Coping with Climate Change

  • During the tropical storm ‘Sara’ a child is looking out of the window to look at the resuce units deployed to evacuate the people from floodings. Many people refused to be evacuated, mainly due to distrust in people (within the rescue groups) from outside their communities. 15.11.2024, Monte Fresco Community, Atlantida, Honduras. Consent: verbal During the tropical storm ‘Sara’ a child is looking out of the window to look at the resuce units deployed to evacuate the people from floodings. Many people refused to be evacuated, mainly due to distrust in people (within the rescue groups) from outside their communities. 15.11.2024, Monte Fresco Community, Atlantida, Honduras. Consent: verbal

  • Firefighter of the Forestry and Conservation Institution of Honduras (ICF) moves back from the fireline (line in which fire moves and burns) to catch a breath and switch gear with a colleague. 29.02.2024 Tamará, Franciso Morazan, Honduras Consent: verbal / Official agreement with the ICF

  • Adonias Cruz, a ranger with the conservation foundation PROLANSATE is arguing with a fisherman, who’s net has washed into the lagoon, due to increasingly rapid tides in the Caribbean. Fishermen are most affected by the unpredictable weather conditions and have reduced their ability to work safely and maintain their livelihood. This pressure on the livelihoods of many communities has made the work of conservation more dangerous for rangers. Rangers like Cruz are targeted due to their work, restricting extractive efforts. Cruz has to be accompanied by soldiers after two assassination attempts. 13.03.2024 Playa y Barra de Miami, Atlantida, Honduras. Consent: Verbal

  • Sofia Ochoa and her daughter are sitting in their home. They are eating the last bananas they had grown in the garden. Sofia does not know how to tell her daughter that they are likely going to have a hard dry season because they are already tapping their food reserves from the last harvest. 02.12.2023 San Bernardo, Choluteca, Honduras. Consent: Verbal

  • Families heavily affected by the tropical storm ‘Sara’ are evacuated to a school where they are received by rescue units and fed and guarded by the military. 15.11.2024 Tela, Atlantida, Honduras Consent: Granted by the Honduran Red Cross and granted by the individuals verbally.

  • Mario Motiño and Orlando Vasquez, from a group that calls themselves the ‘Tela Divers’ are from a handful of divers that work to reduce the invasive Lionfish population in the norther coast of Honduras, which has been responsible for a hefty reduction of corals and still systemically affects the marine ecosystem. 10.11.2024 Tela, Atlantida, Honduras Consent: Verbally Recorded

  • The fireline of a wildfire in Honduras is moving along a small hill.

  • People living on the southern Coast of Honduras have been displaced by the rising sea levels so frequently, that many now rely on wooden structures in order to move frequently. These day labourers are working on a new building on the beachfront, which will likely become inhabitable in the span of three to four years. 03.12.2023 Cedeño, Choluteca, Honduras Consent: Verbal

  • A lady is standing on her porch of the house that is built to me moved with the rising sea levels.

  • Fishermen from Tornabe are thrying to navidate the rough waters to enter the lagoon.

  • A young boy from the Garifuna (afro-descendant) communities is ferrying over on a door of a fridge to the other side of a large puddle to where he had left his bike, while on a short errand. The heavy rainfalls in the rainy season had unexpectedly caused flash floods on the northern coast and the historically marginalised communities (such as the Garifuna) are among those most affected. 14.12.2024 Tornabe, Atlantida, Honduras Consent: Verbal

  • Firefighters are trying to hold back the fire line alternating their positions in order to reduce the exposure to the heat.

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Honduras is one of the countries most affected by climate change, despite its small size, the rich topography exposes people to a high number of climate-related hazards, which have gained momentum and are more extreme than ever.

 In 2024 Honduras had the highest number of wildfires reported in Central America and farmers in the southern parts have been struggling with droughts. 

Meanwhile, the northern coast has reported a massive increase in unpredictable weather patterns, which peaked in the topical storm ‘Sara’ which swept through the northern coast of Honduras, resulting in widespread flooding that affected more than 110,000 people, displaced 2,600, and caused one fatality. The storm also inflicted significant damage on infrastructure, destroying eight bridges, damaging 16 more, and cutting off evacuation routes for those attempting to flee the hardest-hit regions. 

On the other side, on the southern Pacific coast of Honduras, people are coping with the rising sea level, which has forced people and businesses to move back and rely on wooden housing in order to constantly displace their livelihoods, depending on the climate conditions. 

For many people, the rising precarity caused by climate conditions that are exacerbated by climate change to an unprecedented level there only remain two options: Fight the conditions and survive to the next season, or Flight. Moving to a new place often means moving along the migrant routes north.