with their presence. Results indicate that protection from harvesting is the most important factor in determining their distribution. These high-density populations are currently restricted to ~0.6 km2. Organisms living in small, isolated populations with very restricted ranges are at higher risk of extirpation due to various direct and indirect forces. Mark-recapture-resight surveys and distance sampling have been used to monitor the populations since 2010 and 2012 respectively. The data show that the high-density populations are declining. The current population size is estimated to be 4130-4860 individuals in 2015. A population viability analysis (PVA) was conducted to identify the most pressing threats and specific life history traits that are affecting this decline. The analysis estimates that if current trends persist, the species will be extinct in the wild in less than ten years. Adult mortality is a main factor and female mortality specifically characterizes this decline. In order for this species to persist over the next fifty years, adult mortality needs to be reduced by more than 50%. A lack of enforcement of the current laws results in the persistence of the main threat, poaching for consumption, thus altering the species distribution and causing high adult mortality. This is complicated by social customs and a lack of post primary education. Management changes could mitigate this threat and slow the population decline. Recommendations include an education campaign on the island, increased enforcement of the current laws, and breeding of C. oedirhina in situ and ex situ for release into the wild. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1968. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 276-287).

The goal of this report was to assess current prevention strategies that attempt to reduce HIV prevalence among female sex workers (FSW) in Honduras. This analysis was based on the difference between behavioral change and structural approaches; that is, while behavioral change theories are based on risk reduction through promoting individuals’ change, the structural approach addresses the factors in the environment that make individuals vulnerable to HIV. In order to analyze prevention strategies in Honduras, I carried out an analysis of the structural conditions at the country level and, at the sex workers population level. The structural factors that make Honduras a country vulnerable to HIV are political instability, migrations, poverty and socio-economic conditions, and gender inequality. As a consequence of those macro-environmental conditions, sex workers face the following micro-environmental factors that increase their vulnerability to HIV: violence and male domination; large families and single parenthood; low income and poor education; and public policies against sex work, such as police abuse and closure of brothels. This report is based on an analysis of the Sonagachi Project in India, 100% Condom Use in Thailand, and the intervention in the Dominican Republic, programs that successfully address structural conditions and decrease women’s vulnerability to HIV. This report showed that in Honduras, the prevention strategies currently implemented are limited because they are based on behavioral change theories, failing to address environmental barriers that increase vulnerability to HIV among FSW. I give some specific recommendations about how to improve prevention strategies in this country reducing women’s vulnerability by addressing the structural factors they face. / text

No description available.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1986 E86 / Master of Science / Grain Science and Industry

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries