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)

Reforestation Strategies in Land Occupied by Foreign Grasses

A worker in Nuevo Paraiso clears brush with a machete prior to plantingIn some areas where we have reforested, the land had been previously planted with non-native grasses as fodder for cattle. We recently read a Mongabay post about restoring land previously planted with non-native grass through cultivating timber and other crops.

The paper, “Responses of transplanted native tree species to invasive alien grass removals in an abandoned cattle pasture in the Lacandon region, Mexico” by Román-Dañobeytia et al., found that successful reforestation on these lands is possible using natives species, but without continued suppression of the non-native grasses, high mortality rates may occur depending on the tree species.

Our experience confirms this finding. Whether it’s aggressive non-native grasses or just thick undergrowth, our native tropical hardwoods require frequent suppression competition to ensure low mortality rates. As the trees grow taller and start to shade out the undergrowth beneath them, suppression of competition becomes less important because the trees no longer need to compete for sunlight.

One practice used in the study to suppress the non-native grasses was burning the land before planting. Smallholders use slash and burn practices like this in the region where we work, but we decided to only clear the undergrowth and grasses with machetes before planting. When exercised in a controlled manner, the burning can return nutrients to the soil and reduce competition for the young trees, but the frequent rains in Panama erode away a lot of the nutrient-rich topsoil. Therefore, when we prepare land for planting our trees, we simply let the cleared undergrowth decompose in place and add its nutrients more gradually.

We’ve seen that certain species we planted compete better with the non-native grasses. Dalbergia retusa, in Panama called Cocobolo, has done the best with mortality and growth in our plantations with the aggressive non-native grass. It grows quickly, naturally bifurcates, and also fixes nitrogen, which gives it the ability to compete with the grasses while also recuperating the soils.

None of the native species in the study overlap with the species we plant, nor is the non-native grass the same, so a direct comparison with the study isn’t possible. However, we have found that, as in the study, suppression of non-native grasses is necessary for minimizing mortality rates. Additionally, the authors point out the need for maintaining the grasses during the dry season to reduce the drying out of the soil, something we have experienced, too.

We hope that researchers continue to pursue studies on this. Reforestation was the focus of the International Society of Tropical Foresters’ conference, held at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies where we presented earlier this spring.

If you’re interested in learning more about reforestation using native species and its challenges, you can listen to the recorded conference presentations. Additionally, you can find more academic papers on the subject, especially about Panama, on our Studies and Analysis page.

UNDP Publishes Arimae Case Study

Arimae's native tree species nursery The UNDP-GEF’s Small Grants Programme recently published a case study on Arimae’s sustainable agroforestry project.

The piece highlights the three main components of the project, which Arimae conceived as a way to explore sustainable economic alternatives:

• Seed collection from native trees and nursery planting
• A carbon analysis of 500 hectares Arimae’s reserve
• Reforestation with a mix of native timber and fruit species

Planting Empowerment played a role by helping to manage the project and providing technical support. The project is generating social and environmental impacts by offsetting carbon and providing jobs and training to Arimae community members.

We expect to build on this success by facilitating agroforestry projects with other communities and incorporating that experience into our own operations.

Download the case study (PDF, 2.3MB)

Shedding Problem in Teak Farms

A monoculture Teak tree farm in PanamaThe ITTO’s latest marketplace review included a report from India revealing the negative impacts monoculture Teak plantations are causing.

The problem seems to be caused by the Teak tree’s tendency to shed its leaves during the dry season, reducing the amount of shading of the understory. Increased sunlight dries up pools of water on the ground, which are important for the survival of flora and fauna. In a more biodiverse plantation forest (or first growth forest) the trees maintain a constant canopy that provides the shade to maintain these pools of water.

During the dry season in Panama, you can see the ground cracking in the Teak plantations, but in the more biodiverse forests, there is no cracking.

While we do plant some Teak in as part of our species mix, the majority of our plantations are mixed tree species native to Panama. We purposefully leave buffers around water sources and non-commercial trees standing in order to provide biodiversity benefits, reduce erosion, and reduce the risk of blight and pests.

The majority of investment goes into monoculture Teak plantations. We hope, however, that this study draws attention to the negative environmental impacts caused by single-species plantations and encourages the creation of more sustainable forest investments.

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FSC certification and pricing update

A cocobolo tree in our Friends and Family plantation demonstrating strong growthThe ITTO's most recent timber report included an anecdote about a Peruvian logging concessionaire receiving FSC certification for its operations in Madre de Dios. They noted the large enterprise could barely afford the certification and annual verification process, and is seeing no prospect of better pricing because of the FSC certification. This makes sense considering that India and China are major purchasers and are not as demanding regarding timber certifications. It appears that producers with more direct sales channels into the US and/or Europe are in a better position to capture the higher pricing that FSC certification provides.

While we manage our investor-owned plantations to exceed FSC certification standards we have yet to actually certify those plantations due to the high cost and the current small scale of our operations. Once timber production from our plantations begins, we will analyze the market conditions when production comes on line to see whether the price premium validates the cost of certification. 

The ITTO also reports that timber demand and prices are holding steady across the globe. Pricing for plantation teak (Panamanian included) arriving into the Indian market held steady after a recent bump. Flooring originating from China is now being hit by anti-dumping levies by the US, so that will potentially depress demand slightly. However, a long term study of timber needs in Australia was pointing to the lack of local supply and the need to increase imports in the future.