Could timber plantations conserve forests in Panama?

Deforestation and conversion to cattle pasture in Panama

A recent study conducted by CIFOR questioned whether tree plantations support forest conservation. The results show that they potentially support conservation, depending on a number of other influencing factors.

The authors’ more macro-level findings, which were based on an exhaustive review of published literature, were inconclusive. As with many questions related to forest conservation, the answer was, to paraphrase “It depends.”

There is a commonly held assumption in Panama, or at least the Darien, that timber plantations will ease pressure on the harvesting of timber from native forests. Our anecdotal, non scientific experience is that that isn’t true. Case in point: we’ve been trying to sell thinnings of high-value tropical species like spanish cedar (cedro amargo), mahogany (swietenia macrophylla), and oak (tabebuia rosea) for the past two months, but there is only demand for timber from primary forests. These are not early-stage thinnings, but they still can’t compete with the large timber coming out of first-growth forests in the Darien.

Establishment of timber plantations in the Darien happens after the high value timber has already been cut out (degradation) and usually after further clearing for agriculture/cattle (deforestation). In Panama it is illegal to clear primary forests to establish plantations, and no significant amount of primary forest has been cleared specifically for a timber plantation (that we’re aware of). We did recently learn that near Meteti, a large swath of forest in the Filo de Tallo reserve/peat swamp was under threat by a “Colombian” who was going to plant palm oil.

The authors of the report did find strong linkages to reduced deforestation and degradation when fuelwood plantations are established. However, degradation or deforestation for fuelwood is not a significant problem in the Darien, so plantations for fuelwood would not relieve any pressure on natural forests.

Probably the best approach to preserving forest cover is pairing stringent conservation laws and the establishment of protected areas with the development of timber plantations.

This is good match for Panama, and to their credit, the new government and Ministry of Environment (ANAM) have taken measures to control forestry activities in the Darien.

It will be interesting to see whether these measures actually increase demand for plantation-grown timber among the local sawmills and furniture producers, who consume the most timber domestically.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in buying 10,000+ board feet of genuine mahogany, spanish cedar, and oak, let us know!

5 Priorities for Panama's new Environment Ministry

Last week Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela signed into the law the existence of the Environment Ministry, formerly the National Environment Authority (ANAM). This move signals that environmental issues will receive more consideration as Panama's political agenda develops.

Mirei Endara, the head of the new ministry, outlined five priority areas in a recent interview:

1. Changing the Ministry's procedures to be more efficient and transparent, looking specifically at technology investments. This would include an analysis of the Ministry's environmental impact study framework to identify areas of improvement.

2. Stimulating eco-tourism in protected areas. Tourism in general has been growing in Panama over the past few years, but this has contributed to over-development in sensitive environmental areas.

3. The Alliance to Reforest 1 million hectares of trees over the next 20 years. Announced several months ago, this initiative could mean more incentives for smallholder farmers to plant trees on their deforested land.

4. Addressing climate change by promoting low-carbon development.

5. Water, including better management of watersheds, increasing access to clean water in rural areas, and better information and monitoring systems. This would start with a baseline inventory of all the water systems in Panama to understand their quality and integrity, though it's not certain that would extend all the way out into the types of rural villages where we work.

We'll be watching and reporting out on these items as we see new developments.

Arimae in the News for Forest Carbon Inventory Project

Arimae and its forest reservation were recently featured in a blog and a video feature related to forest monitoring. Planting Empowerment supports the building of this skill set within the community as a manner to generate better land management planning.

The blog through written by the Environmental Defense Fund, Organization of Embera and Wounaan Youth of Panama, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute describes the forest monitoring training and data collection that took place in early April. It was the first of many training and data collection plots that would be done through Indigenous Territories throughout eastern Panama. The results of the data collection and training process will probably be presented at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change conference being held later this year in Lima, Peru.

The UN-REDD program of Panama released this video of a different type of forest monitoring that was executed in Arimae’s forest reserve. The video includes a number of interviews with members of the Arimae community with whom Planting Empowerment has collaborated with for a number of years. The video also includes some interesting filmography done from a drone which shows some great shots of the community and the deforestation that is taking place in their reserve.

We’re encouraged to see this type of activity happening in Arimae’s collective lands because they help the community conserve its remaining, but dwindling, forest reservation.

Native Panama Tree Species Propagation Guide

Guide to propagating native tree species of Panama

Cover artwork for the Native Species Propagation GuidePlanting Empowerment employees Liriano Opua, Yen Dogirama, and Mateo Johnson recently attended the release of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Guide to Propagating 120 Native Tree Species of Panama. One of the co-authors of the book is Jose Deago, who guided us for several years in planting and maintaining our mixed native species forestry plots.

The book is a great resource for those interested in advancing the adoption native species forestry, and also those interested in investing in tropical woods. Producing native species saplings requires understanding and optimizing the variables of soil chemistry, watering, and shading. The right balance is required for the saplings to be transplanted successfully and achieve optimal growth.

We’re proud to be purchasing some of our native species saplings directly from the nursery of our Indigenous partner community Arimae. Through a grant from the UNDP-GEF Small Grants Programme, Liriano and Yen facilitated the construction of the nursery and the equipment to raise the saplings. Read the full case study about the project. They manage the nursery on behalf of the entire community and source most of the seed from the community’s forest preserve.

We used saplings produced in Arimae’s nursery for the first as part of our five hectare June 2012 planting (photos). While not scientifically conclusive, Liriano reports that the saplings produced in Arimae’s nursery have the highest survival and growth rates. Liriano and Yen left the conference with signed copies of the book, and are and be able to reference the book in the future.

Native Panama Tree Species Propagation Guide

(10MB, Spanish)