Calls to relocate international port development in Panama that threatens an environmentally protected area
Campaigning to get Puerto Barú in David relocated, to minimise environmental damage to mangroves, marine species, and other wildlife.
3 May 2025
Voices from Chiriquí: Gustavo, fisherman - How Puerto Baru in David will harm fishing and tourism in exchange for a promise with no guarantees
If there’s one thing Gustavo doesn’t believe in, it’s pipe dreams. And if there’s one thing he doesn’t do, it’s mince his words. At 34, born, raised, and sea-hardened in Boca Chica, this fisherman and tour operator has seen enough to know that, despite the promises of development and employment, the Puerto Barú en David project will be negative for Chiriquí.
"There might be work, say, for about five years," he says. "After those five years, what do we do?"
Clearly, for Gustavo, the question is rhetorical.
"When we go fishing, the fish we had five years ago won’t be there. The shrimp that came in five years ago won’t be there," he points out.
"As for the whales, for which we used to take whale tours, you’re going to have to go further out, charge people more, and people aren’t going to want to pay that much. Most of the tourist boats we have here are going to be stranded. All of that is detrimental."
Mangroves in Danger, Fish at Risk
Gustavo seems to be one of those who doesn’t know what it’s like to have a vacation. After learning the fishing trade from his father and grandfather, he is now a boat captain, leading fishing and wildlife-watching tours.
He knows these waters like the back of his hand: "We get a lot of mackerel, snapper, sea bass…what we call revoltura, which is cojinúa, white snapper. There’s quite a variety of fish," he describes.
We spoke with him on a hot January afternoon, by the sea, in a marina surrounded by mangroves. He had just brought some tourists back from a long day of fishing when he agreed—tired, but unhurried—to tell us his impressions of Puerto Barú en David.
This project seeks to build a multipurpose port for cargo and cruise ships on the outskirts of the city of David. To allow ships to enter and exit, the plan includes opening a navigation channel.
This project seeks to build a multipurpose port for cargo and cruise ships on the outskirts of the city of David. To allow ships to enter and exit, the plan includes opening a navigation channel.
But there are two problems: first, the waters are shallow, so millions of cubic meters of the seabed will have to be dredged year after year. On the other hand, this extraction and transfer of materials will occur in one of Panama’s richest natural areas, the David Mangroves.
Mangroves act as natural barriers to coastal protection, are essential habitats for a rich diversity of species, capture carbon much more efficiently than tropical forests, and provide sustenance for the surrounding communities. Chiriquí is home to 25% of all remaining mangroves in Panama.
In our conversation, Gustavo addresses these elements one by one, with undaunted pragmatism.
"First, mangroves are an ecosystem where fish reproduce a lot. By having to dredge, they’re going to have to remove a lot of mangroves. Then the fish won’t reproduce," says Gustavo.
And the impact will go beyond fishing. Dredging will scare away dolphins, "which is a tour currently being sold in Boca Chica," and the noise from boats will keep away whales, which "won’t come in as much as they do every year, since they’re close by," he estimates.
Dirty Water
For Gustavo, there’s no doubt that dredging the navigation channel, which involves depositing the extracted sediments at the mouth of the estuary, will alter the living conditions of plant and animal species. Experience has taught him that humans can make decisions, but the sea will decide according to its own rules.
"If they persist, those sediments won’t stay (at the place of deposition), because here we have the San Pedro bar, as we call it," he says while pointing, for more information, in the distance in the direction of this bar.
"It never stays there. The channel changes all the time. They’ll throw that dirt in there, and with the current, it’ll come out. It either comes out or it goes in. It doesn’t stay there," he explains.
"It’s like putting a chemical in the water. That dirt doesn’t belong there."
And it’s not just the fish that will suffer the consequences.
"I’ve also fished for lobster; my father was a lobster fisherman. There, just out there" —he points again to the horizon— "there’s a rock where there are lobsters too. And the lobster, when the water gets dirty, muddy, leaves."
The same can be said of the shrimp, "which come in around June or July, right here in this same Bahía Muerto, to spawn."
"That’s a loss we’re going to have with the shrimp there."
Overhyped Job Opportunities
That said, it’s not difficult to see how the possibility of Puerto Barú en David generating employment in Chiriquí doesn’t compensate for the damage. But even more, as Gustavo tells us, this promise could be nothing more than a mirage.
"Based on experience I’ve seen elsewhere, if it were a Panamanian government project, I could say there would be jobs because the government itself would manipulate them. But that’s a private company," he points out.
For Gustavo, the construction phase could generate work for builders and bricklayers. But that phase is limited. The key question is what kind of jobs will be offered and who will be hired in the long term. In that sense, he is not optimistic.
"How many staff will remain, what manager will they need, what captains? That’s what we don’t know, if there will be people from here. I don’t think that will be the case; they will bring their own people," he opines.
"They already have a plan for now and the future."
As things stand, Puerto Barú en David appears to be a plan that will not only irreparably disregard invaluable resources for Panama, but simply does not include Chiriquí or the people of Chiriquí.
For these reasons, we are campaigning to achieve the relocation of the project to Puerto Armuelles where the economic benefits can be obtained without causing fatal damage to the environment.
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