Draft environmental profile of Nicaragua

This report provides an overview of Nicaragua"s geography, population, and land use; details the country"s environmental resources; and discusses key environmental problems. The first section describes Nicaragua"s topography (divided into the Pacific coast, the central highlands, and the Caribbean lowlands); lakes and drainage; seismicity; and climate (divided into the wet and tropical east, the tropical wet and dry west, and the mild highlands). Next discussed are the culture and politics of the Nicaraguan people, population growth and distribution, and health and nutrition. Land use is discussed in terms of trends, farm size, crops, livestock, and pastures. Environmental resources are profiled regarding geology, minerals, and soils; water resources, both urban and rural; energy resources; vegetation, emphasizing forests; and wildlife (mammals, birds, fish) and related conservation measures. Nicaragua"s main environmental problems are identified as: (1) unbalanced resource use (i.e., exploitation of the Pacific slope while the fragile ecosystem of the Caribbean slope remains largely unpopulated and unexploited); (2) inappropriate land use (i.e., cultivation of annual crops on steep slopes causes erosion, while more fertile land is often used for cattle pasture); (3) deforestation, hastened by uncontrolled colonization and growing demand for firewood, and the absence of reforestation; and (4) environmentally related health problems (e.g., the widespread incidence of malaria and contamination of the environment by pesticides). Appended are a list of native trees, a review of the Nicaraguan Government"s environmental policies, a summary of environmentally significant A.I.D. projects in Nicaragua, a list of acronyms, and a 92-item bibliography (1909-80).