New Video: GC Launches Global Park Defense in Darien National Park, Panama

Global Conservation is excited to be launching a new Global Park Defense project in Darien National Park, Panama. In this new video, we introduce the park and GC's program there.

Film Script: Darien National Park Protection

Darien National Park in Panama is one of the most important World Heritage sites in Central America. At over half a million hectares and growing, Darien is the largest national park in Panama, and sits on the border adjacent to Colombia’s Los Katios National Park. This area is known as the Darien Gap, and is one of the most isolated and biodiverse places on Earth. 

The Darien Gap is the only break in the Pan-American Highway that would otherwise run continuously through fourteen countries from Alaska to Argentina. The dense jungles and rugged terrain have prohibited a number of plans for the highway’s completion over the years. Global Conservation is deploying Global Park Defense in Darien National Park. A large number of critical habitats, both forest and wildlife, exist inside the park. Darien received UNESCO World Heritage status in 1981. 

Coastal habitats flanked by mangroves give way to primary tropical forests and swamps. Darien National Park is one of the few protected areas in the world still inhabited by humans. Two native tribes remain inside the park boundaries, the Embera and Kuna peoples. These indigenous tribes in the park make conservation of the forest and its wildlife literally a life or death situation - for humans. These ancient cultures will disappear as the forests disappear. 

Darien has many rare and endangered species on the IUCN Red List. Jaguars are killed to protect livestock. Some local people believe that possessing jaguar body parts brings them good luck. Jaguar parts are sold to Chinese buyers, also for outdated superstitious beliefs. Other endangered species include ocelots, American crocodiles, and giant rodents called capybaras. 

The Red List also includes a number of primates. Sadly all these species are being poached inside and outside the park. The giant anteater is a native of Darien, and has a rating of vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. These legendary creatures avoid humans, as they are illegally hunted for their meat and their fur. 

But the illegal hunting of wildlife is not the biggest threat to these animals. Deforestation resulting in habitat loss is pushing many of these species, including humans, towards extinction. These tropical forests are being destroyed at alarming rates. The harvesting of lumber is both done illegally and by those with permits granted by local authorities. Illegal cattle ranchers burn down what is left of the forest. These purposely set fires choke the air while depleting the planet’s oxygen source. Trees. The smoke turns day into night in nearby communities.

Global Conservation began deployment of Global Park Defense this year completing a threats and needs assessment and deploying park-wide satellite communications. Ranger teams were trained on SMART patrolling software. Global Conservation brought in trainers and master rangers from Costa Rica, Guatemala and our partner – Wildlife Protection Agency.

Today, Darien is threatened by burning and land clearing, illegal logging, wildlife poaching, land invasions and illegal fishing. Local authorities and members of the community joined our team in support of our work to improve park protection.

The total staff at this 1.2 million acre national park is less than twenty with only two rangers per station, making effective patrolling nearly impossible. Some stations are shut down completely. The lack of ranger communications, and often even power, make the protection of such a large park extremely difficult. Existing solar power systems have been long inoperative, and we are replacing solar power systems and generators to enable 24/7 park protection.  

We expect to increase park patrol coverage by 500% this year just by getting transportation and SMART patrol systems in place. We are also recruiting community ecoguards to supplement over-stretched ranger teams on patrols. Intensive patrolling is needed for Darien National Park to provide a strong presence on the rivers and roads. Our goal is to increase patrols to cover eighty percent of the park so we are buying all-terrain vehicles for the rangers. Now with satellite communications for the first time, SMART patrols and other Global Park Defense tools are making a huge difference in the fight to protect the last resources so critical to the longevity of these endangered ecosystems. 

Greg Brown:

“We take information gathered from the field. We use technology to make up for manpower essentially because a lot of the parks we work in have a lack of manpower. They’re not well-staffed like the parks here in the United States. So we use technology to kind of bridge that gap. The software we use is SMART, Earthranger. They’re spatial monitoring software so we can take that information, enter it in the database, and it gives us all sorts of different analysis. We can type in ‘animal movements’, ‘crimes committed’, ‘stop and talks’. Anything we find we enter in the system. It gives us a virtual map of what's going on inside the park.”

The local communities have long depended on the endangered resources of Darien for their livelihoods. Timber harvesting, wildlife hunting and gold mining have been declining sources of income for the local people, as those activities have destroyed much of their forests. So we are now pro-actively working with local officials and tribal leaders to stop this destruction. Long-term solutions are being developed, including the establishment of more tourism-based businesses in the area. These businesses are sustainable economic alternatives to destructive illegal activities. 

With almost five hundred bird species, Darien National Park offers eco-tourists incredible birding opportunities. But the great green macaw’s populations are declining and they are now classified as endangered. Another bird of great concern is the harpy eagle. This raptor is almost extinct in Central America and has a near-threatened status on the IUCN Red List. The harpy eagle is of great interest to birders and, with increased park safety and lodging available, will attract tourists from all over the world. There are some fantastic locations for eco-lodges around the park, including on the pristine Pacific Ocean coastline. 

Sportfishing is also another activity that draws tourism to Darien National Park. When sport fishing is properly managed, local fisheries are sustained instead of depleted by poaching. 

We are now going through the process of planning the protection and future of the park. The deployment of Global Park Defense requires the hiring of twenty to thirty community ecoguards to expand the patrols in the park. We are providing new motors for fast patrol boats once out of service. The establishment of satellite monitoring and communications is bringing the rangers twenty-first century technology and making the implementation of SMART patrols a possibility. 

This project will require a multi-year funding program to protect and expand Darien National Park and transform the local economies. This is why your support is so important if we are to save the last tropical forests on Earth and the animals - and humans that live there. Visit our website at globalconservation.org and get involved today.