Road Threatens Central America's Greatest Rainforest Wilderness
Panama's government is accelerating efforts to build a road through the Darien Gap - one of Central America's last great rainforest wildernesses. There will always be a somewhat reasonable excuse to wipe out the Earth's last rainforests and other vital ecosystems. Money can almost always be made for a select few by liquidating natural ecosystems. At some point destroying terrestrial, oceanic, atmospheric and hydrological ecosystems leads to ecological collapse. It is only after a critical threshold has been reached - such as has happened in the Philippines, Indonesia and elsewhere - that the land, water and air can no longer support affluent life for more than a few. Perhaps the Darien gap can be destroyed and the ecosystems of the region remain intact. Or maybe it is the proverbial straw that will break the ecosystem's back, leading to climate change, drought, more deforestation and lack of other critical services provided to humanity by intact rainforests. The well-being of future generations of Panamanians is best served by keeping the Darien gap natural, and stopping road construction.
Comments
it's sad to hear that latin American republics are still buying in to and molycoddling the car at the expense of limited and disappearing rainforest habitat. They obviously havn't learned from the mistakes made in North
America and Europe, that once a major highway is pushed into a biologically intact biome that it is like a spike in the coffin of that area, and it's biodiversity, and seclusion quickly vanishes. i hope that Panama has enough insight, and that the international community can offer Panama a better choice than to destroy a vital link in the pattern of central American forest biomes.
Posted by: craig hart | April 18, 2005 9:05 AM
This is wrong. The Colombian government is who want to build the road. Martin Torrijos, President of Panama, said to Uribe that this topic is out of discussion, Panama is not interested in build this road, Panama is interested in preserve the Darien Gap.
Ricardo Brown-Salazar
Chief
National Forest Service
Panama
Posted by: Ricardo Brown Salazar | December 18, 2005 5:44 PM
DO NOT CUT DOWN ANY PART OF THE RAINFOREST!!!! PEOPLE DONT REALIZE WHAT WE COULD FIND IN THEIR SOO WE TREE HUGGERS WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT IF YOU DIDNT TOUCH THE RAINFOREST!!!
Posted by: Hannah | January 21, 2007 8:05 PM
what are the issues associated
and also how do we use the rainforests
Posted by: brooke | October 19, 2008 10:12 PM