El Salvador park’s financial problems solved

Unique agreement: conservation group and real estate company

A $500,000 donation and an agreement between a leading real estate firm and an environmental group in El Salvador mark a conservation milestone in Central America. It is the first time a private company has given such a large grant earmarked for one nature reserve, in this case an area known as Los Volcanes (the volcanoes).

Through an alliance between the Roble Group and SalvaNATURA, a conservation group that already administers several parks in El Salvador, the firm has agreed to provide at least $100,000 a year for five years for Los Volcanes’ management. SalvaNatura executive director Juan Marco Alvarez says the commitment will cover about 75 percent of the reserve’s operating costs and solves “a critical long-term financing problem.”

The agreement is part of a larger initiative, launched by SalvaNatura and the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN, for its name in Spanish), to establish an endowment fund guarantying conservation of El Imposible and Montecristo National Parks and El Jocotal Wildlife Refuge, as well as Los Volcanes. About 92 percent of tiny El Salvador is deforested, so its handful of reserves is especially precious.

According to Alvarez, SalvaNATURA previously has received sizeable donations from private companies dedicated to the protected areas administered by the conservation group. “We think this kind of alliance is the only solution for protecting our natural areas, since the government has other funding priorities,” he says.

While Ernesto Zepeda, director of Natural Patrimony at MARN, concedes that the government “invests very little in protected areas,” he adds: “the true reason is that our renewable natural resources policies call for participation from civil society, since natural resources like water and biological diversity are owned by the public, and we all have to participate in their conservation.”

The general manager of commercial development for the Roble Group, Carlos Figueroa, explains that the company has a vision of not only being a business leader but also of “contributing to the sustainable development of our society.” He points out that the PomaGroup, which owns Roble, has supported various health, education, and environmental initiatives in El Salvador.

In the case of Los Volcanes, Alvarez points out that the Roble Group first got interested in the idea of supporting the reserve because it is a “national emblem.” The three imposing volcanoes that dominate the reserve — Izalco, Cerro Verde and Santa Ana — provide one of the most famous and spectacular views in El Salvador. In exchange for “adopting” Los Volcanes, the Roble Group will receive its share of positive publicity, since the company’s logo will appear on all of reserve’s signs and related promotional and educational materials.

The donation allows SalvaNATURA to purchase needed equipment, develop infrastructure, such as building nature trails and erecting signs to mark the reserve’s borders, and hire personnel, including guards and nature guides. But there’s still a major problem to resolve. In spite of the fact that it encompasses nearly 5,000 acres of state-owned land, Los Volcanes is not an officially declared protected area.

But Zepeda points out that the reserve has an advantage over scores of natural areas in other Latin American countries, where legal decrees for parks exist on paper, but most of the land inside the declared borders remains in private hands, with few funds to purchase them.

Conservationists call these reserves “paper parks.” The government, at least, owns Los Volcanes, though the official paperwork is lacking. Zepeda reports that a proposal will be sent to the Legislative Assembly that would result in official protection for 30 different areas, including Los Volcanes.

Los Volcanes’ natural assets start at sea level and extend skyward to misty cloud forests. One rare bird found in the area is the rock wren (Salpinctes obsoletus), which hops about the hardened lava flows of Izalco Volcano. Other wildlife species found in the reserve include the banded anteater (Tamandua mexicana), ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), coyote (Canis latrans), black crested eagle (Spizaeus tyrannus), and emerald toucanet (Aulacorhynchus prasinus). — Eco-Exchange