{"id":1735,"date":"2025-02-19T21:54:43","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T21:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta10.technodreamcenter.com\/parkswatch.org\/?p=1735"},"modified":"2025-02-19T21:55:57","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T21:55:57","slug":"budget-crisis-threatens-venezuelas-national-parks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta10.technodreamcenter.com\/parkswatch.org\/budget-crisis-threatens-venezuelas-national-parks\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget Crisis Threatens Venezuela\u2019s National Parks"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tBudget Crisis Threatens Venezuela\u2019s National Parks \n\t\t\t<\/h1 > \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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A serious economic crisis at the Venezuelan National Parks Institute (Inparques) — the organization responsible for administering the country\u2019s national parks system — could result in the strike of Inparques employees and the closure of 43 national parks, 21 natural monuments and 26 recreational parks in upcoming weeks. <\/span><\/span><\/p>

Inparques has had a budget deficit for approximately two years. According to Carmen Cecilia Castillo, Inparques president, \u201cThis year the functioning of Inparques required 17,000 million Bol\u00edvares (US$ 11 million); yet the institution only received 4,000 million Bol\u00edvares from the central administration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

Furthermore, approximately 1,700 Inparques employees and workers are claiming salary and benefit debts from as far back as 1999. The leaders of the Inparques trade union, Sunep-Inparques,<\/i> claim that the institution owes the workers approximately 13,000 million Bol\u00edvares (US $9 million). According to their calculations, the average debt owed to each worker is over 5 million Bol\u00edvares (US$ 3,000). The union also claims that 50% of the workers that have worked with Inparques for over 15 years are still not considered official park personnel, and as a result, they lack many benefits, including job stability.<\/p>

The union chose the first week in September as the beginning of the \u201cfinal hour,\u201d and has begun declaring the indefinite paralysis of Inparques activities by posting signs at the entrance of several parks in both Caracas and the interior of the country.\u201cWe are doing this to raise public awareness of the problem faced by thousands of workers, who have had to use their own money to avoid parks closures.\u00a0 <\/span>All this has functioned on pure desire, but now they are hitting us in the stomach,\u201d pointed out Jos\u00e9 Matute, general secretary of Sunep-Inparques. <\/p>

Inparques general director C\u00e9sar Iv\u00e1n Alvarado was confused by the employees\u2019 attitude, \u201cThey have already been informed about the progress we have made to cancel the pending debt.\u201d Presently, the government has approved for Inparques an additional credit of 8,500 million Bol\u00edvares (US$ 5.7 million), and the organization has permission to borrow the remaining US$ 9 million it needs to pay the debt owed to employees. However, employees\u2019 patience is running out. On September 10, to put pressure on the government to accelerate the release of the credit approved by the president, the workers marched on the Ministry of Finance headquarters in Caracas.<\/p>

In addition to the delinquent pay and benefits of Inparques personnel, the national parks, natural monuments and recreation areas do not receive the resources required for their maintenance. On numerous visits to Venezuela\u2019s national parks, ParksWatch has verified serious budget deficiencies, which is reflected in the lack of both infrastructure and equipment (vehicles, boats, radios, telephones, uniforms) that park rangers need to adequately protect the parks. In those parks that do have equipment, the problem is often a lack of funding to keep the equipment in good working condition.<\/p>

Inparques\u2019 economic situation is a serious threat to the park system, which protects resources of vital importance for the quality of life of Venezuelans. In order to alleviate employee discontent it is necessary to release the monetary resources approved by the government as soon as possible; however, the solution to the budget crisis needs to be solved with long-term vision. To achieve the optimum functioning of Venezuela\u2019s parks system, personnel must be motivated by a fair salary, constant training, and adequate infrastructure and equipment. Inparques has a valuable human resource that cannot be lost.<\/p>

It is important that the Venezuelan government pay attention to the Ministry of Environment and its organizations. The parks have an important socioeconomic relevance in Venezuela.\u00a0 <\/span>The creation of small businesses near the parks generates employment, which results in sustainable use of the environment and stimulation of the economy.<\/p>

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
During the first week of September 2002, Inparques workers began an awareness campaign to inform park visitors about the conflict. (Photo: Jorge Santos)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

It is important that the Venezuelan government pay attention to the Ministry of Environment and its organizations. The parks have an important socioeconomic relevance in Venezuela.\u00a0 <\/span>The creation of small businesses near the parks generates employment, which results in sustainable use of the environment and stimulation of the economy.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>

At the same time, it is necessary to involve other sectors of society, such as private companies, non-governmental organizations, and research centers in finding alternative funding solutions. At present, ParksWatch is developing the project \u201cVenezuela National Parks Allies Network” with the goal of promoting citizen involvement in the protection of national parks (which will contribute to the mission of Inparques).<\/p>

(Top Photo:\u00a0 In April 2001, park guards in national parks acroos Venezuela almost went on strike due to delinquent pay and benefits.\u00a0 Photo: Cesar Aponte<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/p>

ParksWatch:<\/strong> September 2002.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A serious economic crisis at the Venezuelan National Parks Institute (Inparques) — the organization responsible for administering the country’s national parks system — could result in the strike of Inparques employees and the closure of 43 national parks, 21 natural monuments and 26 recreational parks in upcoming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-venezuela"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta10.technodreamcenter.com\/parkswatch.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta10.technodreamcenter.com\/parkswatch.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta10.technodreamcenter.com\/parkswatch.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta10.technodreamcenter.com\/parkswatch.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta10.technodreamcenter.com\/parkswatch.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1735"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/beta10.technodreamcenter.com\/parkswatch.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1739,"href":"https:\/\/beta10.technodreamcenter.com\/parkswatch.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1735\/revisions\/1739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta10.technodreamcenter.com\/parkswatch.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta10.technodreamcenter.com\/parkswatch.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta10.technodreamcenter.com\/parkswatch.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}