A protected wildlife refuge in Nicaragua has suffered a wave of deforestation in recent years, fueled by controversial land deals allowing settlers to clear the rainforest for farming, mining and cattle ranching. Government officials and even some Indigenous community leaders have overseen the land deals in Río San Juan Wildlife Refuge, an ostensibly protected area in southeastern Nicaragua, resulting in deforestation and the displacement of some residents, according to receipts and other financial documents. The documents were originally obtained by the environmental organization Fundación del Río and shared with Mongabay. They reveal a pattern of corruption and fraud that has led to an influx of human presence in one of the country’s most ecologically important areas. “[The wildlife refuge] is facing severe ecosystem degradation, largely due to invasions that have been induced, promoted and permitted by institutional authorities, political operators and the Ortega-Murillo regime,” a Fundación del Río report said. Río San Juan Wildlife Refuge sits on the Atlantic coast and border with Costa Rica, covering 43,000 hectares (about 106,300 acres) within the larger Río San Juan Biosphere Reserve. Its estuaries and freshwater lagoons have earned it a Ramsar site designation, an international convention protecting wetlands. Around 22% of the wildlife refuge overlaps with Indigenous Rama and Afro-descendent Kriol territory. Nine communities occupy the area on both sides of the border, making land grabs not just a conservation concern but also a human rights violation by the government, observers said. Over the last two decades, President Daniel Ortega has looked…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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