International Campaign Launched Against Nicaraguan Beef
A new investigation by Patrullaje and the NGO Re:wild calls for halting the purchase of beef produced in Nicaragua’s protected areas.
By Ivan Olivares (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – A new investigation by the documentary team Patrullaje on illegal cattle ranching in protected areas such as the Indio Maiz Reserve has launched a campaign urging the public to sign an open letter addressed to several US companies, calling on them not to buy beef produced on illegal ranches located within Nicaragua’s protected areas.
The campaign is backed by the international conservation organization Re:wild, which warns that “major US food brands may be serving what they call “conflict beef” linked to tropical forest deforestation and to violations of the rights of Nicaragua’s Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples.”
For many years, cattle ranching was Nicaragua’s leading export sector, until the high international price of gold and the unexpected boom in its mining relegated it to second place. Even so, in 2024 the country received nearly 996 million dollars from beef, livestock, and dairy exports, according to the Foreign Trade Report for the Fourth Quarter of 2024, published by the Central Bank of Nicaragua.
The investigators said in a statement that it suspects shipments of beef from illegal ranches located in Nicaragua’s protected and Indigenous territories are being sold in US supermarkets and restaurants. This occurs despite the Nicaraguan authorities’ claims that they have “regulations and a traceability system to prevent it,” according to a report published by the Patrullaje campaign with Re:wild’s support.
The report Conflict Beef, by Nicaraguan journalist and documentary filmmaker Camilo de Castro, director of Patrullaje, asserts that Nicaragua’s main slaughterhouses source cattle from illegal ranches and export that meat to the United States and other markets. The report highlights how this makes “uninformed consumers potential accomplices in the destruction of tropical forests and in violations of the rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples,” as ranchers clear forests to raise and feed cattle.
An executive from the meat sector, who requested anonymity, said that claiming the industry alone is destroying the forests is “attributing a much more complex problem to a single factor.” He pointed out that in addition to cattle ranching, there are other activities responsible for environmental degradation, such as agriculture, poverty, the desire for land ownership, population growth, mining, and simple land trading.
Disregard for Reserves and Indigenous Lands
The publication presents several case studies found in the Mayangna Sauni Bas Territory (within the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve) and the Rama and Kriol Indigenous Territory, which lies inside the boundaries of the Indio Maiz Biological Reserve. Cattle ranching (as well as agriculture, mining, and other activities) is prohibited in these areas.
The report directly points to alleged weaknesses in the National Bovine Traceability Information System to explain how cattle laundering occurs. Such systems are designed to track each animal from birth to the final consumer to guarantee food safety and meat quality—requirements essential for access to markets that demand transparency and strict production chain controls.
Environmental activist Amaru Ruiz, president of the banned Fundación del Río, says that the traceability system “is not transparent,” and that there is no oversight or monitoring process to ensure cattle are not being fattened within protected areas and Indigenous territories.
During visits to various ranching zones, the executive director of the Institute for Agricultural Health and Protection (IPSA), Ricardo Somarriba, emphasized the agency’s mechanisms for combating the screwworm, while also promoting the advances of the National Bovine Traceability Program.
According to Re:wild’s report, the weakness of the traceability system and lack of oversight have allowed “conflict beef” to be exported to the United States, mixed with legally produced meat, and sold to consumers without labeling. The publication concludes that “this situation makes consumers unwitting accomplices in human rights violations and public health risks, while putting US food producers at a disadvantage.”
The previously cited executive was skeptical that finding cattle tags in reserve areas proves that slaughterhouses—and consumers—are responsible for environmental crimes, although he acknowledged that “a truly effective traceability system would solve this problem.” He also agreed on the need to address property rights and corruption, “but we already know none of that will go anywhere as long as these people are in power.”
The eastward expansion of cattle ranching into Nicaragua’s Caribbean region is generating increased pressure on Indigenous communities, Ruiz warns. He refers to phenomena such as land invasions and rising land conflicts. “Ranchers are interested in buying land to fatten cattle, even within protected areas,” he notes, while warning of the risk deforestation poses to maintaining the region’s rainfall patterns.
Nicaragua has lost nearly 10% of its primary forests over the past two years and recorded the highest rate of primary forest loss in the world in 2024—driven mainly by the expansion of agricultural and cattle frontiers to meet growing global demand for beef, according to the report. It adds that more than 92% of the deforestation of Central America’s intact forests is linked to the cattle industry, much of it illegal.
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.