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BELEAGURED GARIFUNA ADD COCONUT DISEASE TO LIST OF SURVIVAL THREATS.

Article Excerpt
Lethal Yellowing Disease (LYD) has ripped through the Caribbean Coast of Central America, destroying the major species of coconut palm in its path. It is also destroying the livelihood of the much-abused Garifuna people. The Garifuna are Caribbean people culturally and historically distinct from others of African origin who populate the region. Garifuna are a people who came to the Central American Coast in 1797, having been expelled from the island of St. Vincent, landing first on Roatan, one of the Bay Islands of Honduras. They now populate the Caribbean coastal regions of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Lethal Yellowing Disease, a more recent arrival, now thrives in those same places. "The disease is uncontrollable," said Guillermo Cruz, director of the Organismo Internacional Regional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (OIRSA) in Honduras. Where it has arrived, the disease has killed 100% of the Altos del Atlantico palm, the most abundant in Honduras and the one that yields the highest quality coconut. LYD affects 34 species of coconut, but Altos del Atlantico is "the most susceptible, and [the disease] has already destroyed it; we no longer have that species," said Julio Nunez of the Direccion de Ciencia y Tecnologia Agropecuaria (DICTA). "It is impossible to avoid the dispersion of the vector because the wind carries it, and...

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