Saving Bosawás - a daunting but urgent task

In early January President Daniel Ortega instructed the Attorney General's Office to make full use of the measures contemplated in national legislation in an attempt to ensure the defence of the nation's Biosphere Reserves - Bosawás and Indio Maz. Ortega also instructed the Nicaraguan Army to create an Environmental Battallion, made up of soldiers specially trained in environmental protection, with the fundamental purpose of protecting the nation's reserves from illicit resource trafficking, and a specific responsibility regarding the protection of the two Biosphere reserves.

By the end of January the Environmental Ombudsman, Jose Luis Garcia, had overseen the arrest and conviction of 27 individuals who have since been found guilty of coordinating the illegal posession and sale of land in Bosawás and of violating relevant environmental legislation. Currently these 27 individuals are awaiting sentence.

These government actions, which make up part of a new hardline policy after years of ineffective and counteractive government policies regarding Bosawás, come just two months after a group of representatives of the Mayagna People travelled to Managua in December to express their utmost concern about the effect illicit resource trafficking is having on Bosawás' ecosystem.

According to the Mayagna People hundreds of meztizo farmers (farmers from the Pacific side of Nicaragua), who have acquired land within Bosawás illegally, along with the land and resource traffickers responsible for those illegal landsales, are protagonizing a rapid expansion within Bosawás which threatens to provoke irrevocable damage to the reserve's ecosystem.

The Mayagna People are an indigenous people with a population of over 50,000 who have inhabited large parts of the area today referred to as Bosawás for thousands of years and who were recently awarded land titles corresponding to a large stretch of the Biosphere reserve. Bosawás, which represents 15.25% of Nicaragua's national territory, is also home to approximately 100,000 members of the Miskito People.

The Bosawás Reserve, which was declared Patrimony of Humanity by UNESCO in 1997, is the most extensive unaltered rain forest ecosystem in Central America.

In January a number of environmental experts together with a commission of public officials travelled to the reserve to verify the Mayagna People's recent claims, concluding that, indeed, Bosawas' ecosystem is under considerable threat as a result of extensive illicit land and resource trafficking.

Of course, this conclusion is nothing new - local people and environmentalists have been warning for years that timber felling and the advancing agricultural frontier (mainly for cattle ranching) represent grave threats to Bosawás. What has come as a shock to many is the extent to which the reserve has already been damaged by this type of activity.

Independent environmentalist Kamilo Lara is concerned about the fact that, as the government-led delegation recently verified, resource trafficking activity is rapidly encroaching, not only on the buffer zone, but also on areas of virgin rain forest. Lara believes that up of 60% (or around 11,000 of the reserve's 19,896 square km) of the reserve is affected to some extent by the traffickers' ongoing destruction. "At this rate, " he says, "within ten years, Bosawás will be history." (1)

The situation is complex and potentially explosive. According to official estimates there are now tens of thousands of mestizo farming families living within the boundaries of Bosawás who purchased the land as part of what they initially believed to be above-board transactions. Now, as a result of recent government actions, these farming families have discovered that their property titles are invalid and that, potentially, they could be evicted.

The majority of the farming families are peasant farmers who, unlike the minority of richer colonists who engage in large-scale cattle ranching and intensive farming techniques, are unlikely to have the capacity to contribute much to the wider destruction of the reserve's ecosystem .

So far it is not clear to what extent the government's announced hardline policy will differentiate between these different categories of illegal Bosawás inhabitants, although at the beginning of the month Environmental Ombudsman Jose Luis Garcia announced the imminent departure of an Attorney General led commission accompanied by several members of the Nicaraguan Army to Bosawás to commence the eviction of a number of illegal inhabitants who have not complied with previous orders to leave certain properties.

According to renowned Nicaraguan geographer and biologist Jaime Incer Barquero (who is currently an environmental adviser to President Ortega) another complicating factor is the complicity between resource traffickers and a number of local government representatives. Incer confirms that much of the essentially illegal activity in Bosawás is carried out with permission from local government authorities.

To exemplify the extent of the rapprochement between local authorities and traffickers, Incer mentioned what are as yet unconfirmed plans by the Siuna local government to authorize the construction of a road from the town (situated just outside Bosawás) to the very heart of the reserve's virgen rain forest expanse with the inevitable objective of facilitating further timber felling activity. Should the existence of such a plan be confirmed, said Incer, "then, of course, the situation would have to be rectified."

Cirilo Otero, President of the Center of Environmental Policy Initiatives (CIPA), does not believe that the government's announced hardline policy is likely to work. "Intimidation has never managed to detain environmental destruction before. ... What is necessary are strong institutions, financial resources to provide campesino farmers with alternatives ... and lots of environmental education." (2)

Brooklyn Rivera, leader of the Miskito political organization YATAMA, meanwhile, is pessimistic about the army's capacity to effectively stall resource trafficking given the precedents he claims exist of army officials accepting bribes to turn a blind eye to illegal timber felling activity. (3) These claims are denied by Omar Halleslevens, head of the Nicaraguan Army.

Jaime Incer Barquero, however, says he approves of the government's plans to implement a policy involving army presence and patrols in Bosawás. This sort of policy "is necessary because other measures have been tried and have failed. ... State presence is necessary in the most vulnerable points of the reserve" in order to detect and detain timber felling and other illegal activities.

Incer feels confident that, after twenty years of failed government policies, and thirteen years of wasted international funding provided to protect Bosawás since 1997 when it was declared a biosphere, the Nicaraguan government is now actually beginning to take steps in the right direction regarding the defence of Bosawás.

"Previous governments," he said, "presented wonderful plans, they did great presentations, ... but nothing was actually done on the ground to protect Bosawás from invaders. There was no effective State presence. They didn't bother to take into account what the local people were saying. Over the years there has been a lot of funding for the protection of Bosawás, but [the policies implemented] haven't worked."

Many journalists believe there are powerful political and economic interests which would be seriously disadvantaged should an effective hardline policy against resource trafficking in Bosawás be applied. According to Incer a certain level of complicity between local authorities and resource traffickers can be taken for granted.

Should links exist between traffickers and political or economic movers and shakers at national or even international level, however, something which is by no means out of the question, then the situation may well become impossible for the government to deal with.

Netan Mordy, a member of the Mayagna People's governing organization, believes the Environmental Ombudsman's sudden decision to suspend the planned trip to evict a number of illegal inhabitants can be put down to threats of an armed uprising by the meztizo farmers affected, who, Mordy and his colleagues believe, respond to interests much greater than their own. Interests, he claims, that are intertwined with representatives both of the PLC and FSLN. (4)

In Guatemala and El Salvador a number of individuals committed to the defence of natural resources and biodiversity have been murdered over the last few months after their struggle came too close to stepping on the toes of the rich and powerful. It is wIth that regional context in mind, that observers should analyze the coming struggle of the State against the structures of such a lucrative illicit trade in Nicaragua.

Notes
1. http://ipsnoticias.net/wap/news.asp?idnews=94531
2. ibid.
3. ibid.
3. http://impreso.elnuevodiario.com.ni/2010/02/04/nacionales/118495

Karla writes for www.tortillaconsal.com

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