Nicaragua
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Nicaragua is a Central American nation located between Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. Its eastern coast fronts the Caribbean Sea while its western coast fronts the Pacific Ocean.
Its main environmental issues include deforestation; soil erosion; and water pollution. It is also susceptible to hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides.
The Pacific coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish colony from Panama in the early 16th century. Independence from Spain was declared in 1821 and the country became an independent republic in 1838. Britain occupied the Caribbean Coast in the first half of the 19th century, but gradually ceded control of the region in subsequent decades. Violent opposition to governmental manipulation and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas to power in 1979. Free elections in 1990, 1996, and 2001, saw the Sandinistas defeated, but voting in 2006 announced the return of former Sandinista President Daniel Ortega Saavedra. Nicaragua's infrastructure and economy - hard hit by the earlier civil war and by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 - are slowly being rebuilt.
Geography
Location: Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras
Geographic Coordinates: 13 00 N, 85 00 W
Area: 129,494 sq km (120,254 sq km land and 9,240 sq km water)
arable land: 14.81%
permanent crops: 1.82%
other: 83.37% (2005)
Coastline: 910 km
Maritime Claims: Territorial sea to 12 nautical miles; a contiguous zone to 24 nautical miles; and continental shelf to natural prolongation
Terrain: Extensive Atlantic coastal plains rising to central interior mountains; narrow Pacific coastal plain interrupted by volcanoes
Climate: Tropical in lowlands, cooler in highlands
Capital: Managua
Ecology and Biodiversity
Rainforest in Nicaragua covers more than 20,000 km2, particularly on the Atlantic lowlands. Nicaragua has six terrestrial ecoregions:
- Central American dry forests
- Central American pine-oak forests
- Central American montane forests
- Costa Rican seasonal moist forests
- Isthmian-Pacific moist forests
- Isthmian-Atlantic moist forests
And three coastal ecoregions:
- Mosquitia-Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast mangroves
- Rio Negro-Rio San Sun mangroves
- Southern Dry Pacific Coast mangroves
All of Nicaragua is included in the Mesoamerica Biodiversity Hotspot.
Protected Areas
In the north are the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve and to the south is the Indio Maiz Biological Reserve, which protects 2,500 km² of the Atlantic Rainforest. These two areas are very rich in biodiversity. There are 5 species of felines, including jaguar and cougar; 3 species of primates, spider monkey, howler monkey and capuchin monkey; 1 species of tapir, called Danto by the Nicaraguans; 3 species of anteaters and many more.
International Environmental Agreements
Nicaragua is party to international agreements on Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, and Whaling.
People and Society
Population: 5,891,199 (July 2009 est.)
Age Structure:
0-14 years: 33.8% (male 1,013,866/female 976,430)
15-64 years: 62.9% (male 1,847,756/female 1,857,264)
65 years and over: 3.3% (male 85,782/female 110,101) (2009 est.)
Population Growth Rate: 1.784% (2009 est.)
Birthrate: 23.7 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Death Rate: 4.33 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Life Expectancy at Birth: 71.5 years
Total Fertility Rate: 2.57 children born/woman (2009 est.)
Languages: Spanish 97.5% (official), Miskito 1.7%, other 0.8% (1995 census) (note: English and indigenous languages on Atlantic coast)
Literacy: 67.5%
Economy
Nicaragua has widespread underemployment and the second lowest per capita income in the Western Hemisphere. The US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) has been in effect since April 2006 and has expanded export opportunities for many agricultural and manufactured goods. Textiles and apparel account for nearly 60% of Nicaragua's exports, but recent increases in the minimum wage will likely erode its comparative advantage in this industry. Nicaragua relies on international economic assistance to meet internal- and external-debt financing obligations. In early 2004, Nicaragua secured some $4.5 billion in foreign debt reduction under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, and in October 2007, the IMF approved a new poverty reduction and growth facility (PRGF) program that should create some fiscal space for social spending and investment. The continuity of a relationship with the IMF helps support donor confidence, despite private sector concerns surrounding ORTEGA, which has dampened investment. Economic growth will slow in 2009, due to decreased export demand from the US and Central American markets, lower commodity prices for key agricultural exports, and low remittance growth - remittances account for almost 15% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
GDP: (Purchasing Power Parity): $16.83 billion (2008 est.)
GDP: (Official Exchange Rate): $6.561 billion (2008 est.)
GDP-real growth rate: 2% (2008 est.)
GDP- per capita (PPP): $2,900 (2008 est.)
GDP- composition by sector:
agriculture: 17%
industry: 26.1%
services: 56.9% (2008 est.)
Industries: food processing, chemicals, machinery and metal products, textiles, clothing, petroleum refining and distribution, beverages, footwear, wood
Natural Resources: gold, silver, copper, tungsten, lead, zinc, timber, fish
Currency: Cordobas (NIO)
Further Reading
Return to Nicaragua's country profile
Return to the Latin America and the Caribbean Collection