Overview
The Teribe-Changuinola Watershed, in Western Panama, is home to the indigenous Naso and Ngobe peoples, and to some of the most important animal habitats in the hemisphere. Unfortunately, in the early 1970s the government of Panama discovered that the region also has the country’s largest potential for hydroelectric power. The result has been a long and hard-fought battle between two different visions of the region’s future.
A “World Heritage Site”
The Teribe-Changuinola Watershed is known for its diverse population of birds, plants and wildlife. La Amistad Biosphere Reserve, which is located there, has been designated a “World Heritage Site” by the United Nations and contains Central America’s largest intact tropical rainforest. Forests in the area provide a convergence point for 75% of migratory birds in the Western Hemisphere, and, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, harbor 115 different species of fish.
The region is also the home of the Naso indigenous people. The Naso, with a population of approximately 3,500, are among the most threatened of Panama’s eight surviving indigenous peoples. They live primarily in eleven different communities along the Teribe River, site of the proposed dam. Some members of the Ngobe, Panama’s largest indigenous group with around 164,000 members, also make their homes in the area.
One environmental venture of the Naso people is the Wekso Ecolodge. This is a ecotourism project, on the edge of the Biosphere Reserve, that helps the community retain its traditional way of life and preserve the local environment. Lodge visitors can hike, canoe and watch wildlife. The Wekso Ecolodge is supported by Conservation International and employs twenty Naso families.
The Proposed Dam
Due to the debt crisis and political instability, dam projects were postponed throughout the 1980s. Then, in 1995 Hidro-Ecologica del Teribe (HET), together with a Columbian utility and the U.S. corporation AES, was awarded the bid to build a hydroelectric dam, the Bonyic Hydroelectric Project. The proposed dam construction brought with it the prospect of a number of adverse consequences, including threats to the sustainable economy and the culture of the local people through increased immigration, emigration and disease. Dam construction would also increase deforestation and endanger the forestís fragile ecological balance. In addition, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, “many of the fish and other aquatic creatures in (the region’s) streams are diadromous, meaning they need access to salt water at some stage in order to complete their life cycle.” A dam on the Teribe River would contribute to the “virtual disappearance of characteristic Mesoamerican river fauna.”
The dam project brought the Naso community into direct negotiations with HET Corporation. The Naso were sharply divided on the issue, and uncertain how to protect their natural and cultural heritage. On the advice of the International Rivers Network, (IRN), which works with communities around the world to protect their local watersheds, Greengrants awarded $1,500 to Alianza para la Conservacion y el Desarrollo (ACD), which works with Naso communities. The grant funded seminars and capacity-building sessions for community members in the Naso del Rio Teribe area, which will help them make informed decisions about large dams planned on their ancestral lands.
On September 5, 2004, 130 Naso leaders from eleven communities came together in Changuiola, Bocas del Toro for the First Workshop on the Environmental Impacts and Legal Implications of the Construction of the Bonyic Project. The workshop’s presenters discussed community participation, traditional knowledge, indigenous rights and environmental impacts and encouraged audience participation. For the first time leaders were exposed to negotiation without HET, and the process helped build trust of outside organizations.
That grant also made possible important lobbying and networking visits to Panama City. Bocas del Toro is a ten-hour bus ride away from Panama City, and the cost of a several-day visit to the capitol is about $100, an exorbitant sum for a subsistence farmer. In Panama City, Naso leaders met with government environmental officials and increased national recognition of the Naso struggle.
The GGF grant also enabled one Naso leader, Felix Sanchez, to participate in the Second Mesoamerican Forum on Dams in San Salvador. Sanchez was able to make contact with representatives from other opposition groups, to develop a blueprint for strengthening the opposition movement, and to form his own organization, Alianza Pro Defensa de los Recursos Naturales y Culturales del Pueblo Naso, which is now one of the strongest forces in opposition to the Bonyic Dam Project. Mr. Sanchez has also been able to help Ngobe leaders in the neighboring Changuinola Watershed, which is threatened by three other dam projects.
In 2005 Greengrants provided another grant to the ACD, to support indigenous Naso and Ngobe communities in developing a legal campaign and alternative development plan in the face of the hydroelectric projects. That work is ongoing.
A Partial Success?
In the summer of 2005, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) announced that it had stopped considering financing for the Bonyic Hydroelectric Project. This was a clear victory for members of the Naso and Ngobe people, and for environmental organizations that have been involved in the conflict, such as Costa Rica’s AsociaciÛn ANAI. Nonetheless, AES and the Panamanian government are still moving ahead with the project. Hidro-Ecologica del Teribe is still seeking backing from private banks, and one Naso faction, which includes former king Tito Santana, still favors the project. In the years to come, the battle to preserve the way of life and the environment of the Naso and Ngobe peoples will continue to test their commitment and their growing political savvy.