April Site Visit with Friends and Update

I was recently in Panama for a conference on Forests and Climate Change at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), and took the opportunity to visit Planting Empowerment’s operations in Arimae and Nuevo Paraiso.

My flight path into Panama City took me from the NW corner in Bocas del Toro over the central provinces of Veraguas and Cocle before landing in Panama City. Below, smoldering patches of land dotted the deep green forests, reminding me that April still is the time in Panama when farmers burn their fields in preparation for rainy season planting. Kind of a depressing way to start the trip, but at least I was going to visit Planting Empowerment’s plantations where trees are growing on land that was once also charred and bare.

Colleagues from the Environmental Defense Fund, Conservation International, and the World Wildlife Fund all joined me on the trip. They work on tropical forest conservation at a global level, so it was a treat for them to see an example of sustainable forestry in the field (not just read about it from a case study).

The road out to the Darien was probably in the best shape I’ve seen it in years with only a couple sections suffering from potholes, and those were even quite small compared to previous years.

Mateo (far left) with Planting Empowerment employees in Nuevo Paraiso.

I had one important errand to execute while visiting our partner community Arimae. Sadly, one of our former field managers Mateo Johnson passed away unexpectedly in February. In his memory, we decided to make a $500 contribution to the community, and I consulted with Arimae’s chiefs on how to put the contribution to best use. The chiefs consulted the community and we all agreed on supporting some of their recent legal costs incurred for evicting some squatters from their territory. Mateo was always passionate about supporting Arimae’s efforts to secure their land title, so we felt this was a good way to memorialize him.

My colleagues and I didn’t have much time, so started early in the morning visiting the tree plantations in Arimae. Long time collaborator and Arimae resident Yem Dogirama guided us with his trusty machete and answered all of our questions. The plantations there had been recently “cleaned”--undergrowth vegetation cleared by hand with machete--in preparation for a needed pruning happening this month. The low undergrowth made it slightly easier for us to navigate through the plantations, and allows for easier pruning. Pruning of the trees happens at the end of the dry season right before the rains hit and the trees turn on their growth engines.

Howler monkeys playing in the trees

We were able to pass through three different plantations in Arimae (planted in 2007, 2008, and 2012) to see the differences in age and also the numerous native species mix used in our model. On our way out to the Darien, we saw the monoculture Teak plantations that are almost as common as cattle pasture now. The visitors were impressed with the visual difference of biodiversity between our plantations and the monoculture Teak ones.

After Arimae, we moved quickly to Nuevo Paraiso to visit the remaining two plantation sites. Despite one of my colleagues puncturing her hand on Spiny Cedar tree, we made it through the two sites and even saw a troupe of Howler monkeys resting in the branches of one of our Amarillo trees (terminalia amazonia). A real treat to seem them up close.

Overall, the plantations and the communities seem to be doing well.

If you are ever in Panama and interested in seeing our operations, please do let us know as setting up a tour is not that difficult. Thanks to the improved road, the plantations are only a 3-hour drive from the airport/Panama City. Seeing the trees really is inspirational and photos do not do them justice. We hope to host you soon!

The Forests and Climate Change conference was great, and I was able to catch up with Dr. Jefferson Hall, one of STRI’s tropical forestry researchers and author of a great book on reforestation in the tropics. During the conference there was much discussion about the need for reforestation and its importance, not only for climate change mitigation, but also the essential services forests provide like watershed protection and livelihoods for local communities.

An evening reception held at Panama’s premier Ecolodge the Canopy Tower--owned by one of Planting Empowerment’s investors--provided us with great birding and views of ships passing through the Panama Canal from the literal tree tops.

Tree nurseries in Panama - our experience

Women sorting saplings for the 2012 planting in Arimae

We recently read about a new 1 million unit tree nursery the Panamanian government set up to provide seedlings for the reforestation of the Azuero province. The nursery is part of a pledge announced last year by MiAmbiente to reforest 1 million hectares of land in Panama.

The lack of details in the article open up broader questions about how Panamanian government is executing on its pledge, but we are most interested in who will be buying the seedlings, where they will be planted, and how they will be cared for.

We had the opportunity a few years ago to set up and manage a 6,000 seedling nursery with our community partners in Arimae, and learned a few things that might offer context on this effort.

1. There is low demand from the ranchers and farmers for the seedlings - even if given away for free.

2. Most Panamanian farmers/ranchers are familiar with a number of native species and are adept at collecting and growing seedlings by themselves.

3. There are a number of commercial nurseries that can produce significant amounts of seedlings for reforestation - even native species.

4. Nurseries can be expensive to sustain and haven’t had great success in being run by the Panamanian government.

The first year of our nursery was successful because the nursery had a committed buyer: Planting Empowerment purchased the majority of the seedlings and the community used the rest for a community rosewood (cocobolo) plantation. Sources of seeds for the nursery were scouted by our forest technician at the time - Jose Deago - who happened to be Panama’s leading expert on the topic.

The first year was also the nursery’s best year. The next year, production fell by half after we adjusted down our planting. Additional buyers for the seedlings were non-existent, even though the seedlings were high quality, adapted to local conditions (local seed sourced) and produced using the tray/tube system instead of the heavier plastic bags. Community members were interested in free seedlings, but not willing to pay the $.50/seedling costs to make the nursery sustainable. The community dismantled the nursery in the 3rd year.

Our other experiences with tree nurseries demonstrate that it’s a tough business and you really have to know what quality you’re going to get. For one of our first farms planted in 2008 we sourced some of the seedlings from a government nursery. About half of seedlings were high quality, but the rest were unusable because they were at least a year old and too mature to be planted out. For subsequent plantings, we purchased seedlings from some of the many commercial nurseries that supply the large plantation companies and the nursery at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (which has subsequently closed, too).

We wish this new project by the government success because Panama needs reforestation and nurseries will need to produce the seedlings for a portion of this. We are also supportive of the native species focus of the reforestation effort. However, we hope the government might learn from past initiatives, and Planting Empowerment’s experiences, in order to make their investments in reforestation more economically viable.

Arimae finally gains legal title to its land

Arimae receives its land title during a ceremony in the community. Photo courtesy of El Siglo.

After a long struggle, our partner community Arimae finally received its land title from the government of Panama. We’ve been working with Arimae since 2007 and currently have 15 hectares of timber plantations on their land.

The biggest benefit to having a land title is that now the community doesn’t have to enter into judicial processes every time it wants to expel squatters from their territory. Defending their territory from squatters has always been difficult because the Pan-American highway cuts through the middle of it, allowing for easy access. The land title covers more than 20,000 acres, more than half of it forested.

One of our founders, Damion Croston, lived in Arimae between 2004-2006 and learned firsthand about its struggles over the decades to secure its land title. Subsequently, our land lease payments helped to support the community financially by covering the costs of many trips by leaders to government offices and legal fees. However, our contribution was minor compared to the time and financial resources the community’s leaders and members invested to secure their title.  

Colleagues at the Rainforest Foundation US who provided support to the community during their struggle posted this blog about the formal ceremony the community held when they received the official title from the government.

We congratulate Arimae on their success, and are happy that they can now focus their time and resources on strengthening their community culturally and economically.

Read more about the story (in Spanish) on Panamá’s El Siglo website.

Vote for OpenForests to win the MIT Climate Colab Competition

Photo by Yves Picq

We were honored to be included as a key collaborator of OpenForests as part of their submission to MIT’s Climate Colab Competition on Land Use and climate change. OpenForests’ submission was selected as one of ten semi-finalists.

Planting Empowerment and OpenForest began our collaboration a few years ago when PE when we listed one of the first projects on OpenForests' forest investment marketplace. The marketplace showcases timber plantation projects that meet their best-of-class social and environmental criteria.

For the Climate Colab Competition, OpenForests is pitching their sustainable forestry management platform that connect forest investors with information on the financial and biological progress of their projects. It’s a great tool that PE expects to use in the future as we streamline our reporting and plantation management processes.

The contest runs for a couple of more days and OpenForests needs your help to secure the popular vote. We encourage you (yes, somewhat selfishly) to vote for OpenForests’ submission. If they win, they will have the opportunity to present the project at MIT’s climate colab conference in early October.

Could timber plantations conserve forests in Panama?

Deforestation and conversion to cattle pasture in Panama

A recent study conducted by CIFOR questioned whether tree plantations support forest conservation. The results show that they potentially support conservation, depending on a number of other influencing factors.

The authors’ more macro-level findings, which were based on an exhaustive review of published literature, were inconclusive. As with many questions related to forest conservation, the answer was, to paraphrase “It depends.”

There is a commonly held assumption in Panama, or at least the Darien, that timber plantations will ease pressure on the harvesting of timber from native forests. Our anecdotal, non scientific experience is that that isn’t true. Case in point: we’ve been trying to sell thinnings of high-value tropical species like spanish cedar (cedro amargo), mahogany (swietenia macrophylla), and oak (tabebuia rosea) for the past two months, but there is only demand for timber from primary forests. These are not early-stage thinnings, but they still can’t compete with the large timber coming out of first-growth forests in the Darien.

Establishment of timber plantations in the Darien happens after the high value timber has already been cut out (degradation) and usually after further clearing for agriculture/cattle (deforestation). In Panama it is illegal to clear primary forests to establish plantations, and no significant amount of primary forest has been cleared specifically for a timber plantation (that we’re aware of). We did recently learn that near Meteti, a large swath of forest in the Filo de Tallo reserve/peat swamp was under threat by a “Colombian” who was going to plant palm oil.

The authors of the report did find strong linkages to reduced deforestation and degradation when fuelwood plantations are established. However, degradation or deforestation for fuelwood is not a significant problem in the Darien, so plantations for fuelwood would not relieve any pressure on natural forests.

Probably the best approach to preserving forest cover is pairing stringent conservation laws and the establishment of protected areas with the development of timber plantations.

This is good match for Panama, and to their credit, the new government and Ministry of Environment (ANAM) have taken measures to control forestry activities in the Darien.

It will be interesting to see whether these measures actually increase demand for plantation-grown timber among the local sawmills and furniture producers, who consume the most timber domestically.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in buying 10,000+ board feet of genuine mahogany, spanish cedar, and oak, let us know!