Article Courtesy from Business Panama

Climate Change and Ecosystem Management in Panama
Scott Muller is interviewed by Roberto López rlopez@prensa.com.
Reprinted courtesy of La Prensa

 

1. - How does climate change affect Panama specifically?

Climate change currently impacts Panama at multiple levels in the degradation of Ecosystem services, which is critically important since the largest sectors of our nation’s economy depend directly on ecosystem services, i.e. the canal, tourism, shrimp, bananas, agriculture, etc. Ecosystems’ services in Panama provide us with billions of dollars each year. But more importantly the degradation of ecosystem services causes significant harm to human well being, dramatically escalating poverty.

Human health effects from climate change include increased asthma and respiratory functions diseases, increased allergies, increased risks of cancer and other chronic diseases from nitrates in the drinking water. Diarrhea from water borne illnesses is already one of the biggest killers of children in our country.

We are becoming increasingly exposed to extreme climate events. The frequency and impact of floods and fires has increased, in part due to ecosystem changes. We have observed impacts of climate change on the ecosystems in the increase in the frequency of pest and disease outbreaks (dengue, cattle deaths from pneumonia) and also many coral reefs have undergone major bleaching episodes where local sea surface temperatures have increased.
Since the global climate has become warmer, the oceans have been rising. The Kuna are aware of this threat and the recent strong storms have resulted in the ocean frequently flooding their island communities. Recent studies by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute have shown that since 1910 the average level of the sea in Kuna Yala has risen more than 15 centimeters. And now the local sea level is increasing by around 2cm each year. It is clear that the Kuna will have to move the majority of their communities to the mainland in coming generations.

Global annual losses from extreme events totaled $70 billion in 2003 alone.

Other impacts can include changes of species distribution, changes in population size, changes in the timing of reproductions and migrations. And what we are noticing is that this increases the likelihood of non- linear, abrupt irreversible changes. Ecosystem degradation can rarely be reversed. Degradation of ecosystem services represents a loss of natural assets, that is, our country’s very wealth.

Unfortunately, the loss of wealth due to this degradation is not reflected in our traditional economic accounts. Ecosystem services such as fresh water provision, as well as resources such as mineral deposits, soil nutrients, and fossil fuels are capital assets. Our traditional national accounts do not include measures of the degradation or depletion of these resources. This puts unreasonable expectations on our political leaders to work miracles.
 

2. - What is causing the acceleration of the erosion process in the rainforest areas of Darién?

We have changed our ecosystems in the past 50 years more than any other period in history, largely due to the increased demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel. Our Global economic output in the year 2000 was greater than the entire 19th century.
In Darién, human intervention and the migration of agricultural colonizers has led to uncontrolled forestry, mining, agriculture and hunting resulting in deforestation, soil erosion, disruption of the fragile ecological equilibrium and dislocation of traditional indigenous practices. This all contributes directly to climate change.

Even back 25 years ago, between 1980 and 1990, the annual demographic growth rate of 4.49% for the Darien as a whole was twice the average for Panama.

On top of this, it is significant to note that the corregimientos in Darien experiencing negative population growth are all located in the upper tributaries and areas most distant from the road. On the other hand, those sectors on or closest to the existing road between Chepo and Yaviza experienced the greatest population increases during the 1990s. There is a direct corollary between the opening of the Darien Highway in Panama and major shifts in population distribution.

There are 65,000 indigenous people who live in the area represented by 3 cultures: Kuna, Embera and Wounan, whose traditional lifestyles have been environmentally sustainable for centuries. This is changing.
What’s more, the instability caused by armed groups on the edge of the law, the change in production models and the consumption of natural resources, fragmentation, the process of micro-intervention in the border zone with Colombia and limited institutional capacity, all should be taken into account.

The grave danger of the threats in the region is clearly demonstrated in the 1994 IUCN Resolution 19.66: “Opening the Darien Gap”.

 

3. - What is the main danger facing our bio-diversity, and what should we do?

When we speak of biodiversity and economics, what we are really talking about in this case is ecosystem services.
The conclusion of the world’s top 1,360 scientists from 95 countries involved in the elaboration of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is that the degradation of ecosystem services will grow significantly worse during the first half of this century. Remember, ecosystem changes are irreversible. This will be our biggest challenge towards eliminating poverty, an important goal highlighted by President Torrijos during his inspirational address to the 59th UN General Assembly, 22/09/2004.

Managing the impacts from the degradation of ecosystem services is the most important and greatest challenge our Nation faces. It will require reactive and proactive responses.

Major investments in public goods can help, education, infrastructure and poverty reduction. We need to spend a much large percentage of our GDP on education. Economic and financial interventions can provide powerful instruments to regulate the use of ecosystems goods and services. Trade barriers and distortional/ perverse subsidies should be eliminated.

Responses include among other things; the promotion of demand side management, commitments by industries to use raw materials that are from sources certified as being sustainable and improved product labeling.

As well as empowerment of groups, particularly dependent on ecosystem services or affected by their degradation, including women, children and, of course, the indigenous population: Kuna, Emberá, Wounaan, Ngäbe, Buglé, Naso y Bri-bri. Article 123 de la Panamanian Carta Magna establishes that the State guarantees indigenous communities the necessary land to be collective property with the objective of providing the indigenous people for economic and social well-being.

The promotion of technology to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as the important solar projects in the Ngäbe Bugle region. The same efforts should be made in our cities.

We need to better integrate ecosystem management goals within other sectors such as agriculture and within broader development planning frameworks.

We need to incorporate non-market values of ecosystem services in our management decisions.

We have to protect Darien, and all our natural resources, as the heart and soul of the Republic’s wealth, which they truly are.
In short, we have to enable our future, not wait for it.

Scott Muller is a Panamanian-American with a degree in environmental engineering from the University of Vanderbilt. He possesses vast experience creating and implementing successful sustainable-use strategies for the conservation of the components of biological diversity.

He has served in several technical expert work groups of multilateral environmental conventions. Muller has given keynote addresses including to the Ambassadors at the UN in New York on the subject of small island development as well as tourism.
Muller was also one of many lead authors of the recently published Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a 4 year international work program launched by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in June 2001, designed to meet the needs of decision makers and the public for scientific information concerning the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and comprehensive assessment of the health of the Earth’s ecosystems and authorized by the world’s governments through 4 conventions. www.millenniumassessment.org

He established the organization CODESTA, which serves as a not-for-profit implementing agency for model programs and pilot projects of practical conservation and the sustainable use of the biodiversity.


Article Courtesy of Business Panama
The American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM)
and Deal Inc.

 

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