El Salvador ministry requests budget to modernize seismic alerts and protect nature

The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) requested a budget of $17,444,029 from the Legislative Assembly to fund environmental protection and disaster prevention in El Salvador for 2027.

Minister Fernando López presented the proposal to the Finance Commission, explaining that the funds will support the management of 211 protected natural areas covering over 80,000 hectares.

The ministry plans to use the majority of these funds for institutional administration and the sustainable management of natural resources, including the operation of the Observatory of Threats. The ministry intends to modernize the Observatory of Threats and Natural Resources to improve monitoring of seismic, volcanic, and meteorological activity. This includes strengthening technological capabilities to generate information for early warning systems. To support these efforts, the ministry recently began downloading new equipment for volcanic monitoring.

The ministry also reported that it built five new monitoring stations at the Santa Ana volcano with an investment of $550,000. To improve environmental evaluations, the ministry is incorporating artificial intelligence tools developed with the National Artificial Intelligence Agency and Google. These tools automate the analysis of environmental significance results and generate structured reports to speed up evaluation processes.

Additionally, the ministry plans to maintain water security by monitoring the Lempa River and managing wastewater in priority sectors to protect water sources.