- Río San Juan Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Nicaragua has suffered a wave of deforestation in recent years, fueled by land deals that allow settlers to clear the rainforest for farming, mining and cattle ranching.
- Without government support, Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities have patrolled the forests on their own but are overwhelmed by the number of people settling in the area.
- Some residents have crossed the border into Costa Rica due to security concerns.
- Recently, the government also authorized more dredging on the San Juan River, despite losing a previous case about dredging at the International Court of Justice.
A protected wildlife refuge in Nicaragua has suffered a wave of deforestation in recent years, fueled by controversial land deals allowing settlers to clear the rainforest for farming, mining and cattle ranching.
Government officials and even some Indigenous community leaders have overseen the land deals in Río San Juan Wildlife Refuge, an ostensibly protected area in southeastern Nicaragua, resulting in deforestation and the displacement of some residents, according to receipts and other financial documents.
The documents were originally obtained by the environmental organization Fundación del Río and shared with Mongabay. They reveal a pattern of corruption and fraud that has led to an influx of human presence in one of the country’s most ecologically important areas.
“[The wildlife refuge] is facing severe ecosystem degradation, largely due to invasions that have been induced, promoted and permitted by institutional authorities, political operators and the Ortega-Murillo regime,” a Fundación del Río report said.
Río San Juan Wildlife Refuge sits on the Atlantic coast and border with Costa Rica, covering 43,000 hectares (about 106,300 acres) within the larger Río San Juan Biosphere Reserve. Its estuaries and freshwater lagoons have earned it a Ramsar site designation, an international convention protecting wetlands.
Around 22% of the wildlife refuge overlaps with Indigenous Rama and Afro-descendent Kriol territory. Nine communities occupy the area on both sides of the border, making land grabs not just a conservation concern but also a human rights violation by the government, observers said. Over the last two decades, President Daniel Ortega has looked to ancestral territory to expand gold mining while largely ignoring violence against residents and outcries from the international community.
Since 2000, around 13,760 hectares (34,000 acres) of the refuge’s forests have disappeared, with thousands of hectares burning down from agriculture. More than 1,500 buildings are now present within the wildlife refuge, according to satellite imagery analyzed by Fundación del Río. Meanwhile, illegal mining continues to spread, with criminal actors using the refuge for transport and smuggling.
Some land grabbing appears to involve local members of President Ortega’s party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which has become increasingly authoritarian since 2018, when the government started violently cracking down on dissent. Since then, the administration has faced sanctions by multiple countries for human rights violations and dismantling democratic institutions.
The FSLN didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story. The office of the president couldn’t be reached.
“The invasion of the refuge has been induced, promoted and facilitated by local political operators of the [FSLN], enabling the illegal trafficking of land in the area,” the Fundación del Río report said.
In early 2022, local FSLN politicians charged settlers from nearby communities around $400 in exchange for plots of about 35 hectares (86 acres) each inside the wildlife refuge, totaling 2,800 hectares (about 6,900 acres), according to the Fundación del Río report. FSLN officials reportedly held a ceremony to receive the new settlers, and gave a speech thanking President Ortega.
Several protected area regulations prohibit buying and selling of land within the wildlife refuge, which suggests the deals were illegal.
In another instance, transaction records show that several lawyers and a Rama and Kriol leader close to the FSLN helped sell land outside of Indigenous territory, as part of a fraudulent saneamiento program. The law outlining saneamiento, designed to relocate non-Indigenous residents while demarcating ancestral territory, doesn’t include private land sales.
Transaction records used vague language that described granting the right to use and occupy the land, rather than legally purchase it.
One bank deposit for the saneamiento program shows that 2,188 hectares (5,407 acres) were delivered for around $8,000 around 2022, with one lawyer signing at the bottom. Land that was obtained through the program was often carved up into smaller plots and then resold to other people interested in relocating, often to pursue agriculture.
Some of the buyers relocated from other parts of the country in search of a better life, one resident of an Afro-descendant community told Mongabay on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of personal persecution. Others take care of land for unknown purchasers, suggesting the latter may be wealthy investors.
“We’re talking about the ethnocide of Indigenous populations in the north and south, and an ecocide when it comes to the environment, natural resources and the common essentials necessary to live,” the resident told Mongabay. Like many people from the area, they’ve had to relocate to Costa Rica due to security concerns.
The Nicaraguan military has five posts in the refuge, due to its proximity to an international border. But soldiers have failed to intervene on land grabs and appear to even be facilitating some of them, according to Fundación del Río.
Rangers for the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Marena) are reportedly stationed with soldiers at the outposts, but only carry out patrols along the river and never venture into the forests, according to the resident. On other occasions, rangers documented environmental crimes in the refuge but didn’t follow up on them.
Marena didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.
The resident who spoke to Mongabay said they’re worried that land grabs in the wildlife refuge are only going to get worse. “I believe it’s a situation where there’s zero political will to stop the invasions,” they said.
In May, the government revised zoning regulations in protected areas to allow more economic activity in buffer zones. It also loosened restrictions on mining, logging and construction in areas where they were previously banned.
The government has also created a public agency, called Empresa Nicaragüense del Dragado del Río San Juan, tasked with dredging rivers in the wildlife refuge. It carries out sediment extraction, island clearing, and tree and weed removal, according to a law passed last year. However, satellite imagery analyzed by Fundación del Río revealed that dredging was underway before the law.
Nicaragua dredged the San Juan River in 2010, causing so much environmental damage that Costa Rica brought a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The court ultimately ruled in Costa Rica’s favor, forcing Nicaragua to restore the area.
The government clarified that current dredging must meet all environmental standards. But critics said they believe current dredging looks too similar to the work that led to the ICJ case more than a decade ago.
“The Ortega-Murillo regime is handling the dredging project with little transparency, raising serious concerns — both about potential environmental harm and about possible cross-border disputes,” the Fundación del Río report said.
Banner image: Traveling by river in the reserve. Photo courtesy of Marena.
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