Qualla: Jeannette Kawas National Park

Jeannette Kawas National Park: Introduction

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ricky Ng-Adam, CC BY-SA 3.0. This park carries the name of a woman who was killed for defending it. On February 6, 1995, Blanca Jeannette Kawas Fernandez was shot at her home in Tela by two unidentified gunmen. She had been president of PROLANSATE, the foundation working to protect the wetlands and forests of what was then called Punta Sal National Park, and she had made enemies among those who wanted to clear the land for oil palm plantations. The Honduran government renamed the park in her honor. Years later, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found that the crime was facilitated by the intervention of state agents and was motivated by her environmental defense work. The park she died to protect covers more than 780 square kilometers of Caribbean coastline, mangrove swamps, lagoons, and tropical forest.

Image: Ricky Ng-Adam | CC BY-SA 3.0

Jeannette Kawas National Park: The Woman Behind the Name

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ricky Ng-Adam, CC BY-SA 3.0. Jeannette Kawas was of Honduran-Palestinian descent, and she dedicated herself to conservation at a time when environmental activism in Honduras could be -- and was -- a death sentence. As president of PROLANSATE (the Foundation for the Protection of Natural Resources of the regi...

Image: Ricky Ng-Adam | CC BY-SA 3.0

Jeannette Kawas National Park: Where the Jungle Meets the Sea

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ricky Ng-Adam, CC BY-SA 3.0. The park stretches along 35 kilometers of Caribbean coastline west of Tela, encompassing a landscape that shifts from white-sand beaches backed by dense jungle to mangrove swamps, freshwater lagoons, and patches of tropical forest. One large lagoon and several smaller ones sit wi...

Image: Ricky Ng-Adam | CC BY-SA 3.0

Jeannette Kawas National Park: A Census of Wings and Whiskers

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ricky Ng-Adam, CC BY-SA 3.0. More than 400 bird species have been identified within the park's boundaries, making it one of the richest birding sites in Honduras. The roll call includes the keel-billed motmot, turquoise-browed motmot, green-breasted mountain-gem, lovely cotinga, resplendent quetzal, bushy-cr...

Image: Ricky Ng-Adam | CC BY-SA 3.0

Jeannette Kawas National Park: Tropical Heat and Distant Roads

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ricky Ng-Adam, CC BY-SA 3.0. The climate is unambiguously tropical. Average temperatures hover between 34 and 36 degrees Celsius, with summer highs occasionally reaching 39 degrees. Rain falls throughout the year, and flooding can occur, particularly during the wet season when the dirt roads that serve as th...

Image: Ricky Ng-Adam | CC BY-SA 3.0

Jeannette Kawas National Park: A Legacy Measured in Mangroves

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ricky Ng-Adam, CC BY-SA 3.0. Parks are often named for geographic features -- rivers, mountains, peninsulas. This one is named for a person who was murdered for caring about it. That fact changes how you experience the place. The mangroves, the lagoons, the 400-plus bird species -- all of it exists in its cu...

Image: Ricky Ng-Adam | CC BY-SA 3.0