Our Work In Panama

Panama's wealth of ecological resources include the dense primary jungle of the Darien, well over a thousand miles of coastline, seven distinct indigenous cultures, the rich rainforests of Bocas Del Toro, and the extensive reserves of the Panama Canal Watershed.

Unfortunately these wonderful resources are being steadily degraded by a combination of social and economic forces. As the population of cash poor subsistence farmers has grown, the once sustainable method of slash and burn farming has begun to degrade soils and destroy the country's rich forest reserves. To make matters worse, the introduction of cattle farming has accelerated this process. Mountainous terrain once used for raising crops and then left to rest and regenerate is now often converted directly to cattle pasture. To the East, the Darien faces similar pressure from commercial timber cutting which is again followed up with cattle ranching. Every day trucks loaded with giant old growth trees pass north along the Inter-American highway.