desde nicaragua

always, always moving, but nothing seems to be getting done

Nothing profound today. Just a thought that occurred to me in the middle of one of the day’s dozens of tasks and errands (that I still haven’t completed after more than eight hours of non-stop action.)

There was a trip to the post office. Actually there were four. The post office is never open, or never in the same location it was the time before. On one of the fruitless trips made, I saw a woman walking with her young son. He ate candy with one hand, and flung the wrapper into the street with the other. The mother, without slowing or stopping, chided her son. “You don’t throw things into the street. There is a trash can up there. Do you see it? Don’t throw things into the street.”

The wrapper stayed where it was.

It’s pretty astonishing how thoughtlessly people litter here. When you’re on the bus, every few minutes you’ll see someone else’s hand out the window, throwing out a bottle or paper or something. Yesterday my friend Sam and I were walking through the market. I stop at a stand to buy 2 pounds of tomatoes, and I ask the lady selling if she has a trashcan so she can throw out my banana peel.

She smiles, takes it, then throws it into the street.

talking with the country´s main green man

 

      MANAGUA – Using his own money, Nicaragua’s most famous environmentalist  launched a nature conservancy fund on Wednesday – the first of its kind in the country.

      Jaime Incer Barquero, who last year was awarded a Leadership Prize in Conservation by the National Geographic Society, created the Nicaraguan Fund for Nature Conservancy with his US $25,000 prize money.

      The fund’s goal, he says, is environmental recovery, education and preservation. Projects include cleaning the contaminated waters of Lake Nicaragua, reforestation and conservation of protected areas.

      So far, the fund has about US $50,000 in its coffers, and several private businesses and individuals have promised additional donations. In fact, when I met him in his Managua office on Friday, he was preparing for a meeting with officials from a major bank about a project to decontaminate Lake Nicaragua.

      Incer – a historian, geographer and environmentalist who also heads the Nicaraguan Sustainability Development Fund – said the new fund will bring together similarly minded individuals and organizations. He aims to collect some $1 million during the next two years from within Nicaragua before seeking international donations from non-governmental organizations, businesses and individuals.

      One of the keys to attracting donations, Incer says, will be to raise public awareness here about the importance of conservation and eco-tourism.

      “Nobody is going to come here to donate money because we have a pretty country,” Incer told me. “We have to first raise our own consciousness of the social and economic benefits associated with conserving the environment. Then we can show the world some of the projects we’re working on.”

      Another hurdle the fund must overcome is a perception that Nicaragua can’t properly or ethically handle foreign donations, he said.

      “We’ve got too many examples in Nicaragua’s history of embezzling or misusing donations,” Incer said.

      In recent weeks, for example, communities in the storm-devastated Caribbean coast  are complaining that international relief aid sent to Nicaragua in the wake of Hurricane Felix is still not getting to those who need it most.

      Incer said the conservation fund will have a board of directors to provide financial oversight. On the board is Vice-President Jaime Morales Carazo, who spoke of the need to repair damages done by both humans and natural disasters at the fund´s innaugauration in Managua.

      “We need to awaken the environmental consciousness of such a fragile and vulnerable country,” said Morales, who said his administration takes the environment seriously.

      Incer said he hopes the fund will complement already existing government projects, but that issues like conservation and sustainability have never been any administration’s priority.

      “The government sees natural disasters like hurricanes as a matter of circumstance. After all, it’s just rain, it’s just rain, we always get rain and hurricanes,” Incer said. “But what government fails to realize is because of deforestation, rain water can’t filter into the ground like it’s supposed to. It causes flooding and damage, then it dries up and we have a water shortage.”

      That, he said, is what makes Nicaragua more vulnerable to natural disasters.

      “There exists an unreal concept here of how nature functions,” Incer said, pointing back to Hurricane Felix. “Now, environmentalism won’t mean simply gaining economically through conservation or reforestation. Now it’s a matter of public security, a threat to people’s lives.”

      One of the fund’s priorities is cleaning Lake Nicaragua. In August, after talks with Iranian administrators, President Daniel Ortega announced a joint project to clean the lake, which is considered the future source of drinking water for Nicaragua and possibly Central America.

      The status of the Iranian project is unclear, but Incer said he welcomes help from any government, business or individual who is willing to give it.

      “We can’t do everything we want tomorrow, even though we’d love to,” he said. “Everything depends on what kind of donations and resources we can get.”

To learn more about or donate to the Nicaraguan Fund for Nature Conservancy

Call: 505-276-2554 or 505-276-2556

E-mail: fundenic@fundenic.org.ni or jincer@fundernic.org.ni

Checks made out to Fondo Natura or wire transfers can be deposited at the following bank accounts:

Banco Uno: Fondo Natura. Cta No. 132621 11 2

Bancentro: Fondo Natura Cta No. 300206999

BDF: Fondo Natura Cta No. 103 000456 2