FIDER and MARENA

This information is based on "on the ground" experience of us working with FIDER and MARENA on the Geek Ranch (CoolTop) project. It is based not on what is written but how things work.

First, what are they? FIDER is Fundacion de Investigacion de Desarollo Rural, an NGO. MARENA is Ministerio del Ambiente y los Recursos Naturales de Nicaragua, an agency of the Nicaraguan government. To someone from the U.S., MARENA is part EPA and part Forest Service. Working in the Tisey reserve, we have to deal with both.

Both have offices in Estelí but FIDER has two full-time staff members located in the preserve near us. (I believe they have others as well.) To do "anything", you first have to talk to FIDER. We are, for example, chopping up wood from fallen trees. Before we start the chain saw, we talk to FIDER.

The permit process for our project is also in two stages involving both. First, we talk to FIDER about our plans. That is pretty much on an informal level. We told them about what we are going to build (how many hotel rooms, the restaurant and such). They told us/made sure we knew the regulations of the reserve. (There is a 250+ page document that describes them which we have.) Based on what we told them, we got the "ok, you can talk to MARENA" approval.

MARENA is then much more about details. We are, for example, negotiating with them over what type of waste water processing we will be doing. They also require you to spell out how you will deal with garbage, how much water you will be using, and if you are cutting any trees, you need a reforestation plan. Nothing traumatic here but it is a much more formal process.

Once we get MARENA approval of the project, we are pretty much home free. We need building permits from the Alcaldia, for example, but that is not much more than the Alcaldia having a revenue source. There are some basic requirements but, for the rural building we are doing, little if any apply.