Natural Resources
by Tyler Tibbs

Nicaragua's natural resources are unprotected,
often mismanaged and underdeveloped.
Nicaragua has extensive forests, vast fisheries, copper
and other mines and enormous fresh water lakes.

Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America.
It's great forests are quickly disapearing due to the
large scale clearing for agricultural use. Today, there
is probably less than one fifth of the approximately
4 million hectares that is still forested. Most of the
forests consist of the tropical rain forests of the
Carribean lowlands. Illegal logging of mahogany,
cedar, rosewood is the norm. The northern pine
forests also are being cut at an alaming rate.
Investments to bring more sustainable
management techniques are flooding in from
thoughout the world.

Nicaragua has many different fisheries. The Pacific,
Atlantic and lake fisheries are all victims of extreme
mismanagment thoughout the 1970s and 80s.
Stocks of shrimp and lobster hit all time lows in the
1980's and the demand for shark fin almost
eliminated the fresh water shark from Lake
Nicaragua. The 1990's saw a surge in fishery
exports and the government hopes that fishing
continues to provide significant earning in the
years to come.

The enormous supply of fesh water in Nicaragua
has been seen by many outside Nicaragua as
a future gold mine. Nicaragua's ability to maintain
non-polluted waterways will be vital in securing
this resource for future sustainable management.