Analysis of Nicaragua Canal Conservation and Environmental Policies

This report examines the environmental impact of the proposed Nicaragua Canal project, highlighting the potential devastation to Lake Nicaragua, rainforests, and endangered species. It analyzes two key conservation policies: restricting access to the canal corridor to protect biodiversity and the development of fisheries in the canal and connected water bodies. The report discusses the advantages and disadvantages of these policies, drawing parallels to the Panama Canal's construction. It emphasizes the need for sustainable development, considering the economic benefits of the canal against its environmental costs. The report concludes that while the canal's environmental impacts are significant, the implemented policies aim to mitigate these effects and protect the region's ecology. The report references several scholarly articles to support its findings and arguments.

Running head: NICARAGUA CANAL CONSERVATION POLICY
NICARAGUA CANAL CONSERVATION POLICY
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Introduction
The Nicaraguan canal is a canal through Nicaragua, a planned shipping route, that
connects the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, making the travel time of the ships drastically
reduced. Despite its objectives to help in the global shipping industry, shipping experts and
engineers have questioned the viability of the project. The project has been hampered
significantly due to the decline in the wealth of HKND Group, who were heading and
supervising the project (Meyer et al. 288).
The environmental effects of the canal have brought about significant debates around the
globe and environmentalists have opined that the advantages of this project would only be
known or weighed if the adverse effects of the canal can be compared against the destruction of
the Nicaraguan wildlife and forests. The government of Costa Rica has asked the same of
Nicaragua to give details about the expected environmental adversities that may be caused by the
physical development of the canal, but they have failed to do so. Lake Nicaragua would be
devastated, and so would be hundreds of thousands of hectares of rainforests (Huete-Perez et al.
355). Biospheres would be damaged and many endangered species are feared to be extinct.
Preservation policies
Amidst all of these issues, there are still few policies that try to extract and elaborate on
the benefits of the canal and also conserve the natural environment, flora and fauna of the region.

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The vast environmental adversities could only be justified by massive economic growth and
making sure that the displaced people are rightly relocated and are given compensations to match
the trauma they will experience (Condit 19). A few conservation policies are being adopted to
ensure the environmental issues are efficiently handled and the surrounding ecology can be
preserved.
Policy one: The Nicaraguan government has promised to restrict access to the canal and flank
the entire length of the corridor of the canal by flanking it, so that the environment is least
affected by human contact, and this would be guaranteeing to preserve the bid-diversity and the
rainforests as much as possible, despite the obvious human actions in the region.
This policy has been used previously by the United States military and the US Canal
Commission, which sought to protect the environment and the ecology of Panama, when the
canal was being constructed in the previous century, and started being used from 1914. The
diverse rainforest of the region was fully protected by this method, and the Nicaraguan
government seeks to follow this in the exact same manner to ensure their own country’s rich
ecology is preserved (Dowdall 43).
The biggest advantage of this is obviously the prospect of being able to preserve the
environment, ecology, rich bio-diversity, dense and lush rainforests of Nicaragua, while
promoting the economic development of the country at the same time. The country is the second

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poorest nation in the Americas and the canal project would be providing the country with much
needed infrastructure and also create a lot of jobs for the people, which would ensure financial
development.
However, the drawback of adopting this method may be the obvious time disparity. Much have
changed since the construction of the Panama Canal in terms of environmental conditions of the
planet, the requirements of the humans, the nature of the economic operations on a global scale.
This obvious fact needs to be kept in mind and hence the conservation policy needs to be
implemented accordingly (Chen et al. 89).
Policy two: the canal will be passing through the Nicaragua Lake, which is the biggest drinking
water reservoir in the region. This lake has been expected to be hit severely due to the
construction of the canal. Sewage is practically non-existent in the country and this already
constitutes for a lot of water related issues for the country. Various endangered species and
marine biology thrives in this lake, which have to be ensured protection if the canal is to promote
sustainable development of the country and the region as a whole. The lakes, rivers, and other
water bodies that feed the canal would be obligated to develop fisheries for sport and commercial
purposes (Chen, Jihong, and Xiang Liu 321). The new marine bio-diversity would be sure to
keep the waters clean themselves and the marine biology would be sustaining on its own, if
pollution can be checked by the humans and their activities.

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This method has also been used previously in the construction of dams and other water body
related structures and is supposed to be effective in Nicaragua as well.
Helping with a rich bio diversity and promoting the existence of many endangered species would
be the most advantageous aspect of the policy, while successfully maintaining the fisheries
would be the greatest challenge for the project and the stakeholders involved.
Conclusion
It is a fact that the environmental impacts of the canal would be significant and mostly
negative. However, policies are being adopted and implemented so that the ecology of the canal
is protected as much as possible and the two above mentioned policies are anticipated to
contribute in positive terms to the cause of the environmental protection of the country and the
canal.

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References
Chen, Jihong, and Xiang Liu. "Transport: Nicaragua Canal may not benefit
shipping." Nature 533.7603 (2016): 321-321.
Chen, Jihong, Xin Zeng, and Yibing Deng. "Environmental pollution and shipping feasibility of
the Nicaragua Canal." Marine pollution bulletin 113.1 (2016): 87-93.
Condit, Richard. "Extracting environmental benefits from a new canal in Nicaragua: lessons
from Panama." PLoS biology13.7 (2015): e1002208.
Dowdall, Torresâ. "imperiled fish fauna in the Nicaragua Canal zone." Conservation
biology (2017).
Huete-Perez, Jorge A., Axel Meyer, and Pedro J. Alvarez. "Rethink the Nicaragua
canal." Science 347.6220 (2015): 355-355.
Meyer, Axel, and Jorge A. Huete-Pérez. "Nicaragua Canal could wreak environmental
ruin." Nature 506.7488 (2014): 287-289.