Bajo Aguán

Bajo Aguán (Lower Aguán) refers to the lower part of Honduras' Aguán River Valley, in the north-eastern Colón Department and Yoro Department; the entire valley covers 200,000 hectares.[1] The area was at one time used by banana companies, but was abandoned in the 1930s, leading to the deterioration of infrastructure and a sharp decline in population - to 68,000 inhabitants in 1961.[1] Re-colonization after 1974 saw the population reach 181,000 by 1980.[1] The region is now again a major agricultural area, and in the early 1980s was producing "the majority of the nation's pineapple, grapefruit, and coconut, and nearly half its banana output".[1] By 2011 much of the farmland was given over to oil palm plantations, including 22,000 acres (around a fifth of Bajo Aguán's agricultural land) owned by Miguel Facussé Barjum's Corporación Dinant.[2]

A 1945 novel by Ramón Amaya Amador, Prisión verde, concerns life on banana plantations in the area.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Jeffrey R. Jones, Colonization and Environment: Land Settlement Projects in Central America, The United Nations University Press, 1990
  2. ↑ The New York Times, September 15, 2011 In Honduras, Land Struggles Highlight Post-Coup Polarization

Further reading

External links