METETÍ, Panama — Thousands of people used to cross the Darién Gap every day. Emerging from the rainforest, they would stop in small towns across southern Panama, where migrant reception centers provided food, water and medical treatment, before the long journey to the U.S. But last year, the government shut down several crossing routes, leaving many of these small towns quieter than they have been in years.

The government’s crackdown on migration is part of a broader effort to regain control over Darién, a remote province where the rugged, nearly impenetrable jungle provides cover not only for migrants but also drug traffickers, illegal loggers, miners and cattle ranchers. The effort, which began when President José Mulino took office last July, has seen increased funding, a wave of new hires in protected areas, tighter oversight, and more public comments from officials about the importance of conservation.

The new policies could help curb deforestation, reduce pollution and protect threatened species in one of Central America’s largest rainforests — even as officials disagree over where to focus their efforts.

“We’re aware that if we don’t conserve, we’ll affect this generation and the next, and that’s why we are concerned about what we have to do,” said Pablo Guainora, the general administrator of the Emberá-Wounaan comarca, or Indigenous territory, which borders Darién province.

New personnel, better enforcement

The Darién Gap straddles Panama’s border with Colombia, and is made up of a series of Indigenous territories, protected areas, and public and private lands, and only a few decades ago was completely covered by rainforest. Today, Darién National Park protects about a third of that forest, spanning 575,000 hectares (1.42 million acres). Officials are trying to fortify the park and prepare for the encroachment of external pressures, while hoping that new funding and manpower will be enough to make a difference.

This year, the Ministry of Environment coordinated with the NGO Global Conservation to hire and train 30 new park guards for the national park, bringing the total number to 52. New cellphones will help them communicate in the field, and satellite technology, including Starlink internet access, will allow them to better track their patrol routes and observations deep in the forest.

“Our park rangers will now have a greater presence,” Darién National Park director and biologist Segundo Sugasti told Mongabay after a park guard training session. “We now have more equipment, more personnel, and we can cover more area.”

One of the biggest problems facing the park is illegal gold mining, which not only clears the forest but can poison freshwater sources with mercury and phosphorous. The park rangers work closely with the National Border Service (SENAFRONT), a militarized police force, to identify mining operations and the criminal groups that run them, such as the Colombian cartel Clan del Golfo.

The illegal groups pay Panamanians to work at the mines, according to a SENAFRONT officer who spoke to Mongabay on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of his work. Once the gold is extracted, the groups take it back to Colombia for laundering drug profits. The same groups also move drugs from Darién to Panamanian ports, where container ships leave for the U.S. and Europe.

This year, SENAFRONT has carried out at least two major operations to dismantle illegal mining in the park. One operation in January led to the arrest of 10 people near the Mangle River, which connects to a larger river basin supplying much of the province with freshwater. Officials also confiscated motors, pumps, tools, firearms and explosives, according to SENAFRONT. The mine had created around $12 million in profit, officials said.

SENAFRONT set up a permanent base in the area to prevent mining operations from returning.

A few months later, the agency arrested two more people and dismantled eight camps near the Sábalo River, another important freshwater source used by local communities for drinking, fishing and travel, according to the SENAFRONT officer.

“This activity not only affects the ecological balance but also destroys our communities, driven by organized crime networks that penetrate them to profit from the devastation of natural resources,” Environment Minister Juan Carlos Navarro said during a press conference.

Officials are also trying to address a less organized threat: the waste left behind by migrants. There are around 300,000 tons of garbage near the border of the national park, polluting the watershed and endangering wildlife. In addition to human waste, migrants have left behind belongings they no longer needed on their journey, mostly plastic and clothes, officials said.

Without roads or other forms of transport, it could cost millions of dollars and require advanced technology to clean it all up — something officials said they’re willing to do if they can find a funding source and the right approach.

“It’s not as simple as going in, picking up the trash and carrying it out on your back,” Luis Carles Rudy, the national director of Panama’s protected areas, told Mongabay. “No, because these are highly inaccessible areas. You need technology, air support. Trash would need to be collected and incinerated onsite, or with a mechanism to compact it and then remove it.”

Threats incoming

A lot of threats to the rainforest in Darién can’t be addressed by just arresting bad actors. They require stronger laws and building trust with local communities, officials said. One of the most complex situations involves the timber coming out of primary forests on Indigenous comarcas, often purchased by large, international logging companies, many of them Chinese.

In 2019, the country announced a one-year moratorium on new logging permits, citing forest loss, poor government oversight, and an abundance of falsified documents that were making it too easy to move illegally logged wood out of the province. Officials began shutting down sawmills and confiscating timber. The moratorium was extended year after year until a longer suspension was put in place through 2029.

Today, many sawmills sit idle in the province, with logs piled up, machines turned off, and no workers in sight.

The moratorium will likely stay in place until the government can develop stronger logging regulations and a traceability system, several officials said. That will include rigorous permit reviews at checkpoints along the Pan-American Highway and other popular transit routes, and rooting out corrupt officials who take bribes from timber traffickers.

“Panama is under siege,” said Jeff Morgan, executive director of Global Conservation. “There’s just too much money to be made. Cutting the trees down — that’s free money.”

Many timber companies purchase wood from inside Indigenous territories, where communities have the right to harvest timber under a government-approved management plan. But a lot of communities still don’t understand the laws or how their management plans work, forestry officials told Mongabay.

Timber companies supply Indigenous communities with tools, heavy machinery and training, in exchange for harvested wood. But the agreements, although nonexclusive, can lead to fraud and abuse. In some cases, the companies pressure communities to cut down trees that haven’t been approved in the management plan, most notably along rivers and streams, where there’s the risk of erosion, the officials said.

As a result, several community forest-use permits have been suspended, meaning the communities are no longer allowed to harvest the wood on their land. It’s sparked tension with some residents, who rely on logging as a primary source of income. They’re also worried about losing out on road improvements and other economic benefits that often come with management plans.

Officials are working on developing new management plans that better regulate international logging companies and how they work with Indigenous communities, especially when it comes to profit sharing. In other cases, they’re updating management plans already in existence. Companies aren’t always transparent about how much they’re making from timber sales, leaving communities with only a small percentage of what they’re owed. In other cases, companies promise to fund infrastructure and education but never follow through.

“Communities aren’t receiving the full economic benefits from the wood extraction that’s taking place on their territories,” forest technician Elsy Ortiz, who works with the Riocito community in the Emberá-Wounaan comarca, told Mongabay. “The management plan is supposed to serve both environmental and social goals, ensuring the sustainable use of resources while also generating revenue for the community.”

The Ministry of Environment has hired dozens of new forest technicians, many of them recent graduates, to work on forest management with Indigenous communities. They can spend weeks at a time in even the remotest areas, advising residents on their work with logging companies, tracking financial transactions, and working with the communities’ forest committees.

The technicians also advise planting, harvesting and reforestation projects, including maintaining seedbeds and tree nurseries. They’re still in the process of implementing agroforestry projects.

One of their goals is to help the communities obtain certification from the Forest Stewardship Council, which ensures that wood and paper products have been sustainably sourced.

“What we’re going to do is accompany the community, not impose ourselves as an authority, because they have their own culture,” Ortiz said. “But it’s important to help them understand that good sustainable forest management is achievable with new opportunities from the Ministry of Environment.”

Development on the rise

Outside of the Indigenous territories, but before the national park begins, there’s still a treasure trove of land up for purchase and development. Residents told Mongabay that they want to conserve the forest in those areas but also feel the need for better roads and bridges, even if it leads to some deforestation.

Right now, the main road in the province is the Pan-American Highway. In the 1970s, work on it came to a halt out of concern for the ecological damage that could be done to the rainforest, and the possibility of exposing the region to diseases from South America. The highway stops at the small Panamanian town of Yaviza and then starts again on the other side of the Colombian border, leaving a 106-kilometer (66-mile) break — the Darién Gap — where dozens of Panamanian communities remain in isolation.

There aren’t any plans to finish the highway right now, but the government has started several other infrastructure projects, including a $70 million addition to the highway and two bridges over the Tuira and Chucunaque rivers. For many remote communities, the projects could represent a significant improvement to their quality of life — from more work opportunities to access to health care and education.

Without the projects, it can take several hours to reach a city with basic infrastructure like hospitals and schools, requiring long boat rides and difficult drives on dirt paths.

“If you get sick, how do you get out?” said Kherson Ruiz, a Panama coordinator for Global Conservation. “If something happens to you, if you need medical help, there isn’t anywhere to go.”

As access improves, cattle ranchers and farmers have come from other parts of Panama to buy up the land, which continues to be cheaper than in most other parts of the country. Forests on their private property still belong to the state, requiring a permit to cut down. But the government doesn’t have the resources to check every plot, leading to unregulated clearing.

Right now, the problem doesn’t threaten the national park, officials said. But in the years to come, it could advance so much that it pushes up to the park boundary, creating new challenges for rangers.

“I’m worried. I really am,” said Edwin Cerrud Gallardo, one of the new park guards. “Roads bring a lot of progress, a lot of resources, a lot of projects to communities — and one of those is livestock farming.”

NGOs like Global Conservation are looking at private property on the edges of the park, hoping to buy up as much as 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of land before other interests get to it first. Besides that, there aren’t a lot of obvious solutions until officials can find a way to monitor every private landowner — a daunting task, they said.

In the meantime, park officials are left watching the slow advance of agriculture and cattle ranching, counting on their new funding and resources to stop it in its tracks should it ever get close enough.

“They told us about this in our training,” Cerrud said. “We’re prepared to face the situation that’s coming our way.”

Banner image: Logs lie on the side of a new road through the rainforest in Panama’s Darién province. Photo by Maxwell Radwin. 

See related from this reporter:

In Panama, major port construction begins at key mangrove site

Citation:

Covich, A. P. (2015). Projects that never happened: Ecological insights from Darien, Panama. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 96(1), 54-63. doi:10.1890/0012-9623-96.1.54

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