CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF NORTHEASTERN NICARGUA


(Project NI0851)

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ortheastern Nicaragua harbours one of the largest lowland tropical and pine forest remnants in Nicaragua, and the largest and richest shallow water habitat in Central America and the Caribbean. The region's Miskito Coast is one of the most biologically diverse in tropical America. Fringed by mangrove forests, coastal lagoons, coral reefs, and seagrass pastures, it shelters a wide range of fresh and salt-water fish, large numbers of green and hawksbill turtles, as well as endangered species such as the manatee, crocodiles, and caymans.

For centuries, Miskito communities have lived along the coastline, harvesting fish and turtles for their own consumption, but also for sale. Today, the Miskitos have inherited the terrible legacy of five decades of political disenfranchisement and ten years of violent conflict along the coast. The natural resource-base is threatened, the local economy is ruined, and Miskito community life is impoverished. Marine resources have been plundered by outsiders.

Local schemes to strip-mine the sea have severely threatened natural resources on which the Miskitos depend. In other areas, illegal logging and international forestry concessions, land tenure issues, and the resettlement of refugees pose additional threats.

WWF was closely involved in setting up the Miskito Cays Protected Area a 1.3 million hectare area of coastline, lagoons, bays, and cays. WWF also supported the establishment of a community-based conservation NGO, MIKUPIA (an acronym for Miskito Heart). With funding from the MacArthur Foundation, WWF is helping community-based sustainable economic development activity inside the protected area. This includes small-scale ecotourism and local facilities for processing and marketing fish. At the national level, WWF has helped the government evaluate forest policy and regulatory mechanisms to deal with illegal logging and international concessions.

Forestry is both an opportunity and a threat to conservation efforts in Northeastern Nicaragua, a region which includes the largest continuous tract of tropical rainforest in Central America. Working closely with the Forestry Department, WWF has helped develop new policies to manage the area. WWF has also collaborated with a university in the United States to establish, for the first time, a contractual agreement between the government, the Sumo community of Awas Tingni and a foreign logging company. The contract recognizes the rights of the community and their role as forest stewards, lays down clear procedures for executing a forest management plan, and establishes a mechanism for conflict resolution. If successful, this arrangement could eventually replace the old concession system which takes no account of environmental protection or social equity.




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Copyright 1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature