THE HONDURAN FLORA

Cusuco National Park (CNP), at 15o32'31"N and 88o15'49"W is located in the Departmentos Santa Barbara and Cortes in NW Honduras in close proximity to the border with Guatemala. The park was established in 1959 and is currently designated as a National Park under Decr. 87-87 and the IUCN category II. Cusuco’s vegetation consists of semi-arid and moist tropical mountain pine forest dominated by Pinus maximinoi H.E. Moore and Pinus tecunumanii F. Schwerdtf. ex Eguiluz & J.P. Perry, and moist broadleaved forest, with dwarf forest at higher elevations. The topography of CNP is mountainous with a minimum elevation of 600 m asl. and a maximum elevation of 2242m asl. within the core-zone boundary. The Park has one visitor centre (Base Camp;  the villages St. Tomas and Buenos Aires and four camping sites (Cantiles, Cortecito, Danto and Guanales - see map below).