OUR COMMUNITIES

Veraguas Province A significant government infrastructure project—the Fourth Transmission Line—threatens our Ngäbe and Buglé communities in the district of Kankintú in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé and in Northern Santa Fe in Veraguas province. The proposed project, which is partly funded by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), would create a 300-kilometre electrical line along Panama’s…

Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca (annexed) Defending the Tabasará River In 2006, the Panamanian government granted Generadora del Istmo (GENISA), a company owned by the prominent Honduran Kafie family, a concession to build the 28.84-megawatt Barro Blanco dam on the Tabasará River in Chiriquí, western Panama. The project was financed through loans from three development banks, including the…

Bocas del Toro Province Our Ngäbe communities in the province of Bocas del Toro are defending their land from non-Indigenous settlers. The islands of the Boca del Toro archipelago are a key tourist destination, and since the early 2000s, there have been many land conflicts due to the increase in tourism and resorts. On the…

Bocas del Toro Province In 2007, Panama’s environmental authority (ANAM) approved the construction of a 223-megawatt  hydroelectric dam on the Changuinola River in Bocas del Toro province. Chan 75 (also known as Chan I), was completed in 2011 by AES Changuinola, a Panamanian subsidiary of US-based AES Corporation. Chan 75 has had a profound impact…