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Conservation: Nicaragua Canal could wreak environmental ruin

Nature volume 506, pages 287–289 (2014)Cite this article

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Plans for a 300-kilometre waterway joining the Pacific and Atlantic oceans need independent environmental assessment, urge Axel Meyer and Jorge A. Huete-Pérez.

Last June, the Nicaraguan government granted a concession to a Hong Kong company to build a canal connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, through the Caribbean Sea. The HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company (operating as HKND Group) signed a 50-year lease, renewable for another 50 years. It plans to break ground in December after spending this year establishing a route and conducting feasibility studies. Included in the concession are the rights to build and operate industrial centres, airports, a rail system and oil pipelines, as well as land expropriation and the rights to natural resources found along the canal route.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Axel Meyer is professor of zoology and evolutionary biology at the University of Konstanz, Germany.,

    Axel Meyer

  2. Jorge A. Huete-Pérez is director of the Centre for Molecular Biology at the Universidad Centroamericana, Managua, Nicaragua, and the president of the Nicaraguan Academy of Sciences.,

    Jorge A. Huete-Pérez

Authors
  1. Axel Meyer
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  2. Jorge A. Huete-Pérez
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Axel Meyer or Jorge A. Huete-Pérez.

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Meyer, A., Huete-Pérez, J. Conservation: Nicaragua Canal could wreak environmental ruin. Nature 506, 287–289 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/506287a

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