Our mission updates

Chiriquí is home to approximately 25% of the country's mangroves, a natural heritage of enormous ecological and social value. Today, initiatives like Puerto Barú in David, Chiriquí, represent a threat to these mangroves and to the delicate balance that protects life and the communities that depend on them. These ecosystems play a vital role […]

In the debate surrounding port development in Chiriquí, one question inevitably arises: Does it make sense to build two large-scale ports so close to each other? While the Puerto Barú project continues to generate concern about its impact on the mangroves of David, Puerto Armuelles is advancing as a real, technically sound, and environmentally responsible alternative, […]

Jenny y Luis, estudiantes de Ciencias Ambientales en Chiriquí, visitaron por primera vez los manglares de su provincia. No fue una excursión más. Fue un encuentro directo con un ecosistema que suele permanecer invisible hasta que le reconoce con todos sus atributos y funciones vitales. Sus palabras, registradas en este reel, condensan algo que muchos […]

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 […]

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 […]