Residents of Panama’s Azuero Peninsula region are calling on the government to take action in protecting the area’s environment and to engage in a reforestation efforts.
The region includes the main contributors to La Villa River, an important source of drinking water for people in the provinces of Los Santos and Herrera.
The water from the river also provides irrigation for the about 560 hectares of agriculture and 2,740 hectares of animal grazing.
Resident Pinto Corrales told La Prensa, “We want to reforest the area, but we do not know the plans of the authorities. No one has submitted alternatives to save the region and ensure the quantity as well as quality of water resources.”
Corrales claims that unsustainable practices implemented in recent decades along with a lack of education and proper policy planning have contributed to the environmental degradation. Farmers’ own use of “slash and burn” techniques to clear fields and their use of dangerous chemical herbicides are also environmentally damaging.
As Panama continues on its path of development, balancing environmental issues with economic benefits continues to be a challenge.
The Azuero Peninsula is a pristine stretch of prime coastal land and is known as Panama’s Sunset Coast, as it is the only coast in the country to face west, offering you sunsets over the Pacific every evening. Los Islotes, a premier land development on the Azuero coast, is the only fully master-planned development project in this important part of this country and has taken great care in protecting the environment at each stage of development and will continue to do so, protecting the natural resources of this special piece of land. The property and its waters are home to turtle nesting grounds, hundreds-of-years-old mango and mangrove trees, monkeys, dolphins, whales, and thousands of species of other plants and animals.
