By Entorno | 2025-08-29

A new Chinese mining concession in Nicaragua is endangering one of Central America's last strongholds of the green macaw, an endangered species already on the brink of extinction.

Environmentalists warn that the deal could devastate Río San Juan's fragile forests, wiping out irreplaceable biodiversity in the process.

The government of the co-dictators, Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, has granted a 4,800-hectare concession to Nicaragua Xinxin Linze Minería Group, S.A. Officials approved the contract under Ministerial Agreement No. 045-SBT-M-043-2025, published in La Gaceta on August 26.

The concession, titled Lote Villa Álvarez, is located within the El Almendro municipality in the Río San Juan Department, an area renowned for its towering almendrón trees, which are the primary nesting site of the green macaw.

Conservationists say industrial exploitation here risks destroying one of the few habitats that keep the species alive.

Nicaragua Xinxin Linze, represented legally by Lijun Dong, filed the request on May 23. With this award, the company now controls 63,133.61 hectares nationwide across seven concessions.

Other Chinese-backed firms dominate Nicaragua's extractive industry: Zhong Fu Development, S.A. controls 181,206.60 hectares; Thomas Metal, S.A. holds 122,695.04 hectares; Brother Metal, S.A. manages 130,194.76 hectares; and Linze Excelente Minería, S.A. oversees 10,592.05 hectares.

Together, they exploit over 503,000 hectares, much of it in biodiverse reserves.

Critics accuse the Ortega–Murillo government of selling off Nicaragua's most ecologically sensitive regions with little oversight. They argue that rapid concessions to Chinese companies provide the regime with hard currency and political support from Beijing but impose irreversible costs on forests, rivers and local communities.

Growing Chinese influence

China's presence in Nicaragua's mining industry has grown significantly since 2021, when Daniel Ortega's administration severed ties with Taiwan in favor of diplomatic relations with Beijing.

Since then, at least five Chinese firms are reported to be actively mining gold in the country, according to exiled Nicaraguan media outlets.

Chinese companies have become increasingly influential in Nicaragua, not only in mining but across key sectors including infrastructure, transport, health, security and trade.

The deepening alliance with Beijing underscores Ortega's pivot toward China and its leader, Xi Jinping, amid growing international isolation and domestic authoritarianism.

For conservationists, however, the decision marks another step toward turning Nicaragua's natural reserves into industrial sacrifice zones.