Mining Debate in Panama

Watch In Panama, 'New Conquistadors' Protest Canadian Copper Mines on PBS.
See more from PBS NewsHour.

Last night there was a report on the PBS NewsHour examining Canadian mining companies operating in Panama and the environmental impact of their mines on local communities.

As part of a larger project called “The New Conquistadors”, the piece profiled a subsistence farmer in the town of Coclecito, where a mining company is expanding a large gold mine. The piece covers the negative environmental effects that the open mines are reportedly having on downstream local communities, but also the benefits that the companies are pitching to those communities: schools, health centers and roads.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the report was the effect on local food production by subsistence farmers. According to the subsistence farmer interviewed, since the mining companies have been employing more and more local farmers, they have been importing more of the rice, beans, corn and coffee, that the farmers would traditionally grow themselves.

I was tempted to jump up on the soapbox—to discuss how our sustainable forestry model helps local farmers manage their land more effectively for short and long term benefits—but I’ll spare you. The mining companies are easy to go after and what we’re doing is different and doesn’t require a direct comparison.

We'll keep an eye on the mining debate in Panama, especially because it may indicate how the government will deal with indigenous land rights and environmental protection in the future.

Growing the Pie in Panama

NPR recently did a story on Panama’s impressive growth, but also the inequitable distribution of that increasing wealth. Since we first started working in Panama in 2003, we’ve seen the country transform significantly. There is a lot more wealth than there was ten years ago, but that wealth is largely contained in the city among the country’s elite and politically connected. As the post points out, a third of Panama’s 3.5 million still live in poverty.

A view of the Trump Tower sun deck in PanamaAs for-profit business, we believe that everyone can benefit by participating in capital markets. We’re not calling for the redistribution of Panama’s wealth to the urban and rural poor. Rather, we’re working to grow the proverbial pie through profitable, sustainable forestry, while ensuring that our community forestry partners, as an essential part of our business, benefit from that overall increase in wealth creation.

While this may seem altruistic, it’s not. What our sustainable forestry model does is consider the long-term economic, social and environmental impacts of empowering those who are critical to our business. Attracting increased foreign investment and including more local stakeholders as economic winners makes business sense. Higher wages reduce our labor turnover and increase productivity. Profit sharing reduces our political risk. We are ensuring that we have continued access to necessary, and increasingly costly, plantation inputs such as land and labor.

Panama will continue to grow, and holders of our Forest Investment should be glad to see this. But Panama also needs to consider the potential of those who are currently excluded from the economic process. Until they become stakeholders in the growing wealth of the country, Panama will continue to have the road blocks and strikes that point to this economic disparity. In the meantime, we wouldn't feel too bad if all the luxury SUVs in Panama City were made to suffer the wait.

Learn more about Panama.

Darien, Panama trip in January

An investor stands with a young mahogany tree during Planting Empowerment's first investor trip in 2008As we do every year, Planting Empowerment is hosting a group of investors and interested people in Panama to tour the Darien and our operations. This is a great opportunity to learn about Planting Empowerment’s Equitable Forestry Model and see the first hand benefits of your investments.

We are offering trips to the campo (countryside) December 31st-January 15th. As we have already had numerous inquires, don’t hesitate to contact me at amparrucci@plantingempowerment.com if you’re interested in joining.

These trips are always informative and engaging for those involved. The last group to attend, a group of UN climate change negotiators, found the trip to be very relevant to their work.

As a social business, we use these trips to both generate interest in our investments and raise awareness of what those investments support. You’ll learn about the numerous challenges posed by tropical deforestation and see how we’re creating solutions that meet those challenges.

Interested to know what you'll see?

Learn more »