The Indio Maíz Biological Reserve is a remnant of the "Áreas Naturales Protegidas del Sureste de Nicaragua" established in 1990 during the first Sandinista government. The region was reorganised as the "Reserva de Biosfera del Sureste de Nicaragua" in 1999 and was split up into four smaller protected areas, after the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve had been reorganised in 1997. Seventy percent of the reserve is also part of the territory administered by the autonomous Rama-Kriol Territorial Government and is home to indigenous Rama and Kriol people. They gained the right to govern these territories by the <a href="Nicaraguan Revolution">revolutionary