Nature has a voice! And you can be one of its defenders!

In 2022, Panama took a historic step for the planet: it passed the Law of the Rights of Nature, recognizing that ecosystems have the legal right to exist, persist, and regenerate. Recognizing that nature has rights means understanding that life is not an exclusive privilege of human beings. Rivers, forests, oceans, and the species that inhabit them also have the right to exist, regenerate, and complete their life cycles without being destroyed.

This principle stems from an ethical and ancestral vision: that of seeing the Earth as a being with intrinsic value, not as an inexhaustible source of resources. Just as human rights protect the dignity of people, the Rights of Nature seek to guarantee the dignity of ecosystems, because without them, without water, without mangroves, without clean air, there is no possible future for anyone.

But this achievement, which seemed untouchable, now faces a contradiction. In the Gulf of Chiriquí, the Puerto Barú port project threatens the principles of the Rights of Nature Act. According to the Environmental Impact and Economic Valuation Report prepared by Lynker (2024, pp. 4–10), the port’s construction would involve dredging in the David Mangroves, an area recognized for its high carbon sequestration, its role in coastal protection, and its unique biodiversity. The study warns that the access channel to the port would cut through mangrove areas under state jurisdiction, degrading essential habitats, releasing stored carbon, and contradicting Panama’s climate commitments, which include reducing its emissions by 11.5% by 2030 and restoring 50,000 hectares of mangroves by 2050.

Faced with this threat, the No to Puerto Barú campaign has united more than 60 organizations, scientists, and environmental leaders, along with the support of civil society. #NoaPuertoBarú is more than a coalition, it is a movement that grows daily in environmental protection, a voice in defense of nature and the country’s environmental coherence. They advocate for Chiriquí to have a port, and with it the desired progress for the region, in Puerto Armuelles, a location with existing infrastructure and less ecological impact.

This fight goes beyond a port: it is in defense of life. Mangroves are the guardians of the climate and coastal life. They store four times more carbon than tropical forests, sustain local economies, and represent one of Panama’s greatest contributions to the planet’s balance.

Protecting mangroves is not about halting development: it’s about redefining it from the perspective of ecological justice. Because progress is with nature, not against it.

Join the No to Puerto Barú movement; together we defend life.
#DefendTheMangroves #StandForNature #NoToPuertoBarú