Panamanian Paradise Threatened by Progress
12/6/97
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Headline: Panamanian Paradise Threatened by Progress
Source: CNN
Date: 12/6/97
Author: Correspondent Gary Strieker
Copyright 1997: Cable News Network, Inc. A Time Warner Company
BOCAS DEL TORO, Panama(CNN) -- Guaymie Indian fishermen,
who ply their trade on the waters off Bocas Del Toro,
Panama, say their catches are getting smaller every
year -- because there are too many fishermen.
These forested hills, and especially the lagoons
and islands, are know for their unspoiled beauty.
Christopher Columbus landed here on one of his
later voyages nearly five centuries ago, and
people here brag that these islands, more than any
other in the Caribbean, still look the same as
Columbus found them.
Also the same: Indian peoples who were here long
before Columbus, still depending for survival on
these forests, rivers and lagoons.
But the natural resources of Bocas Del Toro are
now threatened by major changes.
A road will soon, for the first time, connect the
region to the rest of Panama, bringing investments
in tourism and potentially thousands of new
immigrants looking for land and jobs.
Even without new immigrants, the local Indian
population along the coast is already growing.
The Guaymie people, seeking employment and better
educational opportunities, are cutting down the
mangrove forests to make way for crowded
settlements. What they also get is pollution and
disease.
But in this, the poorest region of Panama, there
are no more jobs. Banana growers say they cannot
absorb any more labor, so desperate young men are
turning to fishing to make a living.
And increasing the number of fishermen exacerbates
the problem of ever-decreasing numbers of fish.
Other Guaymie are clear-cutting forested land in
the hills to plant crops. Because of the
deforestation, streams and rivers carry loads of
sediment into coastal lagoons, smothering coral
reefs that are vital for marine life.
"It's not a matter now of saving some fish," says
Hector Guzman of the Smithsonian Tropical Research
Institute. "It's just that the entire productivity
of the system is going to collapse."
If the fishing industry does collapse, it could
leave the Guaymie without their livelihood. And
without the reefs or the fish or the forests,
tourism, too, would be negatively impacted.
So the pressing question here is whether, as the
Guaymie try to pull themselves out of poverty, it
will also be possible to protect the natural
resources of this beautiful, remote corner of the
world.