- The Rio San Juan Wildlife Refuge in southern Nicaragua is part of the best-preserved humid forest in Central America, but illegal invasions, deforestation and mining have destroyed nearly a third of this protected area in less than 10 years, according to an NGO.
- In a report, Fundación del Río alleges the invasions are encouraged by officials linked to the country’s ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front, as well as people close to President Daniel Ortega and his wife.
- The report warns of an increase in the trafficking of mercury and cyanide, typically used in illegal gold mining, which it says endangers the rivers in the region.
- It also says the invasions are displacing the Indigenous Rama people and Afro-descendant Kriol people who have long helped preserved the wildlife refuge.
The Río San Juan Wildlife Refuge, one of the most important protected areas in Nicaragua, is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis, according to a new report. Illegal deforestation, encroachment and mining in this area on Nicaragua’s southern border with Costa Rica are accelerating the degradation of a part of the best-preserved forest in Central America.
A report by local NGO Fundación del Río says that nearly a third of the refuge’s tree cover, about 13,700 hectares (33,850 acres), has been lost in less than 10 years.
The report points to various drivers of destruction inside the protected area that have resulted in, among others, a 290% increase in fires in just one year, and a 55% increase in illegal infrastructure, including housing. It also notes the detection of illegal mining and wildlife trafficking in one of the most biodiverse areas in the region.
The refuge has been on the list of Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance since 2001 and is one of the core areas of the Río San Juan Biosphere Reserve, recognized by UNESCO. It’s also connected to the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve, an area of global importance due to its tropical forest, which partly overlaps with the territories of the Indigenous Rama people and the Afro-descendant Kriol people.
The report cites two cases in which Nicaragua’s co-presidents, Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, as well as representatives from their ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front, are involved in the illegal occupation of parts of the refuge.
Amaru Ruiz, a researcher and president of Fundación del Río, told Mongabay Latam that these environmental dynamics are impacting the territories and communities in the south of Nicaragua with the permission or oversight of the national authorities.
Land sale in the middle of the forest
The report identifies four types of invasion in the wildlife refuge since 2022. All of them allegedly involved the participation of officials and political actors from the Sandinista front to facilitate the informal sale of lands in biodiversity hotspots.
Ruiz, who lives in exile outside Nicaragua because of his environmental advocacy, said that despite legal protections that ban the invasion of land inside the refuge, “all of them have in common the complicity that allowed and supported the invasion of this territory.”
“Not only [do the authorities] break the rules. Political actors, partisans, secretaries and politicians close to the [Sandinista] front promote this action,” he said.
The report says these political actors have promoted the settlement of people close to the political movement or to former fighters, and that there are no legal documents for the distribution of land in the protected area. “The only guarantee is staying in the place so that [the lands] aren’t taken away,” the report says.
The people who settle here pay little more than $400 for approximately 35 hectares (86 acres) of forest territory, which is then logged to establish crops.
The report used satellite images and aerial photography to detect what it describes as more than 1,500 buildings inside the Río San Juan Wildlife Refuge, a 55% increase from 2017.
It attributes this infrastructure boom to a 49% increase in the human population inside the refuge. This increase has also had ramifications across the San Juan River in Costa Rica, where the refuge’s residents often go for their health care and education needs. There’s also been an associated increase in demand for natural resources for food, and in pollution in the form of liquid and solid waste, impacting local ecosystems.
The effects of land invasions are also reflected in the increase in forest fires in the refuge, the report says. It maps out what it says are occurrences of hotspots or agricultural fires that have grown dramatically since 2022. In 2024 alone, it recorded at least 90 agricultural burns in the refuge, an increase of 290% over 2023.
The documents and testimonials that Fundación del Río obtained also point to alleged oversight from the Nicaraguan army in protecting the refuge. In spite of the militarization and control of the San Juan River, which forms the border with Costa Rica, Fundación del Río says it detected settlements less than a kilometer (0.6 miles) from the guard posts.
Ruiz suggested this oversight is deliberate on the part of the army — a way of cultivating a network of informants along the border.
“We know that there is communication with the invaders’ leadership, who report to the army,” he said. “When we were in the area we realized that there’s a direct link in terms of information.”
According to Fundación del Río, an analysis of press statements issued by the armed forces between 2023 and 2024 points to an increase in illegal activities in the area, especially those linked to mining, ranching, and drug and money trafficking.
Mongabay Latam reached out to the Nicaraguan authorities for comment, including the army, about the allegations of illegal activities in the area, but didn’t receive a response by the time this story was originally published in Spanish.
Illegal mining and wildlife trafficking in the refuge
The report doesn’t give exact locations for illegal mines in the refuge, but it does document the presence of roads that connect with the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve, where illegal gold mining is known to occur.
According to the report, miners have different ways of accessing the area from the Nicaraguan side, and control gold mines on the Costa Rican side, near the San Juan River.
The report also cites indications of the illegal trade in mercury and cyanide, which are commonly used in artisanal gold mining. Their residues can be highly toxic to ecosystems and human health.
“There is a flow of illegal materials from both sides [of the border], which is the mercury and cyanide traffic,” Ruiz said. “Miners that are now in the Crucitas [gold mining area of Costa Rica] come mainly from Nicaragua. They are the ones who extract the material and have links with the gold trade.”
The report also alleges instances of hunting and wildlife trafficking, including of critically endangered species like the great green macaw (Ara ambiguus) and valuable trees like almond and cedar. It also alleges an increase in recreational fishing, an activity that targets iconic species like the Atlantic tarpon (Megalops atlanticus).
These activities are taking place amid a series of reforms pushed by the Ortega-Murillo administration that allow exploration and exploitation of natural areas across Nicaragua.
Ruiz said the degradation of the Río San Juan Wildlife Refuge could get worse with the measures approved last April, as they support activities formerly banned inside protected natural areas, especially in the territories of the Rama and Kriol peoples, who have long preserved the refuge and its ecosystems.
He added these same dynamics in the ancestral territories are being played out in the north of the country, where areas like the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve have been facing the same threats for years.
“The deforestation and deterioration process in the south started later with the same dynamics as in the north,” Ruiz said. “But there was a big difference: the south doesn’t have the violence rates we see in the north because the Indigenous population is smaller and tackles problems differently.”
The Rama and Kriol peoples have confirmed a territorial government and have ownership of almost 70% of the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve, which makes them more vulnerable to the increase of illegal activities alleged in the report.
“The Rama-Kriol have always lived in a harmonious and sustainable relationship with their surroundings and that has allowed the preservation of these ecosystems,” Ruiz said. He added that as the territory has become more accessible to outsiders, it’s also become more exposed to illegal extractive activities.
According to the report, the refuge still has almost 23,000 hectares (56,800 acres) of intact landscape, or around 51% of its tree cover, meaning biodiversity conservation is still possible. But the situation doesn’t look encouraging, Ruiz said.
“The deforestation process, at this pace, can increase the deterioration of the refuge’s ecosystems by 60%,” Ruiz said.
With the publication of its report, Fundación del Río has called on stakeholders within Nicaragua and the international community to put pressure on the government to meets its environmental commitments to protect one of the last biological refuges in the region.
Banner image: Despite deforestation, invasions and mining, 51% of the Río San Juan Wildlife Refuge remains intact. Image courtesy of Fundación del Río.
This story was first published here in Spanish on July 16, 2025.
Credits
