Our Ocean Conference Commitments
- (2015) Panama announced the recent creation of two major marine protected areas, Cordillera de Coiba (17,223 square kilometers) and Banco Volcan (14,931 square kilometers), increasing Panama’s protected areas from 3.7 to 13.5 percent of its waters. This initiative was based on scientific expertise and research of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and includes areas with submarine mountain chains. Panama will allocate at least US$1 million in 2016 for management of these two marine protected areas.
- (2015) Panama announced that it will invest approximately US$1.3 million in 2016 and 2017 on “Turismo Verde” (Green Tourism) for marine protected areas in Coiba National Park and Isla Bastimentos National Marine Park to support conservation of biodiversity through the development of low-impact ecotourism.
- (2015) Panama announced its intent to expand in 2016 the Blue Flag Ecological Program, which currently works with 500 schools across the country, to include 12 more communities, two of which are located in the Caribbean territory of the Guna Yala indigenous people. Panama will also develop a new pilot program, as part of the Biocommunity Project, to train communities of extreme poverty in solid waste management.
- (2015) Panama announced that its "Panama City and Panama Bay Clean-Up” project will restore the health of the Pacific coast of Panama, including through the construction of an estimated US$1.275 million water treatment system. In addition, Panama will allocate approximately US$2.5 million to develop and implement a management plan for the Panama Bay Wetlands protected area.
- (2015) Panama announced that in 2016 it will calculate the estimated carbon sink capability of its mangrove ecosystems as part of a comprehensive effort to strengthen national capacities for the conservation of mangroves, with a focus on adaptation and mitigation. Panama will also incorporate ocean acidification data generated by the Marine Global Earth Observatories of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (SIMarineGEO) into its Environmental Information System.
