The historical and contemporary dynamics of Honduras core-periphery relationships both internationally and internally have had a significant impact in shaping the human and physical landscape. The topography of Honduras, limited arable land and natural resources has been a significant factor in its history and subsequent underdevelopment. The lack of development contributed to a weak state leaving Honduras particularly vulnerable to foreign exploitation and concentration of the limited arable land in the hands of both foreign owned, and elite landholders. This situation has left little land for the majority of Honduras? population, which in turn has played a role in a high level of internal rural to rural migration to marginal lands and concentration of people in these areas. The geographical representation of core-periphery relationships were fostered and reinforced through international core-periphery relationships. The internal dynamics have led to permanently altering the Honduran landscape through environmental degradation primarily deforestation. In order to tread the

Deforestation is occurring rapidly in Central Latin America at a rate of 300,000 ha a year. At this rate, the remaining forests will disappear by the middle of the next century. In the Atlantic regions of Honduras tropical forests declined to 258,700 ha from 945,200 from 1962 to 1990 (Humphries 1998: 95 and 99). Figure 9 shows the extent of tropical rainforest that has been deforested. It can be seen that Central Latin America, within the boxed area, has experienced a great loss of its forest area, what remains are ?islands? of forest cover, mostly representing protected areas.

Can Structural Adjustment Work for Women Farmers. American Agricultural Economics Association: 1991.

Anthropology, Development and the Post-modern Challenge.

The Rise and Fall of Community Development 1950-65: A Critical Assessment. John Hopkins University Press: 1994.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Northern Honduras, Economic Development, Fruit Company, Hurricane Mitch, Caribbean Pacific, Blocks Future, Barke OHare, Frontier Schneider, Rural Poor, Latin America, core-periphery relationships, northern honduras, poor farmers, united fruit, banana production, arable land, farmer participatory, international core-periphery, merrill 1993, humphries 1998, united fruit company, farmer participatory research, rural rural migration, international core-periphery relationships, human physical landscape,
Approximate Word count = 4971
Approximate Pages = 20 (250 words per page double spaced)