Even with the supposedly environmental discourse maintained by the regime of the dictator Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua continues to lose its forests at an accelerated rate, and deforestation is such that the country has been placed among the 10 territories considered “least green” in the world due to the loss of its forest mass and because there are no recovery works.
The environmental magazine Medio Ambiente en Acción, from Fundación Hacer Futuro, in its most recent edition, takes up information from the database of the United Nations Fund for Food and Agriculture (FAO) that details the state of forests at world.
For the FAO, deforestation continues to set levels of concern, since the global forest area “has decreased by 3% (about 130 million hectares) in the last 25 years.” Nicaragua does not escape this negative trend, as it appears on the list of the 10 “least green” countries worldwide.
That means it is one of 10 countries in the world that have reclaimed a large portion of their forested area and make no effort to restore the damage.
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The publication details that one of the main reasons for the advance of deforestation is the need for space for crops and that places African countries like Togo, which has lost 73% of its forests, in the position of the most deforested in the world.
Then there is Nigeria (-70%) and Uganda (-56%) among the most devastated. In that order follows Honduras (-44%), Nicaragua (-31%) and El Salvador (-30%).
Uruguay is the only country in Latin America that is praised, because it has gained 131% of the forest mass and where 80% is certified.
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For Amaru Ruíz, director of the environmental organization in exile, Fundación del Río, deforestation in Nicaragua has increased from 135,000 hectares to 146,000 hectares per year, which represents a deforestation rate of approximately 2.56 percent per year.
“We have identified a process of increasing deforestation. It is the highest in Central America and one of the highest in Latin America,” said Ruíz.
