Biocultural Design” As a Framework to Identify Sustainability Issues in Río San Juan Biosphere Reserve and the Fortress of the Immaculate Conception, Nicaragua
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“Biocultural design” as a framework to identify sustainability issues in Río San Juan Biosphere Reserve and the Fortress of the immaculate Conception, Nicaragua Claudia Múnera-Roldán Final Report for the UNESCO MaB Young Scientists Awards 2013-2014 “Biocultural design” as a framework to identify sustainability issues in Río San Juan Biosphere Reserve and the Fortress of the immaculate Conception, Nicaragua Claudia Múnera-Roldán Final Report for the UNESCO MaB Young Scientists Awards 2013-2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents .............................................................................................................................................. 2 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................................. 4 List of Acronyms ................................................................................................................................................ 5 Executive summary............................................................................................................................................ 6 1. Introduction: Site identification and context analysis .................................................................................. 8 1.1 Site description ............................................................................................................................................ 8 1.2. Context and background ............................................................................................................................ 9 Social and economic context ............................................................................................................................. 9 Cultural context ............................................................................................................................................... 11 Environmental context .................................................................................................................................... 11 Historic context ............................................................................................................................................... 12 Recent history .................................................................................................................................................. 14 1.3. Summary of qualities characterizing the site ........................................................................................... 16 1.4. Present management ............................................................................................................................... 17 2. Project description ...................................................................................................................................... 18 2.1. General objective...................................................................................................................................... 18 2.2. Strategies and priorities ........................................................................................................................... 18 2.3. Biocultural Heritage .................................................................................................................................. 18 3. Methodology ............................................................................................................................................... 20 3.1. Literature review ...................................................................................................................................... 20 3.2. Interviews and surveys ............................................................................................................................. 21 4. Results and discussion ................................................................................................................................. 23 4.1. Online survey ............................................................................................................................................ 23 4.2. Field interviews ......................................................................................................................................... 26 Current Livelihoods.......................................................................................................................................... 28 Fishing .............................................................................................................................................................. 32 Tourism ............................................................................................................................................................ 42 Agriculture: Cocoa crops ................................................................................................................................. 45 2 Handicrafts ...................................................................................................................................................... 47 5. Recommendations ....................................................................................................................................... 53 Framework of Management plan and nomination of WHS ............................................................................ 55 Capacity building ............................................................................................................................................. 56 Participation .................................................................................................................................................... 56 Economic development ................................................................................................................................... 57 Proposed solutions .......................................................................................................................................... 57 6. Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................. 63 7. Bibliographic and documentary references ................................................................................................ 65 8. Photograhic annex (electronic) ................................................................................................................... 68 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The first part for this project was done as part of the Master in World Heritage and Cultural Projects for Development, and I would like to extend my gratitude to my tutors Alessio Re and Aldo Buzzio, The Scientific Committee as well as to the Secretary of the Master Ms. Cristina Leonetti for all the help provided. To Professor Giangiacomo Bravo (Universitá di Torino) for his help and comments regarding the Commons approach for my project and also to all my classmates for their support and for making the experience a more valuable one. The collaboration from the Nicaraguan UNESCO Commission was very important, especially the support from Claudia Valle. A special acknowledgement to the members of the local communities in Rio San Juan with whom I had the opportunity to dialogue about the project, especially to Alfonso Tapia, Seyla Obregon, and all of them that help with the interviews and surveys; although some names will remain anonymous, my deep gratitude will be with them*. Thanks to all the personnel from Ministry of Environment (MARENA) in Managua and the regional MARENA office in San Carlos. A special recognition to Dr. Julian Idrobo (University of Manitoba) for his comments, and to Dr. Anja Nygren (University of Helsinky) for her valuable comments and for sharing with me ideas and documents about interpretation of local knowledge. I also extend my gratitude also to Dr. M. Bell from The Nature Conservancy - Oceans Program Director, for his comments via email on specific questions regarding communitarian fisheries management. I want to recognize the financial support given by The Joke Waller-Hunter Initiative for Young Environmentalists for the grant awarded to me to attend the Master, and to Brian Czech (Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy) for his support to the nomination to the grant and last but not least to the MaB Young Scientists Award for this opportunity. Field work for this work was made thanks to the financial support by UNESCO MaB for Young Scientists Awards and I also received support with equipments donated by Idea Wild. *NOTE: I receive invaluable information and comments from local communities and from all the people that I interviewed in person or via email/skype; however I want to state that I remain as the only responsible for any errors or misinterpretation of the information presented here. 4 LIST OF ACRONYMS AECID - Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo FUNDAR – Fundación Amigos del Río San Juan IBA – Important Bird Area INPESCA – Nicaraguan Fishing and Aquaculture Institute INTUR – Nicaraguan Tourism Board IUCN – International Union for the Conservation of Nature MaB – Man and Biosphere Reserves Programme MARENA – Nicaraguan Ministry of Environment NGO – Non Governmental Organizations OEA – Organization of American States RAMSAR – Ramsar Convention on Wetlands UNESCO –United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization TTOO – Tour Operators WHS – World Heritage Site 5 “BIOCULTURAL DESIGN”