Lempira Department
Honduras's poorest department where 450,000+ Lenca indigenous people practice traditional agroforestry and shade-grown coffee cultivation.
Lempira is the Honduras that development organizations study—the poorest department in Central America's third-poorest nation, where indigenous Lenca communities maintain traditional agriculture on mountainous terrain that resists mechanization and market integration. In 1992, 85% of the population lived in poverty and malnutrition was widespread; three decades later, conditions have improved but the structural challenges remain.
The Lenca people—numbering over 450,000 across Honduras—have their cultural heartland in Lempira's remote valleys. Their warrior chief Lempira led decade-long resistance against Spanish conquest; today's resistance is economic, with communities maintaining agroforestry systems called Quesungual that shade-grow coffee beneath pruned timber and fruit trees. This indigenous technology reduces soil erosion by 93% compared to slash-and-burn, while providing multiple income streams across harvest seasons.
Coffee has become the primary cash crop, with all-female growers' cooperatives like Cosagual demonstrating that organic cultivation can provide dignified income in communities historically excluded from formal economies. The FAO's Lempira Sur project, launched in 1988, helped revive traditional agricultural techniques while introducing food security interventions that reduced the most acute hunger.
Yet 612 Lenca communities remain scattered across mountainous terrain that lacks roads, running water, or connection to markets where their products could command premium prices. By 2026, expect continued cooperative development, specialty coffee market penetration, and gradual infrastructure improvement—but the geographic constraints that have defined Lempira's isolation will persist.