PANAMA

According to FAO figures, Panama had the 9th worst deforestation rate of primary forests between 2000 and 2005. The country loses more than 1% of its primary forest each year and deforestation is directly threatening a key source of income, the Panama Canal, which depends on the tropical cloud forest to maintain the canal watershed and ensure sufficient water to operate the canal locks. As forest cover is reduced, soil erosion silts up the canal and locks. The government has now protected the remaining watershed forests and launched reforestation initiatives.

Deforestation is the result of road construction, mining, settlement, fuelwood collection, clearing for agriculture and logging. Illegal logging has increased in Panama since the early 1990s, although the volumes harvested are believed to be significantly less than the amount of timber collected as fuelwood.

Panama is benefiting from a number of initiatives to combat deforestation. The US government signed a second agreement with Panama in 2004 to reduce Panamas debt and generate $11 million for tropical forest conservation for the following 12 years. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is working with an indigenous community to conserve forests and reforest degraded lands with native tree species through a carbon-offsetting scheme.

Panama is one of 14 countries which will receive funds under the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, which will reward countries for preserving their forest cover. The countries will receive grants to build their capacity for REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), including establishing emissions reference levels, adopting strategies to reduce deforestation, and designing monitoring systems.

DOCUMENTS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
20/04/2011	Diagnosing the Uncertainty and Detectability of Emission Reductions for REDD + Under Current Capabilities: an Example for Panama In preparation for the deployment of a new mechanism that could address as much as one fifth of global ...	Environmental Research Letters (Johanne Pelletier, Navin Ramankutty, & Catherine Potvin)
	< BACK TO TOP

NEWS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
19/09/2012	LAC Forestry and Environmental Communicators Network formed A workshop of Latin American journalists and other communicators organized by the UN Food and Agriculture ...	IISD Biodiversity Policy & Practice
	< BACK TO TOP
07/09/2012	Environmentalists and indigenous people against carbon offset trading Central American environmentalists and indigenous people are intensifying efforts to prevent governments ...	Eurasia Review
	< BACK TO TOP
30/08/2012	Indigenous groups in Panama wait for UN REDD to meet promises A dispute over the implementation of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) in ...	Mongabay.com
	< BACK TO TOP
26/07/2012	Vehicles seized, fines levied for illegal logging Fines totaling $3,600 were handed out and trucks seized in Los Santos on Wednesday for the illegal logging ...	Newsroom Panama
	< BACK TO TOP
29/04/2012	Farmers join illegal logging outcry Environmentalists have been joined by cattle farmers in the fight against logging in Panama which in ...	Newsroom Panama
	< BACK TO TOP
08/04/2012	Conservationists call for suspension of logging permits Panama’s Environmental Authority (ANAM) has been asked to suspend logging permits to prevent the ...	Newsroom Panama
	< BACK TO TOP
07/03/2012	Illegal logging destroying indigenous habitat Another group of indigenous people is raising its voice in protest over abuses to the environment, because ...	Newsroom Panama
	< BACK TO TOP
04/10/2011	Panama REDD: Getting what you pay for A new report by researchers ...	EurekAlert!
	< BACK TO TOP
28/09/2011	Madagascar, Panama ask UN-backed body to regulate trade in hardwood species The secretariat of the United Nations-backed convention governing trade in endangered species said today ...	UN News Centre
	< BACK TO TOP
15/02/2011	Central America has highest rate of forest loss in region Guatemala City - Central America has suffered the highest rate of forest loss in Latin America over the ...	IPS News
	< BACK TO TOP
30/08/2009	Roads are ruining the rainforests "The best thing you could do for the Amazon is to bomb all the roads." That might sound like ...	New Scientist
	< BACK TO TOP
02/07/2009	REDD readiness plans for Panama, Guyana approved but rejected for Indonesia The World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) has approved REDD readiness plans (R-Plans) ...	Mongabay.com
	< BACK TO TOP
13/04/2009	Deforestation is killing Darien The forests are being destroyed, because the inhabitants do not know that by cutting the forest they ...	Panama Star
	< BACK TO TOP
01/04/2009	$18 million approved under UN-REDD Programme Funds will back forestry programmes combating climate change and boosting local livelihoods ...	FAO
	< BACK TO TOP
05/03/2009	Indonesia applies for World Bank forest CO2 scheme Indonesia has applied to join a World Bank program that supports developing nations' efforts to ...	Reuters, featured on Planet Ark
	< BACK TO TOP
08/10/2008	Indonesia, Papua NG, Vietnam ask UN for assistance to combat deforestation Hanoi - Three of Asias most rapidly deforesting countries - Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam - ...	Green Assembly Asia Environment
	< BACK TO TOP
21/08/2008	Indigenous community in Panama to see carbon payments from forest conservation The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the Panama-based branch of the Smithsonian Institution, ...	Mongabay.com
	< BACK TO TOP
24/07/2008	14 countries win REDD funding to protect tropical forests Fourteen countries have been selected by the World Bank to receive funds for conserving their tropical ...	Mongabay.com
	< BACK TO TOP
07/06/2007	Cedar, rosewood fail to win protection at U.N. talks The Hague, The Netherlands - Bids to curb logging of South and Central American cedar and rosewood trees, ...	Reuters (UK)
	< BACK TO TOP
14/05/2007	Congress combats illegal logging in Peru, Panama Washington DC - Members of Congress and the Bush administration reached agreement late last week on labor ...	Environmental News Service
	< BACK TO TOP
21/03/2006	Successful regional workshop on forest independent monitoring The first Regional Workshop on Forest Independent Monitoring took place in Honduras, from February 26th ...	ACICAFOC (Costa Rica)
	< BACK TO TOP
17/11/2005	Nigeria has worst deforestation rate, FAO revises figures Nigeria has the world's highest deforestation rate of primary forests according to revised deforestation ...	Mongabay.com
	< BACK TO TOP
19/08/2004	Debt For Nature agreement to conserve Panama's forests On August 19, 2004, the Governments of the United States of America and the Republic of Panama, together ...	US Department of State
	< BACK TO TOP