News

Jenny and Luis, Environmental Science students in Chiriquí, visited the mangroves of their province for the first time. It wasn't just another field trip. It was a direct encounter with an ecosystem that often remains invisible until it is recognized in all its attributes and vital functions. Their words, recorded in this reel, encapsulate something that many […]

The health of mangroves depends directly on water quality. When the seabed is disturbed, the consequences are real: Vulnerable ecosystems. Sediment removal clouds the water, damages mangrove roots, and weakens their ability to regenerate, endangering the species that are born and grow there. Water quality […]

When development can be done right, why threaten nature? While there is insistence on imposing a mega-port project in a protected mangrove area, there is a real, viable, and technically sound alternative that has already been evaluated: Puerto Armuelles. It is not a new idea or an abstract promise. It is a territory with existing infrastructure […]

Today, Chiriquí needs us to stop looking the other way because every mangrove, every fish grove, and every estuary is not just a landscape: it is sustenance, identity, and future for thousands of families. But that value could be at risk due to the construction of a project that could transform one of the most valuable areas […]

We are living through a historical irony where megaprojects promise “progress” wrapped in polished images and seductive rhetoric. In this context, the task of telling the truth, with evidence, experience, and local knowledge, becomes urgent. On this occasion, four voices intimately familiar with the Gulf of Chiriquí, its mangroves, and its biodiversity, react to […]

More than 60 scientific, social, and environmental organizations publicly denounced the advance of a legal and media intimidation strategy aimed at hindering and punishing environmental defenders in the country. The signatory organizations demanded that the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Judiciary dismiss the lawsuits filed by Ocean Pacific Financial, the company promoting the Puerto Barú port project in David, against the organizations Adopta Bosque Panamá and […]

Words often promise more than reality delivers. Greenwashing, as it's called, isn't just about advertising campaigns, but also about political and communication strategies that manipulate environmental language to legitimize extractivism. In this way, so-called "eco-ports" promise "sustainable tourism" and "blue progress," but, unfortunately, behind the green rhetoric lies […]

At a crowded press conference held in Panama City, more than 60 scientific, social, and environmental organizations publicly denounced the advance of a legal and media intimidation strategy aimed at hindering and punishing environmental defenders in the country. The signatory organizations demanded that the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Judiciary […]

Terrorizing, exhausting, and silencing environmental defenders: this is how SLAPP lawsuits operate—strategic trials against public participation that are growing worldwide as a tool of legal intimidation. Behind rhetoric of “progress” or “sustainable development,” corporations use the judicial system to silence criticism and wear down communities. […]

While the sea appears calm off the coast of Chiriquí, beneath its surface, changes are brewing that we cannot ignore. The Puerto Barú port project in Chiriquí aims to open a navigation channel through the David Mangroves protected area—a species protected by Law 304 of 2022.

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.

When Rights Are Not Enough: The world is going through an era of contradictions. States that sign climate treaties and enact environmental protection laws are often the same ones that allow megaprojects that destroy the ecosystems they swear to defend. In Panama, a pioneering country in recognizing the Rights of Nature, this paradox is embodied in […]