Our mission updates

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 […]

According to Law 41 of 1998, protected areas in Panama are terrestrial, coastal, or marine zones officially declared to conserve natural and cultural resources, as well as to promote education, recreation, and environmental research. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) also defines these zones as spaces […]

The Puerto Barú project in David is intended to be built 20 kilometres from the city of David, in an area surrounded by 25% of Panama's remaining mangroves, which are home to critically endangered species such as the hawksbill turtle and the Central American black monkey. The plaintiffs aim to prove before the [...]

According to the international environmental engineering and consulting firm Lynker, the construction and operation of Puerto Baru will increase the likelihood of collisions between vessels and humpback whale habitat. This habitat, which stretches from just east of Boca Brava to just west of the Boca Brava Strait, is located east [...]

Environmental coalition gathers to protest Puerto Baru Protestors gather at Puerto Baru's proposed location Protests take place at Puerto Baru Protests at proposed Puerto Baru site Protest against proposed plans for Puerto Baru Guido Berguido, biologist and director of Adopta Bosque, one of more than 50 organisations opposing Puerto Baru at the site [...]