Guiding the Way to New Opportunities in the Copán Valley, Honduras
One of the challenges of rural poverty reduction in Latin America is to enhance non-farm economic activity, diversify employment, and foster enterprise activity. Although poverty has decreased over the last decade in Honduras, it continues to be pe...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/12/2513694/guiding-way-new-opportunities-copan-valley-honduras http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10397 |
| Summary: | One of the challenges of rural poverty
reduction in Latin America is to enhance non-farm economic
activity, diversify employment, and foster enterprise
activity. Although poverty has decreased over the last
decade in Honduras, it continues to be pervasive,
particularly in rural areas in the southern and western
areas, including the Copan Valley, where the devastating
economic impacts of Hurricane Mitch linger. This area
contains the Copan Park, one of the most informative and
impressive Mayan ruins in Central America with a large
quantity of excellently preserved stone sculptures and
hieroglyphic texts. This site is an important element in the
patrimony of Honduras and the Government is seeking to
preserve it for future generations, while increasing the
number of tourists to promote sustainable economic
development. During 2000-2002, a small, innovative, and
successful program was carried out in Copan with support
from the IDA-financed Profuturo Project, to help increase
employment opportunities and promote research and
dissemination of knowledge concerning the world of the Maya.
The implementation of this program provides many lessons for
development initiatives in areas of tourism growth and rural
poverty, particularly among indigenous communities. In
coordination with local initiatives and Government support,
this program has helped to foster a new perspective on the
role that parks such as Copancan play in regional and local
development, poverty reduction, and environmental management. |
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