In 1976, a group of Nicaraguan environmentalists proposed that the government create a Ministry of Natural Resources.
The president at the time, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, rejected the idea and threatened the group with harsh reprisals if they met again.
By the mid-1980s, MARENA received aid and advice from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Soviet Union, France, the Netherlands, Cuba, Mexico, the Organization of American States, the United Nations Environment Programme, and individual United States citizens.
This was in response to Nicaragua being a world leader in the export of rare and endangered species such as White-lipped peccaries, White-tailed deer, hawksbill turtles, freshwater otters, jaguars, ocelots, and margays.
Two million trees were grown annually in nurseries until 1986, when civil war and economic difficulties slowed the program.