Forests along Panama Canal Face Uncertain Future
11/18/97
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Headline: Forests along Panama Canal Face Uncertain Future
Source: CNN
Date: 11/18/97
Byline: Gary Strieker
Copyright 1997 Cable News Network, Inc. A Time Warner Company. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.
PANAMA CITY, Panama (CNN) -- For more than 90
years, the United States has controlled not only
the Panama Canal, but also a 10-mile-wide strip of
territory along the canal -- most of it dense
tropical forest.
But there's concern that when the United States
hands control of the canal over to Panama in 1999,
it could be the beginning of the end for those
forests.
About 70 percent of Panama's forests have already
been cut down, and squatters have moved into some
areas bordering the canal zone, slashing and
burning forested areas to clear land for crops.
"If people now believe this is a free land, for
everybody to take advantage of it, (the forests)
will soon disappear," said Ivan Valdespino of
ANCON, the National Association for the
Conservation of Nature.
Scientists say the canal zone areas contain some
of the most undisturbed forests in
Central America, sheltering many endangered
animals and plants.
It would be hard to find another nation that
depends so much for its survival on a vital
watershed and the forest that protects it.
"The part that we have preserved over this time,
that has been under our management, is really in
excellent condition," said Col. Michael DeBow of
the U.S. Army.
The forests have been preserved because they
protect a critical watershed -- streams and rivers
flowing into lakes that supply fresh water needed
to operate the canal's locks.
Without the forest, erosion and sedimentation
would threaten the canal's future. That's why
Panama's government says it puts a high priority
on protecting the watershed after the handover.
"I think it's good to be concerned. It you're not
concerned, you're not really going to pay
attention to things that could happen. You have to
be cautious," says Mirei Endara of INRENARE, the
Panamanian government's Institute for the
Management of Renewable Natural Resources.
New changes to Panama's constitution give canal
authorities overall responsibility for protecting
the entire watershed -- an area more than 10 times
larger than the portion now under U.S. control.
The Panama Canal Treaties, signed in 1977, provide
for the transfer of the canal to Panama by
December 31, 1999.
"We are the ones using that watershed. We are the
ones that need to protect it. We need someone to
have authority," said canal administrator Alberto
Aleman.
Much of the forested area is now [Forest burning]
reserved in national parks, and
government efforts to stop slash-and-burn farming
in the watershed seem to be working. Deforestation
rates have fallen, Endara said.
But some experts say the real problem is not
farmers but uncontrolled expansion of urban areas.
The growth causes erosion and pollution that
affects water supplies not only for the canal, but
for the cities and towns.
Panamanian conservationists say the country is
much more aware of the need to protect the
watershed, but that the international community
should not take that protection for granted.
"They should keep an eye on what we are doing,"
Valdespino said.