Course:GEOS303/2022/Panama (Ryan Carteret)

Flag of Panama

Political map of Panama

The Republic of Panama (Spanish: República de Panamá) is the southernmost country in Central America. Straddling the continental divide between North and South America, its 75,320km² territory comprises the Isthmus of Panama and over 1,600 islands. The isthmus simultaneously separates and divides the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, with the latter function being achieved in no small part thanks to the geopolitically and economically vital Panama Canal. A largely horizontal landmass between 10° and 7° N, Panama is neighboured by Costa Rica to the west and Colombia to the southeast.

As a result of being colonised by Spain in the 16^th century, its official language is Spanish, yet indigenous peoples such as the Kuna, Guaymí and Chocó have inhabited the area since time immemorial and continue to maintain their traditional languages and ways of life. The capital is Panama City (Spanish: Ciudad de Panamá), located on the Pacific coast in the east-central part of the country and home to two-fifths of Panama's 4.4 million people.

Biogeography

According to the World Atlas, the six dominant biomes in Panama are:

• mangroves
• tropical and subtropical coastal river freshwater
• tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
• tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests
• tropical east-Pacific marine
• tropical northwestern Atlantic marine

Within these biomes fall eight ecoregions, according to the organisation One Earth:

• Isthmian-Atlantic moist forests
• Southern Mesoamerican Pacific mangroves
• Talamancan montane forests
• Isthmian-Pacific moist forests
• Panamanian dry forests
• Chocó-Darién moist forests
• South American Pacific mangroves
• Eastern Panamanian montane forest

These ecoregions are biophysically and climatically limited to the neotropical zone of Central America, where high humidity and a lack of significant dry periods allow for much of the region to consist of tropical forests, with only one small portion on the southern (Pacific) coast of Panama being classified as dry forest. Biogeographically, the region forms somewhat of an S shape, beginning with Isthmian-Atlantic moist forests in central Nicaragua, introducing Talamancan montane forests and Isthmian-Pacific moist forests in Costa Rica, adding Southern Mesoamerican Pacific mangroves, Panamanian dry forests, Chocó-Darién moist forests, Eastern Panamanian montane forests and South American Pacific mangroves in Panama, and finally splitting in two at Colombia, where Magdalena-Urabá moist forests branch off to the east whilst the Chocó-Darién forests continue along Colombia's Pacific coast, frequently flanked by South American Pacific mangroves.

Diversity

Due to its geographic location between two continents, Panama Wildlife Conservation views the country as 'a hotbed of biodiversity' and 'a vital part of a biological corridor', in whose tropical rainforests many endemic and not-yet-discovered species thrive, and through which plants and animals are able to travel and extend their reach into North or South America.

White-nosed coati (nasua narica), as seen by my parents in Boquete, Chiriquí, Panama

Statistics

Panama is home to:

• over 10,444 plant species
  • 1,500 tree species
  • 1,200 orchid varieties
  • 678 fern species
• 972 bird species
• 255 mammalian species
• 222 amphibian species

The Great American Interchange

The Biomuseo biology museum in Panama City features an exhibition titled El Gran Intercambio, or The Great (American) Interchange, in which Panama played a central role. Roughly three million years ago, a chain of volcanic islands collided to form what we now know as the Isthmus of Panama, thereby connecting the North and South American continents and allowing mammals to travel both north and south.

As a result of this, there are mammals of North American descent in South America and South American in North America; however, the interchange was not an even exchange: According to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, nearly 50% of South American mammal species today originated in North America, whereas only 10% of species in North America originated in the South. This discrepancy is largely thought to be the consequence of predation by carnivorous North American immigrants, as well as the relative inefficiency of South American mammals at competing for resources and diversifying.

In addition, an inverse effect occurred in the water, as the closing off of what we now know as the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean from the Pacific Ocean resulted in 'the Great American Schism', in which marine species had to either diversify or face extinction.

Many of the South American mammals, such as monkeys and bats, did not survive much farther past Central America due to markedly different climatic conditions. Being 'the end of the road' for many species, biodiversity in Panama and the greater Central American tropical biome can thus be seen as the greatest beneficiary of this exchange.

Most notable is the biodiversity in the 'Darién Gap' region between Panama and Colombia, which is so dense with rainfall, mountains, marshes, vegetation and fauna that the 106-kilometre stretch that would complete the Pan-American Highway virtually cannot be built - the detrimental costs to the local environment and indigenous Embera-Wounaan and Guna peoples notwithstanding.

Human influences

Photo of megatherium americanum (giant ground sloth)

15 thousand years ago, humans arrived in what we know as Panama for the first time, Biomuseo states in their La Huella Humana (The Human Footprint) exhibit. There, they found mastodons and giant ground sloths, which were hunted into extinction. As they settled and developed their societies, deforestation occurred to make way for agriculture, and minerals such as gold and stone were mined for crafts and tools. Ultimately, however, their impact remained relatively small until Europeans arrived from Spain in 1501, bringing with them diseases, invasive species and drastically different and more ecologically impactful ways of living. Panama's modern landscape is a reflection of this, with the population rising rapidly from around 400,000 in 1907 to 4.4 million today.

Despite this, the country's seven indigenous peoples - the Naso, Ngäbe, Buglé, Guna, Bri Bri, Emberá and Wounaan - comprise 12% of the population, yet remain stewards of almost a quarter of Panama's land and especially of its rainforests. The Emberá people, for example, reside in the Darién province along the Chagres River, which supplies both Panama City and the Panama Canal with freshwater, and water is highly respected in their culture. The Naso call home an area in both Panama and Costa Rica where the resplendent quetzal is also a resident - a bird held in high regard by the Aztec and Maya peoples. The Naso are therefore lobbying on an international level for their region to receive greater ecological protection.

Map of Panama's provinces (light blue) and indigenous territories (dark blue)

Threats

The 2020 article 'A “Global Safety Net” to reverse biodiversity loss and stabilize Earth’s climate' set out a list of criteria that would need to be met on a global scale in order to bring an end to both biodiversity loss and climate change, which would be achieved by 1) maintaining the intact status of Earth's existing 15.1% protected land and 2) conserving 35.3% more of the planet's most ecologically rich regions.

According to the GSN, Panama ranks 43^rd amongst medium-sized countries, scoring 3/10 for the amount of 'areas of particular importance to biodiversity and ecosystem services' that are currently protected. With protected areas only accounting for 21.1% of the country's total area, but rare species sites (10.2%), high-biodiversity areas (35.5%), large-mammal landscapes (1%) and climate-stabilisation areas (0.4%) accounting for a combined 47.1%, there is clearly much room for improvement.

The largest ecoregions in Panama are the Isthmian-Pacific and -Atlantic moist forests, the former of which can boast having higher species richness and endemism as a result of greater topographic, climatic and seasonal variation. This region is home to a large number of endemic and endangered bird species, yet there is very little of it (less than 17% as a whole, including Costa Rican territory) that is protected. As a result, the most important threat is further deforestation for logging and agriculture.

On the Atlantic side, the Isthmian ecoregion's relatively lower species richness and endemism nevertheless provide habitat for a great deal of plant and animal diversity. Jaguars, tapirs and many birds call the region home, as well as several rare species of butterfly that push butterfly-species richness high into the world rankings. Although there is a significant amount of protected land in Panama's part of the ecoregion, its main saving grace is the steep terrain, which makes the land less likely to be deforested for agriculture as is occurring across borders in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Finally, the Chocó-Darién moist forest is a fascinating region - 'one of the most active centres of endemism and speciation in the world'. It harbours between 8-10,000 plants, of which 20% are endemic, and endemism is typical across many species of flora and fauna. Regrettably, parts of the region have given way to banana and palm agriculture, but the centre has remained largely unaffected despite little legal protection. Again, deforestation for agriculture and forestry is the major threat, with the latter industry in Colombia producing over half of that country's wood.

Conservation

Researchers Javier Mateo-Vega, of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and Catherine Potvin, of the Smithsonian and McGill University, collaborated with the Emberá indigenous people located in the Darién province and the town of Ipeti. As a result of years of on-the-ground work to study the region's forests, both had gained the locals' trust and and understanding of how their research and knowledge could help the community grapple with the slowly dwindling forest upon which they depend. By experimenting with growing chunga palms for basket-weaving and others for traditional home-building on plantations, they were able to reduce the Emberá's forest depletion.

And by training the people on how to measure carbon in their forests and including them as co-authors in their research, Mateo-Vega and Potvin piqued their interest in envisioning a sustainable, tradition-rooted future for their community. This took the form of Mateo-Vega leading a series of land-use planning workshops in Ipeti, in the hopes of providing them with the data and expertise needed to decide on a future for their own land and forest. In light of UN-backed carbon-market schemes in which wealthy nations would fund the continued protection and remediation of forests like Ipeti's and others in Darién, it became all the more important for these communities to have their land titles recognised and their knowledge respected.

After completing their latest workshop, the people in Ipeti felt empowered and determined to revive their forest. Not merely to keep carbon sequestered, but also to create educational jobs, bring about food self-sufficiency and preserve their way of life. And they already had results to show for it: In the neighbouring village of Pirati, there was no longer any forest; by contrast, half of Ipeti is still forested.

As Mateo-Vega put it, 'We worked ourselves out of a job—which was the plan'.

References

This Tropical Ecology Resource was created by Course:GEOS303.