Alberto's story

Alberto Granados, Olancho, Honduras (photo © Omar Banegas/Progressio)

“One day when you least expect it they come to cut down your trees,” says 56-year-old father of eight Alberto Granados.

A farmer all his life, Alberto is the centre of resistance to illegal loggers in his local area of La Libertad, Campamento, in the forests of Olancho, Honduras. “I have a cell phone and when we hear the chain saws of the illegal loggers I call the other men from the community and we try to stop it.

“It is dangerous and many times I have been threatened. When I tell them to stop they say: ‘We will kill you’, but so far they have not because we are a strong community here.

“Once we chased some loggers away, but we ended up stuck on a hill for eight days protecting the wood we captured and waiting for the police to arrive. We had no food or water and we were too scared to leave the timber in case the loggers came back. We gave the wood to the mayor to help build a local school.

“It is very important that people in other countries help us to preserve our forests by not using illegal wood. I would like voters in Europe to support this ban on importing illegal wood as it will serve our children - they will inherit the results. I have known trees my children will never know because they have been cut down.

“Unless something is done quickly we will be in even worse trouble.”