Good environmental management and especially the integral management of resources should be approached on the bases of interdisciplinary knowledge and information in order to elaborate diagnosis of the current state of resources which are importantto create plans to protect natural resources and convert the exploitation of ecosystem services into a direction that secures their sustainability. According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity Ecosystem Services-IPBES, 2019) “the health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.” These foundations include multiple dimensions such as water security of sufficient quality and quantity, energy security based on renewable resources, food security and the protection of biodiversity, all which contribute to a “life-supporting safety net” to sustain human life (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity Ecosystem Services-IPBES, 2019).

The global demand for water, energy and agriculture are constantly growing. The accelerated expansion of agriculture and animal husbandry into areas of intact ecosystems is a global phenomenon and the majority is observed in the tropics where habitats have the highest level of biodiversity on the planet (Vammen, 2018; Raven et al., 2020). Latin America is the region with the highest loss of biodiversity globally where an alarming decline of 94% in wildlife in the populations of mammals, birds, amphibian, reptiles and fish was observed between 1979 and 2016 [World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), 2020].

Between 1900 and 2000 the global population quadrupled but the extraction of fresh water increased by 9 times. It has been predicted that the world population will increase to over 10 billion in 2050; if this tendency continues, the extraction of water will reach unsustainable levels in 2030 (World Economic Forum Water Initiative, 2011). Water does not have substitutes nor alternative forms to produce the adequate quantity and quality of water for the future without reverting to extremely high costs of infrastructure associated with the transport, storage and desalinization of water (Inter-American Network of Academies of Sciences-IANAS, 2018). Currently agriculture represents ~3,100 billion m³ or 70% of the total extraction of water globally. According to The World Bank (2020) “due to population growth, urbanization and climate change, competition for water resources is expected to increase, with a particular impact on agriculture. Combined with the increased consumption of calories and more complex foods, it is estimated that agricultural production will need to expand by approximately 70% by 2050.” Climate change exacerbates the need for water not only in water-stressed regions but “also in regions where water resources are still abundant today” (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-UNESCO, 2020).

Nicaragua is a country in development with a great richness in natural resources including abundant water resources, biodiversity due to a large variety of ecosystems and potential for renewable energy. Nevertheless, as a country in development, it has not achieved progress in the sustainable use of these resources partly due to a large deficiency in the conditions for an adequate application of science, technology and innovation that can promote better protection and development plans for the integral management of its resources. Precisely due to these immense problems in securing economic sustainability, the country has not yet advanced in building up human and institutional capacity and needed plans to effectively take advantage of these favorable natural conditions for their own development. Of equal importance, there exists an urgent need to establish and adequate strategy of adaptation, taking into consideration its particularities in confronting the challenges of climate change expected in the future.

The purpose of this article is to examine the present state of natural resources and the environmental situation of Nicaragua in a global, regional and national context. The richness in natural resources and their ongoing deterioration will be analyzed considering the limits and deficiencies in the process of developing a sustainable resource management as one of the principal factors in its own national development. This has been limited due to economical and institutional aspects such as the generation and organization of information that can be applied to up-to-date diagnostics and failure to build sufficient institutional capacity to adequately manage the state of resources and regulatory processes in appropriate governance. Of course, this runs parallel to promoting the necessary economic resources needed to support these processes. The urgent need to initiate a process of environmental sustainability through the improved development and application of science will be stressed in order to avoid an increase in the current situation of environmental imbalance (Cornejo et al., 2020).

Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Americas by nominal GDP (International Monetary Fund-IMF, 2019). It has a population of 6.7 million inhabitants where 57% live in urban areas and 43% in rural zones. There is a surface area of 130,370 km² whereas 7.8% are lakes. The population is characterized by an uneven distribution where 51% is located in the Pacific Zone, 34% in the Central and North Zone and only 15% in the Caribbean zone (Instituto Nacional de Información de Desarrollo-INIDE, 2020). The principal productive sectors of the economy are agriculture and cattle breeding (13.7% of GDP) and manufacturing has grown to 16% in 2021. Mining activities are also increasing and have reached 2.4% GDP in 2021 (Banco Central de Nicaragua-BCN, 2021).

The country has also been evaluated by the International Water Management Institute (Seckler et al., 2007) as a country with economic scarcity of water meaning that it has sufficient renewable water resources but requires investment in infrastructure to guarantee better availability of water for the population. Since this time there has been no further evaluation of economic scarcity of water for the country but important projects in infrastructure such as the Integral Sectorial Program of Water and Human Sanitation (Programa Integral Sectorial de Agu y Saneamiento Humano-PISASH) have been carried out supported by a group of international organizations of cooperation from 2014 to present which has benefited the urban population of Nicaragua with improved access to potable water and sanitation systems. This project is managed by the National Company of Aqueducts and Sewers (ENACAL).

Central America is a unique climate region due to its geographical position and narrow isthmus shape with a highly variable topography and located between two marine areas, Pacific and Caribbean which have strong influence on its climate variability and change with the occurrence of extreme events. “It is common to classify the climate into having predominantly Pacific or Caribbean slope features” (Hidalgo, 2021). There are comparatively low levels of greenhouse emissions but the region has been categorized as vulnerable to climate change (Eckstein et al., 2021) as extreme events such as hurricanes and tropical storms have been growing in intensity (Hidalgo, 2021) and extended dry periods have been observed in the Central America Dry Corridor (Pascale et al., 2021), in Nicaragua mainly in the Pacific and Central regions.

Temperature trends are increasing constantly and have been predicted to grow even more in the future (Hidalgo, 2021). According to the last Climate Risk Index evaluation from German Watch (Eckstein et al., 2021), Nicaragua ranks as the 49th nation globally.

In Nicaragua specific institutions for the management of water resources have recently been working in cooperation in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals especially SDG 6 ensuring Water and Sanitation for all. In 2021 a special Interinstitutional and Sectorial Commission of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (COMISASH-Comisión Interinstitucional y Sectorial de Agua, Saneamiento e Higiene) was formed to work toward the Target 6.5.1 in order to implement integrated water resources management at all levels. The special Commission has recently developed a Plan of Action for the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) for 2022-2026 (Ministerio del Ambiente y los Recursos Naturales, 2022).

The Plan of Action will be executed by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA), the National Authority of Water (ANA) with cooperation of the Global Water Partnership-GWP. The aim is to promote priority actions in response to the needed integral management of water resources in Nicaragua supporting a sustainable development and protection of national natural resources, specifically related to the environmental necessities of Nicaragua.

There are also regional efforts of Central American Institutions such as the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD-Comisión Centroamericana de Ambiente y Desarrollo) part of the System of Integration of Central America (SICA-Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana). At this time there are special actions for the Integral Management of Watersheds specifically in the sub watershed of the river and delta system “el Estero Real” located in the northwestern corner of Nicaragua and which drains into the Golf of Fonseca and is shared between three Central American countries, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. This is part of the framework of the Regional Environmental Strategy known as ERAM (Estrategía Regional Ambiental Marco) for 2021 to 2025. SICA also supports regional efforts on climate change in a yearly forum on Central America Climate Applications Forum (https://www.sica.int/san/) which strengthens collaboration between countries in interchanging climate change information to develop adaptation and strategies to confront climate change.

National efforts such as plans for the Integrated Management of Watersheds have been developed in a tributary of Lago Cocibolca in the sub watershed of River Mayales by PROATAS (Program for Technical Assistance of Water and Sanitation, https://www.proatas.org.ni/) in 2014. Recently a plan of integral watershed management for the sub watershed of Río Dipilto has been elaborated and is in the process of implementation in the north central part of Nicaragua where a watershed committee has been formed and is active in executing certain activities of the plan. The latter is an interinstitutional cooperation between the Ministry of Environment (MARENA), the National Company of Aqueducts and Sewers (ENACAL), the Municipalities of Ocotal and Dipilto and the Emergency Social Investment Fund (FISE) with support from Swiss Cooperation in Central America (COSUDE).

In order to define the future orientation to sustainable development of Nicaragua, it is key to take better and more efficient advantage of the still favorable situation of natural resources and apply this strategy to build resilience to future climate change impacts. As has been stated, water resources could be an important motor for the sustainable development of the country. As this resource is a fundamental human right for the wellbeing of the population and there is no substitute, it is imperative to develop a strategy to secure its protection and conservation, adequate use, and it is an urgent priority to introduce measures of adaptation to meet the challenges of climate change based on information of water resources in all watersheds of the country.

We mention one important example which would involve the more effective use of the waters of Lake Cocibolca which has been designated in Article 97 of the General Law of National Waters-Law 620 (La Gaceta, 2007) as the natural reserve for human consumption. Also, a study of the The World Bank (2013) emphasized the importance of the lake as a source for supply of water for Nicaragua and a “hotspot of global biodiversity.” The protection of its watershed is therefore key to promote the future consumption of its waters and as a possible source of irrigation based on a balanced plan of usage grounded on reliable information. As mentioned above, presently there has been some progress in the use of its waters as a source for human consumption with the introduction of purification plants in some of the surrounding urban centers and municipalities with the parallel construction of waste water treatment plants to prevent the continuing point source contamination promoted by Project PISASH [Programa Integral Sectorial de Agua y Saneamiento Humano (PISASH y Cocibolca), 2017, 2021]. This is not sufficient as globally it is known through many studies of lakes (Thornton et al., 1999) that eliminating only point sources of contamination is not sufficient to conserve the quality of water in waterbodies for human use. Diffuse contamination from the watershed is one of the main sources of contamination of lakes and rivers resulting from erosion which brings increased sedimentation into the lake, nutrients from agriculture and cattle grazing, other contaminants bound to the sediments such as pesticides and fertilizers used in agriculture and also solid and liquid wastes in runoff from urban centers (Vammen et al., 2019). For this reason, it is key to identify sources of diffuse contamination from human activities in the watershed considering the natural conditions of soils and geology, natural drainage due to specific topography, changes in land use and demographic factors. Studies of land use (Instituto Nicaragüense de Estudios Territoriales-INETER, 2015) in the watershed of Lake Cocibolca, show that most of its sub-basins have been transformed into land for the use as pastures, as a result of progressive deforestation over time where 71% is dedicated to the use of different types of pastures, 4% to agriculture and 19.8% are remaining forests. The last monitoring study of the lake's quality was carried out in 2014 to 2016 (Chang et al., 2017) by the Research Center for Aquatic Resources (CIRA/UNAN) with the cooperation of Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research (CSRSR) of the National Central University ofTaiwán. Results indicate a trophic level of mesotrophic to eutrophic “with zones of high eutrophication located at the entrance of the Tipitapa River that connects with Lake Xolotlán” (Vammen et al., 2019) and around urban centers which now in part have treatment plants installed. In the meantime, the vulnerability of the lake is growing as “deforestation continues due to non-sustainable agriculture and extensive cattle breeding advances relentlessly over the national geography” (Vammen and Montenegro, 2020) and particularly in the watershed of this unique waterbody and potential resource for the future of Nicaragua. At this time, the integral management of the watershed of Lake Cocibolca has not been developed nor implemented to prevent the continuation of diffuse contamination from its watershed; this would involve creating watershed committees as stipulated in Chapter IV of the Law 620 (La Gaceta, 2007) per subwatershed under the direction of state institutions that have the needed capacity to lead this process. As mentioned above, there are initiatives underway in some of the 16 subwatersheds to develop plans but their implementation is still to be resolved.

The General Law of National Waters-Law 620 (La Gaceta, 2007) has clearly defined integral management of watersheds and the necessary actions needed such as generating knowledge of the country's water resources with the establishment of a National System of Information of Water Resources and water planning taking into account the necessary criteria to “guarantee the sustainable beneficial use and the integral use of the water resources of the hydrographical watersheds and aquifers as management units” (Article 16, La Gaceta, 2007). This would involve the National Authority of Water (ANA) in cooperation with corresponding municipalities with community participation, academia, civil society and all actors and active users. These goals and actions are still pending. It is now urgent to promote the elaboration of an integra management watershed program which should include action plans for each subwatershed of the lake with the objective to assure the quality of water and the corresponding definition and regulation of its uses for the future and includes “goals of social, economic and environmental utility in a sustainable manner: water for all uses and for all users.” (Vammen and Montenegro, 2020).

This example is to demonstrate that Nicaragua has the “legal tools and framework and technical previsions necessary to implement useful plans in the use and protection of its watersheds for many years” (Vammen and Montenegro, 2020).

As mentioned above one of the fundamental conditions to define an adequate strategy for water resources is the production of scientific information about the conditions and particularities of surface and groundwater resources. This information organized in the National System of Information of Water Resources stipulated in the General Law of National Waters (Articles 14g and 27e) should include transparent data over the quantities extracted by all users, the problems of contamination from all sources, agriculture, domestic waste and others. This means also the establishment of a monitoring system for water quality in these waterbodies and the improvement of a national hydrological monitoring system in all watersheds also stipulated in Law 620 in Article 101 as responsibility of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA). All these steps depend on the efficiency, economical and professional capacity of state institutions responsible for water resources supported by universities with experts in this area. This requires improvement in the formation and coordination of its professionals in interdisciplinary fields associated with water and climate and interinstitutional cooperation in the formation, use and maintenance of the system of information.

As part of the plan of integral management, it is now high priority due to progressing climate change to include a component of special management and protection of the existing forests and their gradual restauration by first reestablishing connections of fragments especially in areas where the principal aquifers of the country are present and along riparian zones associated with waterbodies suffering from processes of sedimentation; especially significant and urgent are the highly fragmented dry tropical forests of the Pacific and central region and the tropical humid forests in Caribbean territories where the majority of the indigenous and Afro-descendant communities are located. It is not enough to just reforest but it is key to develop integral plans according to the conditions of each watershed unit (Vammen and Montenegro, 2020). To achieve these strategies and plans, it is imperative to have improved institutional capacity with professionals in water, forest, natural and social sciences who cooperate with experts in the universities.

In all these, measures of adaptation to climate change, particular to the natural resources of the specific areas under concern, should be introduced with innovative methods. The environmental instability observed in the reduction of biodiversity and the accelerated extinction of species (Tórrez and Gutiérrez, 2020) is closely interlinked with measures to protect the water and forest resources. Currently there is clearly not enough information available concerning the biodiversity of terrestrial and aquatic species in Nicaragua and their corresponding ecosystem services.

In 2017, the World Bank in cooperation with the Government of Nicaragua developed a diagnosis and proposal of strategic lines with a team of interdisciplinary experts from state institutions and external experts related to the management of water in order to serve as the base for the elaboration of a National Plan for Water Resources of Nicaragua. This document was not published and the National Plan was put on hold to the present day due to the present profound political crisis creating a large national environmental, social and economic vulnerability.

Although in Nicaragua there exists a richness in natural resources especially water, the process of resource management has not been considered as a main factor in national development. This has been limited by failure to promote better management and prioritizing the necessary economic resources to secure a sustainable management. Gaps in institutional capacity to manage the state of resources, the organization of needed information of these resources, harmonic interinstitutional and international cooperation and the lack of regulatory aspects has played a roll.

An integral management of all resources should introduce measures to control the strong changes in land use, overexploitation of resources and environmental destruction through contamination due to agriculture, mining, and other industries that Nicaragua has suffered in the last decades and has made all territories more vulnerable to the effects of climate variability and change. This goes hand in hand with strategies to convert the generation of energy and transport systems to renewable resources which again needs the formation of professionals and technicians dedicated to this task.

Nicaragua is immersed in similar environmental problematic and climate change vulnerability as observed in the global context but as a developing country it also has deep educational, economic, institutional, political, and social factors which impede progress in achieving a sustainable development path. The fact that there is a richness in natural resources such as water, biodiversity, and also resources with good perspectives for conversion to renewable energy could open doors to overcome these limitations. Special emphasis on adaptation to climate change is urgent to find a strategy destined to overcome impacts on these natural resources along with measures to stop the effects of human intervention through drastic land use changes ignoring the importance of these so important strategic resources. The current environmental imbalance described above can only be met with a sustainable resource management orientated to meet the challenge.

These changes in environmental management requires a combination of urgent transformations in Nicaragua in the following:

Deterioration of natural resources through human activities, impacts of climate change, and biodiversity loss are clearly linked and integrally cause effects on human and ecosystem health. It is key to turn attention to the criteria of sustainability and reduce the extraction of resources for short term gains. As a planetary threat they require a combined response on a global level. For example, a rapid transition to wind and solar energy away from all fossil fuels reduce air contamination and slow down climate change, double benefits for planetary health (Fuller et al., 2022).

In all, it is imperative to promote an urgent change in the attitude or philosophical vision toward nature in the sense that humans are part of nature and all the degradation processes affect the population and nature, its resources and their potential to contributing in achieving a sustainable development. Corresponding to this it is urgent to introduce transformations in reducing activities of environmental impact, changes in lifestyle of the society with more attention to ecological problems especially in light of coming impacts of climate change.

Both authors are women scientists and specialists in water sciences and interdisciplinary environmental studies. Both contributed to the analysis and projection of the specific environmental situation of Nicaragua in the context of the problematic of global environmental sustainability and the need for integral management of natural resources. This is a contribution dealing with the contradiction of a developing country rich in natural resources and its urgent need for better integral management especially of water under the impacts of climate change in Nicaragua.

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

The research of KV and EP was funded by the University of Central America, Managua, Nicaragua and the Inter-American Network of Academies of Sciences (IANAS).

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.