Native Panama Tree Species Propagation Guide

Guide to propagating native tree species of Panama

Cover artwork for the Native Species Propagation GuidePlanting Empowerment employees Liriano Opua, Yen Dogirama, and Mateo Johnson recently attended the release of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Guide to Propagating 120 Native Tree Species of Panama. One of the co-authors of the book is Jose Deago, who guided us for several years in planting and maintaining our mixed native species forestry plots.

The book is a great resource for those interested in advancing the adoption native species forestry, and also those interested in investing in tropical woods. Producing native species saplings requires understanding and optimizing the variables of soil chemistry, watering, and shading. The right balance is required for the saplings to be transplanted successfully and achieve optimal growth.

We’re proud to be purchasing some of our native species saplings directly from the nursery of our Indigenous partner community Arimae. Through a grant from the UNDP-GEF Small Grants Programme, Liriano and Yen facilitated the construction of the nursery and the equipment to raise the saplings. Read the full case study about the project. They manage the nursery on behalf of the entire community and source most of the seed from the community’s forest preserve.

We used saplings produced in Arimae’s nursery for the first as part of our five hectare June 2012 planting (photos). While not scientifically conclusive, Liriano reports that the saplings produced in Arimae’s nursery have the highest survival and growth rates. Liriano and Yen left the conference with signed copies of the book, and are and be able to reference the book in the future.

Native Panama Tree Species Propagation Guide

(10MB, Spanish)

Forest Legality Alliance

Forest Legality Alliance badgePlanting Empowerment recently joined the Forest Legality Alliance, whose goal is to reduce illegal logging through supporting the supply of legal forest products.

The Alliance is a joint effort of the World Resources Institute and the Environmental Investigation Agency, supported by the United States Agency for International Development and companies in the forest sector.

We're proud to be a part of the movement to use sustainably sourced timber. As the growing demand for cocobolo demonstrates, it will only become increasingly urgent for wood buyers to understand the social and environmental effects of the tropical timber trade. 

Live Forbes Google+ interview

Interested in social enterprise and free tomorrow at 10:30am ET? We'll be talking with Devin Thorpe of Forbes and Archana Verma of ennovent about social entrepreneurship and impact investing in sustainable forestry.

Join us live on Google Hangouts tomorrow to watch the interview and contribute your questions. We will update this page afterwards with a video of the interview. 

A Rosier Year for Rosewood?

Photo of Cocobolo (rosewood) logs on their way to be milled into timber.

Cocobolo (rosewood) logs on their way to be milled into timberLast year, we wrote a couple of blog posts about the surge in rosewood (cocobolo) logging that has gripped Panama, and the resulting problems. It unfortunately led to conflict that left two people dead, and finally made the Panamanian government take measures to control the violence.

With the dry season in February in Panama comes increased logging thanks to easier access to primary forests. Will the Panamanian government be proactive to stop the loss of lives and primary forests that will inevitably occur if the rosewood fever continues?

We hope so. Belize set an example last month by torching and donating illegally harvested rosewood. In the Darien, where much of the cocobolo harvesting takes place, there are Ministry of Environment and police checkpoints on all of the roads leading to Panama City, so controlling the movement of illegally harvested wood shouldn’t be difficult in theory. However, with the Ministry of Environment’s budget being cut, there are not sufficient “boots on the ground” to do the necessary field inspections.

One way the Panamanian government could address the problem is by accelerating the land titling of Indigenous territories. This would give Indigenous communities more legal clout to expel illegal loggers. Last year, it titled two Wounaan communities, the first Indigenous communities since 2000 to receive titles. It’s a good start, but there are still 39 communities left.

From an industry perspective, we also hope that more forestry companies will recognize both the environmental and financial benefits of growing this valuable tropical timber.

Must-Reads For Tropical Forestry Investing

Women sort native species saplings in Darien PanamaTwo recently published reports examine the roles of private capital in forestry, and increasing investment flows to locally controlled forestry.  

The Guide to Investing in Locally Controlled Forestry, released in December, is the product of a series of meetings called the Growing Forest Partnerships Initiative. The initiative, managed by the Yale School of Forestry’s Forests Dialogue, brought together investors, forest rights-holders, policy makers, and donors for a series of meetings to develop a set of recommendations to increase investment flows into locally controlled forestry. We contributed a case study about the challenges and benefits of building a local focus into our business model.   

In January, The European Tropical Forest Research Network (ETFRN) and Tropenbos released their News 54 publication entitled Good Business: Making Private Investments Work for Tropical Forests. The ETFRN/Tropenbos piece looks more broadly at the role private finance plays in the restoration and sustainable management of tropical forests. With an estimated investment of $15 billion per year, the private sector represents the largest investor in sustainable forestry. We contributed a case study to this report as well, a more in-depth look at how the Equitable Forestry model increase benefits to local communities and reduces investment risk.

All the case studies featured in the Guide to Investing in Locally Controlled Forestry and the ETFRN News 54 are inspiring examples of how organizations are attracting private investment to sustainable forestry models and increasing local control of tropical forests. We consider them must-reads for anyone interested in investing responsibly in forestry, and feel honored to be included.

Download Good Business: Making Private Investments Work for Tropical Forests

PDF (3MB)

Download the Guide to Investing in Locally Controlled Forestry

PDF (1.2MB)