ANAM study shows less deforestation in Panama

PANAMA. The general manager of the National Environment Authority (ANAM) Ligia Castro has announced that an ANAM study reveals that the amount of forests in Panama have increased by one percent, while the rate of deforestation has decreased by half.

The study was held using the same methodology previously used in 2000, with the help of satellite images.

In an interview with RPC Radio, Castro explained that in 2000 the deforestation rate was 47,000 hectares per year, a rate that has decreased to 23,000 hectares this year.

Castro mentioned it was important to note that the two last areas declared protected are the district of Donoso, as a multiuse protected area, and an area in Veraguas.

¨At the moment we have moved from 2004, when we had 32 percent of the national territory considered protected areas, to 37 percent of the territory as protected areas,” she explained.

She said that in these areas ecotourism and scientific investigations are being promoted.

For the ANAM manager, the most important aspect of these new statistics is that it is an achievement shared with the Panamanian society.

Every time that the society is better informed and its activity better organized, it (the society) is more useful for all of the public institutions,” she said.

Castro indicated that there are community groups that are setting up businesses and investing in eco-friendly ways, and that the society is participating more by making a complaint against those harming their surroundings.

“This is a shared achievement, between the government and the Panamanian society. This is historic, and besides, we are among the first countries in the world to have achieved it,” she said.