STRI NEWS
stri.si.edu/sites/strinews
Before the Pan-American Highway dead-ends
in the rainforests of eastern Panama, travelers
cross the Bayano River. The damming of the
river to provide electricity for Panama City in
the 1970s created Bayano Lake, which rear-
ranged the social landscape of the region. Two
indigenous groups, the Guna and the Emberá
as well as small campesino and afro-panamani-
an populations, lost some 350 square kilome-
ters of lowland forest to the reservoir. Having
relocated to higher ground, indigenous resi-
dents are now being crowded out by ranchers
from Panama’s central provinces, who continue
to clear forest for cattle pasture.
Tensions between groups mount as land specu-
lators also move in, hoping to benefit from the
eastward growth of Panama City suburbs.
STRI associate scientist Catherine Potvin, a
professor at McGill University in Montreal, was
interested in how tropical plants store carbon.
This led her to study forest carbon storage and
the international sale of carbon credits as a
conservation measure. She recognized that it
would be difficult for Panama to participate
in international conservation initiatives while
territorial disputes raged. Her research group
received funding from the Lucile and David
OCT 31, 2014
SEMINARS
Eighth grader Enedelis Briceño
from the Guna indigenous
community of Icandà prepared this
drawing for the art contest that
was part of a community event
to bring together groups from
different cultural backgrounds
who live around Panama’s Lake
Bayano. The theme of her art was
the importance of the Bayano
hydrologic basin.
La estudiante de segundo año
Enedelis Briceño de la comunidad
indÃgena Guna de Icandà creó este
dibujo para el concurso de arte
que era parte de un evento de la
comunidad para reunir a grupos
de diferentes orÃgenes culturales
que viven alrededor del Lago
Bayano en Panamá. El tema de
su arte era la importancia de la
cuenca hidrológica de Bayano.
BAMBI SEMINAR
Thu, Nov. 6, 7:15pm
Kam