All it takes is a set of eyes. PNO has outlined in the past the trash heap that is Isla Colon, the coastline which is essentially a bay of shit, Darien, which is an out of control dangerous place, and Panama has not addressed. Maybe Varela could not get the kickback he wanted. Let’s face it, GARBAGE is not as “shiny” a project as the mass transit or the Tocumen expansion. Also less lucrative.

The absence in the implementation of a land use plan is the main environmental problem identified by the Ministry of Environment (MiAmbiente), after conducting an analysis of available data combined with the field experience of 29 officials of the entity.

In this exercise, 19 environmental problems were prioritized as direct causes affecting natural resources and 12 external or underlying issues, that is, related to human behavior or natural events that cannot be controlled.

The second issue in priority is the improper management and handling of solid waste, then the change of land use for development activities in general. The fourth on the list refers to institutional limitations in environmental management and administration of natural resources, followed by the expansion of the agricultural frontier, the lack and deficiencies of implementation of plans in the management of protected areas (see table).

“The work is unprecedented,” said Eustorgio Jaén, from the Department of Environmental Economics, but reveals complicated issues that require inter-institutional management for their solution.

On the issue of land management, Minister Milciades Concepción is holding talks with his counterpart from the Ministry of Housing and Territorial Planning (Miviot) to achieve the first steps in land planning. Despite the disorder in this area, for Concepción it is very important that 33% of the country’s territory is under the protection of the law and its responsibility.

Certain management plans that were made on land use were not fulfilled, although at present there is a stronger legal system and a more alert society, with more awareness, about compliance with environmental standards.

“We have rejected many environmental impact studies, because they do not accept management plans and in the absence of this, the allocation of land use in the Miviot is made, but while this exists, it is necessary to coordinate so that land use does not occur arbitrarily,” said the minister.

However, what is currently happening with the disposal of solid waste, the garbage of Cerro Patacón is a “real natural disaster,” as the minister described it. This problem can be addressed more immediately than the rest, because next year the contract that the State maintains with the company Urbalia expires, and from now on a draft is prepared for the tender that requires the use of modern technologies to treat garbage.

“MiAmbiente has several administrative processes for Urbalia, which is why we have taken the problem seriously to formulate actions so that municipalities have a better final disposal of garbage,” Concepción stressed as part of the actions carried out by the institution to address the problem. Part of the consequences generated by Cerro Patacón is the bad smells, and the contamination of the water network that passes through the hill of waste to the rivers that flow into the Panama Canal, “are seas of leachate,” he emphasized.

One of the most important causes of land-use change is the expansion of the agricultural frontier. In recent decades the territorial area dedicated to this activity tripled, from 95,000 farms in 1960 to 248,000, according to the 2010 census, a fact that could be motivated by government incentives for livestock and agricultural activities through low-interest loans.

As for the care of protected areas, one of the biggest obstacles facing the entity is the lack of resources. The control actions are usually carried out by park rangers, 237 distributed in 59 protected areas, thousands of kilometers.

No obstante los retos que tiene por delante el país en materia ambiental, Panamá se destaca en el mundo por ser un líder verde y azul, gracias a las medidas de protección de sus bosques y mares. “En tres años los indicadores ambientales han tenido un significativo cambio. El lapso es muy poco para la recuperación de la naturaleza, pero es un buen tiempo para tomar acciones que sean continuadas por futuras administraciones para hacer una verdadera gestión ambiental en el país”, señaló el ministro.

Por otra parte, los problemas externos se centran en la falta de una educación ambiental transversal, que se dicte en las escuelas y se interiorice en cada ciudadano como parte de su conducta y lo que puede hacer por mejorar el ambiente.

Los efectos del cambio climático han sido devastadores en el mundo.

En este renglón, el Consejo de Gabinete autorizó al titular a presentar ante la Asamblea Nacional la ley que crea el marco general para el cambio climático del país. Lo que ubicará a Panamá a la vanguardia en la materia.

El proyecto crea un viceministerio de cambio climático para avanzar en el tema de los créditos de carbono, que serán reglamentados a través de un decreto ejecutivo para intercambiarlos por dinero y poder negociarlos en el mercado internacional.

“Mucha gente tiene miles de hectáreas y espera que se le pague por la absorción de carbono; en este tenor, las comarcas se verán beneficiadas económicamente por ser las que más bosques tienen“, dijo Concepción durante el acto que publicó los principales retos ambientales.”

El reciente verano, Europa perdió más de 600 mil hectáreas forestales a causa de incendios, España cada año tiene menos agua debido a las esparcidas y bajas precipitaciones pluviales. En cambio, Panamá puede ser la envidia de esos países. El istmo es el tercer país con mayor precipitación pluvial del mundo y su cobertura boscosa, con todo y las amenazas de tala, se incrementó un 3%, alcanzando un 68% del territorio.

“We are one of the few countries in the world that has a law of the rights of nature. Too bad it comes into force in February, because it was going to be applied to environmental criminals, but I will wait until February to apply the law,” exclaimed Concepción, lamenting the presence of criminal organizations dedicated to wildlife trafficking. A scourge that faces the creation of an intelligence police that he hopes “will last a lifetime”, for the results it has given.

MiAmbiente, prevented from controlling garbage in Darién

Hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants crossing the Darien jungle have left behind a garbage problem that defies authorities

Adelita Coriat

acoriat@laestrella.com.pa

pollution in Darien

The Ministry of Environment (MiAmbiente) does not have a plan to contain the pollution generated by hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants who transit through the Darién jungle. The images recently distributed by some migrants show large sources of contamination in an inhospitable area, practically unreachable for the entity.

“It is garbage, and with the rains it runs off and flows into the sea. We do not have the answer for this, we are analyzing it but open to recommendations; at this moment we cannot control the garbage that each migrant throws,” said Milciades Concepción, Minister of Environment.

Since the beginning of the republic, the green plug of the last province of the country has been characterized by being one of the great natural riches subjected to very few human interventions. In 2006, for example, there was evidence of the irruption of groups of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Panamanian territory that they used as a refuge from the persecution of Colombian forces. In 2009 the current government set out to “recover the territory” and destroyed several FARC camps. But the occasional incursion of these groups is nothing compared to the massive transit of migrants and the garbage they leave along the way. When they leave the jungle they abandon rubber boots, clothes, suitcases, which they do not need for the next stretch to Central America. To this is added the garbage they leave on the road, and accumulates, which has caused a new problem for Panama, a country that was not used to looking so carefully at Darien.