Tropical Rainforests of Panama

Introduction

The tiny country of Panama hosts some of the most biologically diverse and well-studied rainforests in the world. Measuring a little over 7,500,000 square hectares in size, nearly 58% of the nation is covered in such forests (Gray 2008). These forests contain almost 10,000 known plant species as well as hundreds of species of birds, mammals, and reptiles (Gray 2008). In Panama, a narrow, east-west oriented country spanning only 31 miles wide at its smallest point, tropical rainforests occur primarily on the northern side of the mountains cut the nation into two (Encyclopedia Britannica 2015). These mountains, called the Tabasará, combined with the south-flowing trade winds found in the Caribbean create a lush, tropical rainforest on its northern side and a tropical dry forest on its southern, Pacific Ocean-facing side (Encyclopedia Britannica 2015). Because the rainforests rarely drop below 78℉, they provide a rich home for a variety of plants and animals. Tall, high-canopy trees such as the kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra) covered in epiphytes characterize the type of flora one would see in this environment (Condit et al. 2011).

Figure 1: Tropical rainforest on Barro Colorado Island, Panama

Source: National Science Foundation (https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp?cntn_id=129069&org=NSF)

History of Panama

Panama is a country that has been bursting with diversity in its rainforests since its earliest days. The Isthmus of Panama formed about 3 million years ago when the land bridge between North and South America closed (Leigh et al. 2014). Since then, numerous species from both the north and the south have come to inhabit its landscape, including jaguars and tapirs from the north and sloths from the south, adding to its diversity (Encyclopedia Britannica 2015). Historically, most of the the country has been covered with tropical forests, with the lush tropical rainforests on the northern side of the mountain range dividing the majority of the country, and then with seasonal dry tropical forests occurring on the southern side (Encyclopedia Britannica 2015). But, as we will discuss in the following section, this abundance of these forests have heavily decreased in the last few decades, threatening its conservation status. 

Though little is known about them historically, indigenous peoples have inhabited the area for at least the past 10,000 years (Leigh et al. 2014). Besides exchanging precious metals such as gold through complex and expansive trade networks, indigenous peoples like the Kuna and the Naso were heavily reliant on the region's oceans, lakes, and rivers for food. It only makes sense, therefore, that Panama's name derives from the indigenous word for "abundance of fishes" (Meding 1999).

Figure 2: Women from Kuna tribe, wearing traditional attire.

Source: CocaWell (http://www.cocoawell.com/about/kuna-people/)

The Spanish explorer Rodrigo de Bastidas discovered Panama in 1501 (Meding 1999). Due to its central location between the riches of Peru and the Spanish colonies in Mexico, Panama became a key port destination for the Spanish conquerers. After breaking off from the Spanish in the 19th century as a province of Columbia, Panama only gained formal independence in 1921 (Meding 1999).

Figure 3: The Resplendent Quetzal, a native bird of Panama
Source: Ashley a Dayer (http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/portal/species/overview?p_p_spp=284856)

Perhaps one of the biggest events to shape the historical state of this ecological landscape was the creation of the Panama Canal, completed in 1913 (Encyclopedia Britannica 2015). Large swaths of its tropical rainforests were flooded as a consequence of its creation, forming the massive man-made Gatún Lake in north-central Panama. Its creation led to the formation of the region’s most studied and possibly most famous tropical areas – the completely forested Barro Colorado Island (Rutger et al. 2011). Set aside as a natural reserve in 1923, the island has acted as a key location to study tropical rainforest conditions for generations of scientists. Major leaps in our understanding of topics such as community dynamics and tropical ecology have stemmed from the work of people like UCLA’s Stephen Hubbell at Barro Colorado Island (Rutger et al. 2011).

Figure 4: A cruise ship on one of the Panama Canal locks 

Source: Cruiseabout (http://www.cruiseabout.com.au/cruise-news/cruising-panama-canal/)

Current Human Impacts

It is clear that current human impacts have drastically affected the tropical rainforests of Panama. In short, it is bad. Deforestation is widespread throughout Panama: there has been a 50 percent reduction in the country's tree cover over the last half century alone (Gritzner & Watson 2008). Road construction, logging, and increased human settlement in Panama's tropical rainforests have led to massive deforestation and degradation. In fact, Panama loses around one percent of its primary forest every year and logging has increased steadily in this area since the 1990s (Butler 2006). Note in Figure 5 the growth in deforestation from 1986 to 2002.

Figure 5: Deforestation around the Panama Canal

Source: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (2005) <http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=5534>.

Much of this deforestation is due to agriculture. Because third world countries like Panama typically do not have the technologies necessary for sustainable land management, farmers and rural families tend to employ subsistence agriculture methods such as slash-and burn (Brown & Pearce 1994). These slash and burn methods are especially destructive to Panama's tropical forests a because the quality of soil is both poor and thin, and is only able to support crops for a few years (Brown & Pearce 1994). Once their use is up, land plots quickly become barren or are turned into pasture, and farmers move onto the next patch of tropical rainforest to slash and burn, making deforestation an especially rampant problem (Brown & Pearce 1994). In addition to agriculture, another cause of deforestation is the settlement and clearance of frontier lands, with an estimation of about 400 to 2000 hectares of deforestation occurring for each kilometer of roads that are built into forested areas (Brown & Pearce 1994).

This deforestation of Panama's tropical rainforests also leads to a loss of the benefits the rainforests bring to humans. Besides the fact that humans benefit from consuming the plants and animals these forests provide, humans also benefit from them in terms of watershed protection and health. That is to say, in a healthy rainforest in Panama, rainwater saturates the soil, before then feeding into the streams supplying the waters of Gatún Lake, which forms a major part of the Panama Canal (Earth Observatory 2005). However, in the last few decades, agricultural practices have claimed much of the rainforest, and this newly deforested land cannot absorb the region’s heavy tropical rains as well. This thus leads to excessive flooding in the Gatún Lake and Dam (Earth Observatory 2005). Additionally, erosion due to the loss of forest coverage and the increased floodwaters fill the lake with sediment, which increases its surface floor and reduces the lake overall storage capacity (Earth Observatory 2005; Gritzner and Watson 2008). Without a lake at proper storage capacity, local residents have been forced to filter the lake water themselves and sometimes even buy bottled drinking water instead (Earth Observatory 2005).

Protected Areas

Figure 6: Vegetation in a tropical rainforest in eastern Panama

Source: http://publications.mcgill.ca/reporter/2013/10/expedition-kuna-a-tropical-rainforest-forgotten-by-time/

In the world as a whole, 18% of all tropical and subtropical rainforests are protected (Wright 2010). Out of those in Panama, 29% has been set aside for conservation. About five million acres of Panama's tropical rainforests (or about 25% of the nation's total) are preserved in 14 different national parks (Ecotourism Panama). Three of these national parks have been awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status (Gray 2008). For example, Darien National Park (seen at right), the largest park in Panama with an area of 597,000 hectares, contains several different ecosystems including mangroves, tropical rainforests, and tropical dry forest (UNESCO). A second example is La Amistad International Park, a 207,000 hectare area with the wildest and highest non-volcanic mountain range in Central America (UNESCO). Lastly, Coiba National Park is located on the largest island in Central America at 270,000 hectares, and is home to many endemic species and threatened animals such as the crested eagle (Gray 2008).

Figure 7: The Republic of Panama with all protected areas demarcated

Source: ScienceDirect.com (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378009000144)

While these protected areas have helped to slow the rapid rates of deforestation, they face other problems. One example is poachers, who hunt animals within the forests. This upsets the food chain, which impacts not only animal wildlife but also leads to the disruption of the species composition of regenerating plants (Wright 2010). A second threat to these protected areas are government plans to build a road connecting Panama and Columbia through the Darien National Park. While the road in and of itself would disrupt the ecosystem with high traffic flows and construction, allowing human access to remote parts of the forest would be detrimental for the rich species habitats within (Gray 2008).

Figure 8: Map of Panamanian forest cover in 2013.

Source: FAO (http://www.fao.org/forestry/country/en/pan/)

Future Prospects

As we had noted previously, the current human impacts on the tropical forests of Panama is bad, and so suggest that the future prospects of this ecosystem are grim. In a study on biodiversity and watershed loss in the tropical rainforests around the Panama Canal, Condit et al. (2001) note that the human population that makes use of the region's local watershed is still nonetheless growing at a high rate (Condit et al. 2001). Unless this population growth is reversed, they claim that forest loss, hunting, and contamination will continue to spread in the next few decades along with the deforestation that comes with rapid urban development (Condit et al. 2001).

Figure 9: Forest Clearing Along the Panama Canal

Source: Mongabay.com (http://travel.mongabay.com/panama/images/panama_0063.html)

One of the most intensive studies predicting the degradation of tropical areas in Panama was done on the Barro Colorado, an island formed during the construction of the Panama Canal in the early 1900s. Scientists working for the Smithsonian Institution's Tropical Research Institute (STRI) have done extensive research aimed at predicting the future of tropical areas throughout Panama. By studying the effects of deforestation and development on the tropical rainforests on Barro Colorado, these scientists have attempted to project the status of forests 20 to 25 years in the future. Research by STRI scientists obtained from geographic mapping software was released in 2001, and suggested that natural causes as well as infrastructure projects in Panama would lead to future substantial increases in forest loss and forest fragmentation (O'Neil 2003).

Figure 10: Barro Colorado Island

Source: National Geographic (http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/13/barro-colorado-island-of-magic-diversity-in-the-middle-of-panama-canal/)

But there is some hope. In recent years, the government of Panama has attempted to protect some remaining forests by launching reforestation initiatives near the Panama Canal, largely with economic motives. By the beginning of the 21st century, nearly 114,00 acres of land had been reforested in Panama (AnywherePanama). Although deforestation still represents a huge threat to the tropical rainforests of Panama, this act represents the hope that the condition of this beautiful ecosystem may be slowly stabilizing, as long as humans put in an effort. As Figures 11-12 show, the deforestation rate has stabilized somewhat in recent years, in 2005 and 2010, even if its future prospects appear grim. 

Figure 11: Panama: Trends in Natural Forest Cover (Deforestation), 1990-2010

Figure 12: Panama: Trends in Total (Net) Forest Cover, 1990-2010

Source: Mongabay News (data for its “Panama Forest Information and Data” is sourced from The Global Forest Resources Assessments done by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Stations)

http://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/2000/Panama.htm

But besides these government initiatives of reforestations, more can be done.  Based on the threat to protected areas of the tropical forests of Panama, we would also suggest that to improve human impacts on the ecosystem, it is important that poaching is addressed. Enforcement of laws against poaching must be enacted, which would create more jobs for the people of Panama. In addition, it is important that concerns about human construction through the Darien National Park are tackled. Such a road should not be built through the center of the rainforest, because although this may be the most direct route, it jeopardizes the ecosystem.

References

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