Honduras taps armed forces to eliminate deforestation by 2029. Is it working?

Deep in the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, a young Honduran scientist crouches beside a military patrol, studying a receipt found at an illegal mining site. The document traces stolen gold from the protected forest to buyers far beyond Honduras' borders — proof, at last, of where the profits go. It's an unlikely partnership: civilian scientists and armed soldiers moving together through jungles where cartel activity once made such patrols unthinkable. But since May 2024, it's become the new normal in one of Central America's most embattled ecosystems.

Honduras launched its "Zero Deforestation by 2029" plan that year, deploying an environmental protection battalion of 8,000 troops to retake control of protected areas overrun by criminal timber trafficking groups. The National Defense and Security Council declared a state of emergency for the country's forests and set aside funds to reclaim land from agriculture, mining, and other illegal activities that have devastated the country's forests — which face among the highest deforestation rates in the Americas.

The approach is bold, and controversial. Professor Kendra McSweeney of The Ohio State University, who has studied conservation across Central America for years, urges caution: "Militarization is not a long-term solution," she says. "Absent a larger investment in public policies, in leadership and in legal regimes that will enforce the law in those areas, it cannot work."

Yet on the ground in Río Plátano, there's cautious momentum. When patrols discover deforested areas, they now also uncover other illicit operations — coca leaf cultivation, industrial gold mining — suggesting that cracking down on one criminal activity is revealing the full scope of what has infiltrated these forests. And when scientists like the ones on the Río Twas expedition find receipts linking illegal mines to specific buyers and vendors, they're building a paper trail that could expose the full supply chain, not just the extraction.

There's also a quiet push for legal reform. Environmental advocates are calling on Honduras' National Congress to strengthen the penal code with firm punishments for environmental crimes — turning military gains into lasting legal boundaries. The plan's success, or failure, will be watched closely across the hemisphere. But as of 2024, Honduras is attempting one of the most ambitious conservation turnarounds in Latin America — and the world is listening.