Nicaraguan Island Declared World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO

    WASHINGTON, DC, June 06, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Ometepe Island, located in Lake Nicaragua, recently became Nicaragua's third place in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The nomination was approved unanimously by the 22nd Session of the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.

Ometepe, composed of two volcanoes (Madera and Concepcion), is considered the largest island in the world located within a freshwater lake. According to the UNESCO, the island has plenty of pre-Columbian archaeological ruins, petroglyphs, statues and ceramics that show the antiquity of human settlement on its soil.

The island is surrounded by Lake Nicaragua, an important source of freshwater supply hosting numerous underwater species, such as sawfish and freshwater sharks.

With this classification, Ometepe Island will have access to funding and technical assistance from the UNESCO, and will become a world example of how human beings can live in harmony with nature and generate economic development without creating a negative impact on the environment.

With the addition of Ometepe Island, Nicaragua now contains three sites within the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The first, granted in 1997, was the Bosawas, the largest unaltered tropical forest in Central America, with approximately 800,000 hectares covering 14 percent of the country and has been, throughout history, the living space of the ethnic communities of the Mayangnas and Miskitos.

Subsequently, in 2003, the UNESCO included the San Juan River reserve in southeastern Nicaragua, a region that concentrates a high amount of biodiversity in rain forests, important areas of forest development and sources of surface and subterranean water.

Biosphere reserves are sites recognized under the UNESCO's MAB Program, which innovate and demonstrate approaches to conservation and sustainable development. They are under national sovereign jurisdiction, and share their experience and ideas nationally, regionally and internationally within the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. There are 564 sites worldwide in 109 countries.

MAB proposes an interdisciplinary research agenda and capacity building aiming to improve the relationship of people with their environment globally. Launched in the early 1970s, it targets the ecological, social and economic dimensions of biodiversity loss. It uses its World Network of Biosphere Reserves as vehicles for knowledge-sharing, research and monitoring, education and training, and participatory decision-making.

PRONicaragua is the Nicaraguan Investment Promotion Agency, established in 2002. It is a non-profit, public-private institution whose mission is to generate economic growth and job creation in Nicaragua by attracting high-quality foreign direct investment. The agency provides complimentary support services to qualified investors seeking investment opportunities in our country. For further information, please contact us at (505) 2270-6400 or http://pronicaragua.org.

# # #