Scientific American
Climate change and other environmental threats are destabilizing these vital areas and helping drive mass northward migration
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A cow grazes by the Punta Gorda River in the Cerro Silva Nature Reserve in Nicaragua. Credit: Wildlife Conservation Society
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Central America, and especially its Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, are front and center in the Biden administration’s foreign policy priorities. These countries face major challenges in terms of insecurity, corruption, joblessness and vulnerability to natural disasters, which collectively drive mass migration of Central Americans to the United States.
As we continue to face a refugee crisis on the U.S. southern border, it is imperative to address the destabilizing threat posed by environmental degradation in the region. In particular, climate change and illegal cattle ranching often by organized crime and narcotrafficking entities is driving forest destru
March 10, 2021
During the past few decades, many countries in Latin America have confronted the impact of systemic corruption on rule of law, business, social cohesion, and citizen security. Amid weakened institutional capacities, endemic corruption persists as a foremost challenge in the countries of the Northern Triangle Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Those three countries were ranked 101, 116, and 84 respectively among 128 countries examined in the World Justice Program’s Rule of Law Index, and they also share some of the lowest rankings on Transparency International’s 2020 Corruption Perception Index, where their respective ranks were 149, 157, and 104 out of 180 countries. In Honduras, for example, 28 percent of surveyed public service users reported paying a bribe in the last year and 54 percent of people thought corruption had increased in the same time frame. Pervasive corruption comes at a high cost, with estimates that in El Salvador alone, $1.5 billion is lost