In Honduras, the watersheds located at the Sierra del Merendón and that drain to the Mesoamerican Reef, provide water to the city of San Pedro Sula. In one of these watersheds: the Manchaguala, through the WWF and The Coca-Cola Company Alliance, several activities have been carried out to achieve its protection and conservation. This has included the application of better agricultural practices and the establishment of agroforestry systems. Recently, an action that contributes to these objectives was carried out with the reforestation of a thousand fruit trees and a thousand timber trees in that watershed. With that action the communities within the Sierra del Merendón are also benefited.
This project is implemented locally with one of the Coca-Cola bottlers, Cervecería Hondureña, through Fundación Cervecería Hondureña. The bottler joined the Coca-Cola Company’s vision that has set as an objective the promotion of actions to protect watersheds and replenish the water they use in their finished beverages back to communities and nature by 2020.
To date, in this watershed a total of 50 hectares have been managed with agroforestry systems. This last action contributes to the commitment of maintaining and sustainably manage these 50 hectares.
The Manchaguala watershed is one of the watersheds with a higher level of environmental damage in Honduras and a series of socioeconomical activities are being developed on its surroundings which intensify the negative effect over it. The water that the Manchaguala watershed produces is of vital importance to the local communities located in the upper, middle and lower watershed, especially for the agroindustry production and domestic use. It is also key for the irrigation required by the agroindustry in the lower watershed and for industrial uses.
The project conducted jointly with FCH has been active since 2016. For 2018, besides the maintenance actions beforementioned, the project also includes the development of activities to strengthen capacities in better agricultural practices and integrated watershed management in communities within the Manchaguala watershed.