Nicaragua Nature Conservation, Environment Issues

Get Involved:

Nicaragua

Nicaragua, the largest country in Central America, is roughly the same size as Alabama.

(ALL RIGHTS) August 2008. Cerro Negro Volcano last erupted in the late 1990's. Located in the Cordillera de los Maribios mountain range of Nicaragua, it is the youngest volcano in Central America. Cerro Negro is made of a gravelly basaltic cinder cone, giving rise to its name, Black Hill. Photo credit: Margaret Southern/? 2008 The Nature Conservancy © Margaret Southern/2008 The Nat

At almost 50,000 square miles, Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America and is roughly the size of Alabama. Nearly one-fifth of its landmass is protected as national parks or nature reserves. Nicaragua is known as the land of lakes and volcanoes. Its three distinct geographical regions include the fertile valleys of the Pacific Lowlands; the North-Central Highlands, featuring the Amerrique Mountains; and the long-exploited Atlantic Lowlands, also called the Mosquito Coast. Climate change, flooding, earthquakes and soil erosion are primary concerns countrywide.

Around the Americas

Removing Rats to Restore Seabirds in the Aleutian Islands
Restoring Rat Island is the most ambitious island habitat restoration project ever undertaken in the Northern Hemisphere.

El Boldo
22 landowners have donated their property to create a new park in Zapallar.

Conservation Lands

Finding ways for people to live sustainably on Earth is growing more urgent every year. With the world population projected to expand from 6 to at least 9 billion people by 2050, there will be even more pressure to convert and develop natural landscapes — like forests, grasslands, deserts — to provide food, energy, transportation and housing for a growing, hungry world.

Rainforests of the World

Wild and wondrous, rainforests extend from as far as Alaska and Canada to Latin America, Asia and Africa. They nurture thousands of plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth and provide life's essentials such as our medicines, food and water.