CENTRAL AMERICA

Environmental Policies in Central America

Environmental Policies in Central America

Introduction

Central American countries means, the countries formed by Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama; collectively cover an area of ??523,000 km2 (Arnold & Norton, 2010). The situation in Central America, a bridge between North and South America, provides the region with special characteristics from the environmental point of view. The special geographical situation of Central America; its configuration as a long narrow area between two oceans, traversed longitudinally by a ridge with numerous valleys and watersheds, resulting in a variety of climates and configurations that support a rich biodiversity, but also make it particularly vulnerable to the effects of various natural phenomena (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, tsunamis, etc.).

Central America Is an Area of Enormous Biodiversity

In, the narrow strip of land that set the Central American isthmus 21 ecoregions has been identified by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). An idea of ??the diversity that is home to the region can take the fact that only 523,000 km2 are about 20,000 species of plants, as many as in the United States whose surface is 20 times greater than that of Central America (Yount, 2000). In the ranking of the most important places for biodiversity on the planet that produced the WWF, called "hotspots" of biodiversity, the Mesoamerican region is one of 25 "hotspots". It is estimated that the region, representing only 0.5% of the world's land, can contain between 7 and 10% of global biodiversity (World Bank, 2008). This confers a highly strategic area at the time to concentrate on technical and financial efforts that contribute to the promotion of sustainable development models consistent with the conservation of natural heritage of global significance.

If surprised by the number of plants and animals, levels of endemism are also remarkable, which makes the region a valuable showcase for the history of life on our planet. This mega results from a combination of factors of various kinds ranging from the natural history associated with the geography and climate of different areas to human settlement patterns followed throughout the centuries, the demographic trends, production models, the use of natural resources, etc.

Conserving biodiversity is a regional task for which, unfortunately, the skills and resources available vary widely by country. The limited budget allocated for this purpose result in a significant shortage of personnel to perform the tasks of control and management of protected areas. To overcome these shortcomings, in part, are gaining strength mechanisms to manage these areas based on co-administration or co-management arrangements of the same signed between the government and private organizations of various kinds. Another limitation faced by the management of protected areas from a regional perspective, the complexity and dispersion of the national legislation applicable in each case and the variety of institutional competence in this area (Norton & Lacy, 2007). This limits the coordination, planning and management of natural and ecoregions which transcend national boundaries.

Central America is a region with abundant water resources and high rainfall, ...