The EcoForest concession is situated along the west-bank of the Gatún lake, which is both a reservoir and part of the Panama Canal.
The project is part of the Province of West-Panama and right in between the cities of Panama and Colon, which are also the seaports and entrances to the 80km long canal route. As such, the plantations are conveniently close to the 2 major ports of Latin America and at the same time a buffer between urban and rural expansion and the natural parks surrounding the canal.
Regional Localisation of
EcoForest Panama.
The Concession History.
The 7,275 hectares where the concession was established in 1998 were once part of the so-called “Canal Zone” of over 38,560 hectares, surrounding the Panama Canal from Panama City to the city of Colon, under control of the USA since 1903 and reverted to the Republic of Panama in two phases between 1979 and 1999.
During the period of reversion the most remote parts of the Canal Zone were occupied in an informal way through the practice of slash and burn of the existing natural forest for mostly subsistence farming. Land was cultivated for a few years after which the practice was moved to patches of forest closer to the Canal. The abandoned land was then rapidly invaded by the aggressive canal grass “Paja blanca” or “Paja canalera” which had been introduced by the American Canal Authorities to reduce soil erosion around the Canal. The vast areas of canal grass were burned each year by inhabitants of the zone for “cleaning”, which rather stimulated the development of a denser grass vegetation while depleting both soil and biodiversity.
Conservation of Canal Area.
In 1997, the Panamanian Authority for the Interoceanic Region (ARI) in charge of the administration of the Reverted Canal Zone approved a regional plan for the use, conservation and development of the Canal area. This plan included the creation of the forestry concession in order to stop the ongoing deforestation, conservation of the remaining natural forest, extermination of the canal grass and recovery of a forest cover through commercial reforestation. The concession was assigned by decree in 1998 to Ecoforest Panama after a public tender.