In the next few weeks the Atlantic Coast of Honduras will once again be featured in the Italian TV reality show “The Island of the Famous”. This year’s participants will include Astaldi, the second-largest Italian construction company. Astaldi has just won a contract from the government of Honduras to build the basic infrastructure of a mega-tourist resort “Los Micos Beach & Resort Centre” along the coast of Tela Bay, on the Caribbean coast of Honduras. The local Gar ífuna residents are adamantly opposed to the project, which will have a devastating environmental, social and economic impact on their lands.
According to an Astaldi spokesperson with whom we spoke by phone, the tourist project will bring “development, wealth and work” to the region. Therefore the company has invited us to channel all complaints and denouncements directly to the contracting party (in this case the government of Honduras) and to leave Astaldi alone. We are therefore asking all of you for your support and to raise our collective voices in order to let Astaldi know that it is guilty of being part of a project that is economically, socially and environmentally unsustainable. 
Please send the model letter below to
Alessandra Onorati, director of Astaldi’s Investor Communication and Relations in Rome: a.onorati at astaldi.com
to Mario Iván Casco of Astaldi ’s Honduran subsidiary: m.casco@honduras.hn.
ando to Secretaria de Astaldi Columbus en Honduras secretaria at astaldi.hn
We kindly ask that you send a copy to: honduras at puchica.org
More information is available at: Lisolaeilmattone.blogspot.com
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Milan, 5th of September, 2007
To:
Vittorio Di Paolo, president of Astaldi
Giuseppe Cafiero, general director of Astaldi's international operations
Mario Iván Casco of Astaldi Columbus
Secretaria de Astaldi Columbus en Honduras
Last July, your company, acting through your subsidiary in Honduras, signed a contract with the government of the Republic of Honduras to undertake the building of infrastructure related to the “Laguna de Los Micos” tourist resort, in the region of Bah ía de Tela, along the Atlantic coast of Honduras.
As you are undoubtedly aware, the Garífuna community, afro-indigenous peoples' living in the North coast of Honduras, has inhabited the area for the past 200 years. Once plans for the area were made public, the Garífuna people from the communities affected by the project, e.g., San Juan Tela, Tornabé, Miami, La Ensenada, Triunfo de la Cruz, members of the Fraternal Organization of the Black Peoples of Honduras (OFRANEH), denounced the possible risks and the negative social, economic and environmental impacts of uncontrolled tourism-related development of the Bahía de Tela.
The project will undertake the building of a mega tourism complex that will occupy some 500 hectares of land and a three-kilometer stretch of beach. Within the “Los Micos Beach & Resort Centre” there will be 4 luxury residences, 256 villas, malls, theme parks, horse rides and, of course, a golf course.
All this is to be built within the Jeanette Kawas National Park (PNJK) and adjacent to a registered lagoon (number 722) listed as protected wetlands in the International Convention for the Protection of Wetlands (known as Ramsar).
Your company is set to begin filling in a large part of the wetlands in this area in order to build a golf course, activities that are totally incompatible with the Ramsar Convention, which stipulates that delicate wetlands need absolute protection. Further, construction activities would alter the equilibrium of all water resources in the area, leading to changes in water reserves and thus to the benefits of the wetlands themselves. Construction would also increase the risk of floods in nearby communities and in the city of Tela during the months of heaviest rains.
A technical study undertaken by the Foundation for the Protection of Lancetilla, Punta Sal and Texiguat (PROLANSATE), a non-governmental organization, in charge of conservation within the Jeanette Kawas National Park, shows that the project would have a disastrous environmental impact and would entail numerous violations of international treaties (Agreement on Biological Diversity; the Convention for the Conservation of Biodiversity and the Protection of Natural Areas in Central America - decree number 183/94), national forestry laws, environmental regulations of the Inter-American Development Bank, which is financing the project, in addition of internal Park regulations.
Furthermore, the area of the project is part of the working and living habitat of the Garífuna communities of Miami, Tornabé, San Juan Tela, La Ensenada and Triunfo de la Cruz, whose residents obtain part of the livelihoods from the lagoon. The project borders on the National Park's totally protected inner core, and Honduran laws prohibit any changes or alternations of the ecosystem in the area.
To undertake this megaproject, whose total cost will surpass 200 million dollars, Honduras will need to contract new debt with the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), which will also benefit Astaldi in the amount of some 15 million dollars. This will increase Honduras' already high foreign debt and will have negative repercussions on the poorest sectors of the country.
For these reasons we demand Astaldi Columbus to suspend immediately all activities related to this project. |
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