As Indigenous peoples, we are used to living in complete tranquillity with nature in one of the last undisturbed tropical forests in Panama. For centuries, we have used the rivers as a means of sustainable transport, and we recognise the forest as our natural pharmacy, a place where we can access medicinal plants at any time. One of our central priorities is to strengthen our cultural traditions related to environmental protection, water protection, agriculture, and coexistence with the land.
Biodiversity in Panama
Despite encompassing an area slightly smaller than the US state of South Carolina, the s-shaped isthmus of Panama is one of the most ecologically vibrant and biodiverse places on Earth. As a land bridge between the continents of North and South America, it has served as a vital biological corridor since Great American Biotic Interchange, an event that heralded the north-south migration and genetic mixing of untold plant and animal species, starting around 2.7 million years ago. Equally, the emergence of the isthmus of Panama divided the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, setting countless marine species on divergent evolutionary paths.
Situated at tropical latitudes between Costa Rica and Colombia, Panama is a hot, humid country with an extended wet season (May to December) and a comparatively short dry season (January to May). A rugged spine of mountains divides its interior into two distinctive watersheds, Pacific and Caribbean, with the latter experiencing a significantly wetter and less predictable climate. Varied physical geography and fierce climatic conditions have fostered a great diversity of lush ecosystems in Panama, including lowland tropical rainforests, teeming wetlands, coastal mangroves, dry forests and high-altitude cloud forests. Nearly 500 rivers crisscross the country while some 1600 islands and islets, many of them fringed by kaleidoscopic coral reefs, lie scattered off its white sand shores.
Thanks to its dazzling patchwork of ecological niches, Panama is home to an exceptional variety of biological life. Approximately 11,000 plant species, including 1,200 orchids and 1,500 species of tree, nearly 1,000 bird species, more than 200 species of amphibians, and more than 200 species of mammals make their home in Panama, many of them endemic, rare, and globally threatened. Its charismatic fauna includes jaguars, sloths, Baird’s tapirs, monkeys, harpy eagles, resplendent quetzals, neon-coloured poison dart frogs, and five species of sea turtle, to name but a few. As a hub for migratory bird life, Panama is visited by many thousands of hawks, eagles, and other birds of prey during an outstanding annual raptor migration.
Conservation and Sustainability
Although Panama’s has lost more than half of its tree cover since the 1940s, conservation and sustainability are today recognised as important part of the national agenda. To date, the Panamanian government has designated approximately 3.5 million hectares, or nearly 40% of its territory, as legally protected areas, including 13 national parks and marine zones. Three of its reserves are globally significant, having been ascribed UNESCO World Heritage status. They include La Amistad International Park in Bocas del Toro province, which is jointly administered between Panama and Costa Rica.
La Amistad National Park extends along the border between Panama and Costa Rica. The transboundary property covers large tracts of the highest and wildest non-volcanic mountain range in Central America and is one of that region’s outstanding conservation areas. The Talamanca Mountains contain one of the major remaining blocks of natural forest in Central America with no other protected area complex in Central America containing a comparable altitudinal variation […] The beautiful and rugged mountain landscape harbours extraordinary biological and cultural diversity. Pre-ceramic archaeological sites indicate that the Talamanca Range has a history of many millennia of human occupation. There are several indigenous peoples on both sides of the border within and near the property. In terms of biological diversity, there is a wide range of ecosystems, an unusual richness of species per area unit and an extraordinary degree of endemism.
UNESCO World Heritage Convention
Environmental Risks
Despite worthy advances in environmental protection, Panama’s natural landscapes face a multitude of threats, partly due to a development model that prioritizes economic growth over environmental protection, and a philosophy that pits ‘man against nature’. Plans to develop the nation’s Caribbean coastline, for example, include La Conquista del Atlántico (The Conquest of the Atlantic), which aims opens the region to new forms of exploitation.
Activities such as open-cast mining, logging, ranching, tourism and real estate development have all contributed to the degradation of Panama’s natural wealth. Ongoing environmental issues include habitat loss, water pollution, soil degradation, wildlife trafficking and anthropogenic climate change. Furthermore, Panama’s environmental agencies are chronically underfunded and, in some cases, politically compromised.
Indigenous Stewardship
As enduring guardians of nature, the Ngabe and Buglé peoples possess extraordinary ethnobiological and ecological knowledge of Panama’s forests, which ought to be recognised by our political and scientific communities. As vulnerable stakeholders whose health and livelihoods directly depend on the integrity of our natural resources, we should be able to participate in all high-level discussions pertaining to conservation and development, local and national, but this is often not the case. An important part of MODETEAB’s work is raising public awareness of Panama’s rich natural heritage, defending it from careless destruction, and promoting our Indigenous people as the best stewards of this land.
Español 
English