Nicaragua contains 7% of global biodiversity and encompasses 60% of Central America’s ecosystem types (1). In recent decades, corruption, crime, and government negligence have threatened the country’s biodiversity, especially in areas such as the Bosawás Reserve, the second largest tropical forest in the Americas, and the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve, the second largest forest in Nicaragua (2), both protected areas that shelter endemic and threatened species (3). In 2019, Nicaragua signed the Escazú Agreement, a transnational pact pledging public participation and access to information to ensure environmental justice in Latin America and the Caribbean (4). However, the Nicaraguan government’s prioritization of mining activities, at the expense of the environment and Indigenous peoples, undermines the agreement.
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