12 April 2007

Preserving the Environment, Changing Lives in Panama

Partnership for a Better Life

 

Two Macaw parrots are seen near Panama City, Panama. El Achiote, in San Lorenzo National Park in the Panama Canal watershed, is a sustainable tourism site devoted to bird-watching and preserving diverse flora and fauna. (© AP Images)

Two Macaw parrots are seen near Panama City, Panama. (© AP Images)

El Achiote, in San Lorenzo National Park in the Panama Canal watershed, is a world-renowned site for bird watching. In addition to birds, it boasts a diversity of flora and fauna.

The community of El Achiote wants to ensure that it preserves its status as a premier bird-watching site for generations to come. With help from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), it built a sustainable tourism infrastructure that is protecting the natural resources on which birds depend and improving the lives of people in the community.

The community worked with USAID to develop a plan to build the infrastructure. Every day women and men came together in the tropical heat and humidity to carry heavy stones and lumber to build the trails, bridges and lookout towers that are the centerpiece of the project.

Exhausted but very proud of their hard work, the community then planned to operate the El Tucán visitor center, a small restaurant and two interpretative trails, thus improving the services they provide to local and foreign visitors.

Michael Castro is one of the seven bird-watching guides at El Achiote. "We never knew that we could do something like this in our community," he said. "We thought that we could only make money from agriculture and raising cattle."

One of the trails, El Trogón, is named for the brightly feathered trogón bird. It offers visitors a chance to live the tropical rain forest experience and enjoy sightings of the lattice-tailed trogón.

"On this trail you can listen to the calls of a large variety of bird species. In addition to all the birds, we can also observe different kinds of spiders and many mammals," says Michael.

By preserving this important ecological area, Michael and others are making it possible for future generations in El Achiote to enjoy a higher quality of life and for future visitors to enjoy the breathtaking environment.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)