The Rio Sanjuan

The Rio Sanjuan PASCAL 0. GIROT AND BERNARD Q. NIETSCHMANN The Geopolitics OUNDARIES ARE BEING PERCEIVED ANEW not simply as invisible and Ecopolitics of lines that divide and sometimes collide states, but as regions unto themselves, created by overlapping state societies and the Rio San Juan economies and environments, or by peoples and economies that by choice or force have not been integrated into state domains.l,2,s Transborder regions are often vola- tile because Situated between two oceans and they are the places where some 70% of the world's small wars are fought two countries in Central America, wars that produce considerable numbers of refugees and casualties and the Rio San juan is both a trans great amounts of trafficking in arms and sometimes drugs.3 At the same isthmian route and a transborder time, some border regions contain areas of considerable biological richness. region. As a corridor between the For 500 years the Rio San Juan, situated between two oceans and two Caribbean and the Pacific, the river countries, has been Central America's most militarily and politically con has attracted foreign geopolitical flictive area, which indirectly protected the river and large areas of its bina designs. As a transborder region tional watershed (Figure 1). A large part of this international watershed between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, with its distinct transboundary people and culture and intact environments the rivers watershed served the is being turned into an innovative, binational protected area called SIAPAZ. development of a distinct social and economic network that supported two recent wars. Nevertheless, sev The Rio San Juan and Watershed eral Rio Sanjuan environments remain little disturbed, especially In southern Nicaragua-at the waist of the Central American isthmus the western and eastern wetlands (Figure 2)-three geographic features occur side by side that facilitate and the tropical forest on the north both north- south and east-west transportation and have for centuries em side of the river. A large trans encouraged dreams of an interoceanic canal: an 8000-km2 freshwater border protected area-SIAPAZ lake-Lake Nicaragua is the biggest freshwater lake between Bolivia and is being developed as a joint Costa Michigan; a 20-km-wide land divide between the lake and the Pacific Rica-Nicaragua effort to conserve Ocean-the Rivas Isthmus has the lowest continental divide pass in the the largest rain forest north of the Americas; and the 200-km-long Rio SanJuan that connects the lake to the Amazon. SIAPAZ will provide Caribbean and has several hundred kilometers of tributaries, some of alternative economic opportunities which reach far into northern Costa Rica (Figure 3). for people who otherwise would be The 41600-km2 international watershed (70% in Nicaragua, 30% in felling the forest for timber and Costa Rica) is the largest in Central America. The watershed's lakes and farms. The project will test the rivers occupy a 500-km-long by 80-km-wide lowland-a rift valley strategy of protecting environments between the central mountains and western volcanic chain that extends as a principal means of promoting diagonally across southern Nicaragua and northern Costa Rica. In the peaceful development. western reaches of this watershed, annual precipitation is <1500 mm; much of the tropical dry-forest vegetation has been cleared for agriculture Figure 1. and cattle ranching. The southern watershed area drains the north-facing Aerial view of the Rio Sanjuan, 1991 . Costa Rican highlands; many sediment-laden rivers flow into Lake PASCAL 0. GIROT Nicaragua and the Rio San Juan (85% of the Rio San Juan's water and 52 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC RESEARCH&: EXPLORATION 8(1):52-63; 1992 le d fi e he he of in nd ey tds he m; are lllg NICARAGUA Ram a >'00 R,c,EscPf\v' Granada • Bluefield; Lake Nicaragua Eastern Terminus: via Rfo Deseado and • ', ----- Rfo Indio Sultan, Monkey 1929-1931; Canal Western Terminus: Pomt Study Commission , Brito Harbor ____ 4!!EI.. S~~ Miguelito 1970; Japanese all canal proposals Consortium, 1989 San juan del Sur • .""\ ' / ,.-: ~ -_ --...._ San Ca; l ~'s o-""11:0,..__ Eastern Terminu s: : '•< :----.._ / Greytown Childs, -'cuajiniquil -----.::----/ Greytown 1850-1851; Lull, .• 1872-1873· "'• I ) ---Menocal, 1B80- 1889; Isthmian CUBA Canal Commission, • 1899- 1901 MEXICO -_,./" JAMAICA • LBELIZE l> COSTA RICA • Parismina /.. , HONDURAl\__....- Caribbean Sea w • /• ./ J -~ ICARACUA 0 km 300 L____j 10 • volcano Isthmian Canal Commission, 1899- 1901 (Wa lker) railroad Chi ld s, 1850-1851 U.S . Army Corps of Engineers, 1929- 1931 (Sultan) proposed railroad 1859 Lull , 1872-1873 Canal Study Commission, 1970 road or highway Menocal, 1880-1889 Japanese Consortium, 1989 proposed "d ry canal" Ca liforni a go ld miners Figure 2 (above inset). probably 95% of its sediment load are from Costa Rican rivers) (Figure 4). Location of study area. At San Carlos the lake ends, and the river begins its 200-km serpentine course eastward through the Caribbean tropical rain forest (annual Figure 3. Routes across the land bridge. rainfall, 5000 to 6000 mm) to the delta where the main branch of the river continues as the Rio Colorado into Costa Rica to the sea. Many dif ferent environments occur in the rather small border region: freshwater lakes and rivers, freshwater wetlands, dry tropical forest, rain forest, and brackish delta wetlands. Together, these environments contain abundant and diverse wildlife unparalleled by any other area of comparable size in Latin America. Since 1812, the plan to build a transisthmus canal across Nicaragua has PASCAL 0. GIROT, professor, Department been periodically revived, most recently in 1989. But no international of Geography, University of Costa Rica; co-director, Regiones Fronterizas, canal project was ever intended to be a joint venture with a Central CSUCA, San jose, Costa Rica. American state. Meanwhile, the perennial international canal proposals discouraged other potential national projects and land-use schemes, and BERNARD Q. N!ETSCHMANN, professor, the Rio Sanjuan area remained isolated from national life and institutions Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; co-direc centered in Managua and San jose. The area evolved, instead, as a trans tor, Regiones Fronterizas, CSUCA, San border region with a binational identity, a distinct history and economy, jose, Costa Rica. and large areas of tropical forest and wetland environments. 54 RESEARCH&: EXPLORATION 8(1), 1992 The Transborder Region Figure 4. Concepcion Volcano rises from Ometepe Island in Lake Nicaragua. The island is The lowland Rio San juan watershed and waterways have been a corridor one of Nicaragua's most significant archaeological sites and was spared from for the migration and interchange of wildlife, peoples, and cultures. Its combat during the 1980s war. Unpolluted lowlands and network of navigable rivers have been used for centuries to and fish-rich, Lake Nicragua is Central connect populous western Nicaragua with the resources and trade of the America's largest body offresh water and Caribbean coast. The river fostered commerce between prosperous was a major link in the mid-19th century Granada (50 km from the Pacific Ocean) and Spain via Portobelo and trans-isthmian route. Havana in the Caribbean. Natural-resource exploitation, export trade, PASCA L 0 . GIROT transisthmian passengers and freight, contraband, and military activities dominated transport on the waterways. A series of boom-and-bust economic cycles fluctuated with market and resource availability, typical of resource frontier areas. They attracted peo ple to settle the area, especially along the rivers and in northern Costa Rica. Most came from Nicaragua via the lake and rivers, whereas few came from the Costa Rican highlands because of the lack of roads. The intro duction of steamboats on Lake Nicaragua and the Rio San juan to trans port people and goods between the eastern United States and the THE RIO SAN JUAN : GIROT & NIETSCHMANN 55 Central American Mainland D Ni caraguan Lad ino D Costa Rican Caribbean Rim -"Creole" (B lack) D Rama - Miskito - Garifuna \..... "Rim- Main Line" Morrito • Lake Nicaragua Caribbean Sea • San Carlos ........... , /.''-...-, Figure 5. 11 °00' Transborder cultures. -......_,_ / LosC hil e~,_.....-; Upala. "-2 • Sa n Rafael • Liberia • Quesada km 30 85"30' 84"30' California goldfields (1849-1866) allowed local trade to flourish. Following the 1856-1857 Filibuster War, the area's lowland tropical forest was exploited for timber and forest products, principally rubber. Northern Costa Rica was settled by Nicaraguans who worked and lived along the vast transborder fluvial network. In the 1940s, the arrival of diesel engines and outboard motors increased the amount and range of river commerce and extractive activities, much of it transborder shipment and settlement. Much of the trade, logging, and rubber tapping was run by Nicaraguan Ladinos. Northern Costa Rican towns such as Upala and Los Chiles were initially settled by Nicaraguans. By the 1950s, most of the northern Costa Rican towns were populated by Nicaraguans, and most of the resource trade network was tied to Nicaraguan towns on the lake, river, or sea. Similarly, the Caribbean rain forest of the Rio Sanjuan water shed was strongly influenced by settlement from eastern Nicaragua, prin cipally by Miskito Indians and Creoles who first came to work on extrac tive resource products (timber, animal skins, green sea turtles) and, later, in the Matina area on banana plantations and in the port of Limon. As a result, many Costa Rican coast communities, such as Limon, Matina, Parismina, Tortuguero, and Barra del Colorado, are largely populated by 56 RESEARCH & EXPLORATION 8(1), 1992 people who either identify themselves as Nicaraguan or trace their family This article helps to show roots to Nicaragua (Figures 5&6). the need of bringing a new Beginning in the 1960s, Costa Rica began to emphasize road building into the northern region to facilitate political and territorial integration by emphasis to political geo frontier-expanding agriculturalists, cattle ranchers, and loggers.

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