X-From_: tgray  Wed Nov 11 09:21:00 1992
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Date:         Wed, 11 Nov 1992 09:21:06 PST
Reply-To:     Tom Gray <tgray@IGC.APC.ORG>
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From:         Tom Gray <tgray@IGC.APC.ORG>
Subject:      IPS: Road Debate in Panama

/* Written 12:21 am  Oct 22, 1992 by newsdesk@igc.apc.org in igc:ips.englibrary
*/
/* ---------- "PANAMA: ENVIRONMENTALISTS SAY ROAD " ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: Environment; Agriculture
Title: PANAMA: ENVIRONMENTALISTS SAY ROAD THROUGH FOREST SPELLS DISASTER


an inter press service feature

by silvio hernandez

panama, oct 19 (ips) -- ecological groups and experts here have
warned of the environmental cost of a 19-kilometre long road the
government plans to build through one of the country's main
highland forest reserves.

they said the project would cause an ecological disaster in a
park located in a mountainous district near the costa rica
border. the park is considered one of the few natural highland
flora and fauna reserves in central america.

the project ''would place the 'amistad' international park at
great risk,'' oscar sogandares, director of the association of
defenders of nature (adenat), warned on monday.

former director of the national institute of renewable
resources, stanley heckadon also feels that the project would
have a high ecological cost. ''the quantity of flora and fauna
species which would be at risk'' is enormous, he warned.

the proposed road would link the towns of boquete and cerro
punto in chiriqui province, in western panama.

the region it would cross is located over 2,000 metres above
sea level and is the only place here where the harpie eagle,
depicted on panama's coat of arms, lives and breeds. it is also
home to the quetzal bird, the tapir and other species threatened
with extinction.

heckadon said monday that the area, located around the 3,475
metre high baru volcano, is the only highland between the
talamanca mountain range in costa rica and the colombian andes.

the government has maintained that the road would be highly
beneficial to panama since the area is the country's main coffee
growing region and that it would open up a ''new tourist axis.''

but both heckadon and sogandares feel there is no need to
build it since another projected road, which runs through
neighbouring lowlands, would serve the same purpose and would be
less costly.

while the highland road would cost an estimated 19 million
dollars, the one through the lowland areas would cost 15 million
dollars, sogandares said.

big business interests are behind the highland road project,
according to biologist and ecologist demetrio miranda. (more)
----


''those who are fighting today for the project to cut through
the baru national park and open up a new agricultural front are
the big landowners,'' miranda said.

he said land in cerro punta, which produces 80 percent of the
vegetables consumed in panama, are valued at 20,000 to 30,000
dollars per hectare, since agricultural expansion there is
limited by the existence of the national parks.

in recent years large landowners in the area have been
occupying areas bordering on the national parks with the idea of
extending their land into the reserves as soon as the road is
built.

the authorities condone the proposed invasion, the ecologist
charged.

miranda also accused the government of not carrying out an
environmental impact study on the project, even though a study by
the state hydraulic resources and electrification institute has
shown that the road would adversely affect a dam it has in the
area.

the institute's experts have indicated that the road would
cause about 9,000 tonnes of earth to slip each year into the
caldera river, which feeds the estrella-los valles dam, built at
a cost of over 90 million dollars.

according to the study, ''the erosion would shorten the
utility life of that hydro-electric dam,'' which supplies
one-fifth of the eight million kilowatts per hour consumed in the
country, miranda pointed out. (end/ips/trd/so/sh-ls/kb/92)
----

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