Honduras - Environmental Movement of the Olancho (MAO)

The Environmental Movement of the Olancho (MAO) is an environmental organisation in the largest county of Honduras, which has vast areas of forest. Because the work of MAO encourages sustainable management of the resources of the rain forest they are perceived as challenging powerful economic interests and as a result have been subjected to harassment, intimidation and attack. In December 2007 two MAO members, Heraldo Zúñiga and Roger Ivan Cartagena, were killed. They applied for a grant for office security from Front Line in January 2008. They received a grant for $4,888 with which they constructed a concrete wall to protect the security of the office and MAO workers. The new security measures help to protect MAO employees, allowing them to feel safe and enabling them to work by night in safety from threats of robbery and attack.