Nicaragua petitions that the Golf of Fonseca be declared Biosphere Reserve

Mar. 12, 2012 - Nicaragua is currently in the process of petitioning that the Golf of Fonseca, located in the northwest border of the country, be declared a Trinational Bioshpere Reserve. Government representatives, environmental organizations, the navy and nearby municipalities, among other institutions, signed the petition sent to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Local authorities are coordinating efforts along with Honduras and El Salvador, which also border the Golf of Fonseca, to have the natural formation declared a biosphere before the end of 2012. Juana Argeñal, head of the Nicaraguan Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA, for its acronym in Spanish), said that the gulf’s ecosystems still must be mapped out, and that UNESCO representatives, based in Paris, will be conducting an on-site evaluation as part of the process.

Currently, Nicaragua has three sites within the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The first, granted in 1997, was Bosawas, the largest unaltered tropical forest in Central America, with approximately 800,000 hectares covering 14 percent of the country and has been, throughout history, the home of the ethnic communities Mayangnas and Miskitos.

Subsequently, in 2003, the organization included the San Juan River reserve in southeastern Nicaragua, a region that concentrates a high amount of biodiversity in rainforests, important areas of forest development and sources of surface and subterranean water.
Lastly, in 2010, Ometepe Island, composed of two volcanoes (Maderas and Concepcion) and considered the largest island in the world located within a freshwater lake, joined the list. According to UNESCO, the island has plenty of pre-Columbian archaeological ruins, petroglyphs, statues and ceramics that show the antiquity of human settlement on its soil.

Biosphere reserves are sites recognized under the UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Program, which innovate and demonstrate approaches to conservation and sustainable development. They are under national sovereign jurisdiction, and share their experience and ideas nationally, regionally and internationally within the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. There are 564 sites worldwide in 109 countries.

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