You are here :: Panama Real Estate » About-panama » Soil-erosion

Panama’s neighbor, Costa Rica, has passed a law allowing its environmental protection agency to stop any real estate development that threatens to put wildlife or the environment at risk. Additionally the law allows private citizens who gain the signatures of 10% of registered voters in a city to directly submit a request to the Costa Rica Environment and Energy protection agency to stop construction. The immediate reaction of real estate insiders in Costa Rica was that such an environmental law will send business to Panama.

If a real estate developer comes to Panama from Costa Rica he or she will find out that Panama has environmental concerns and laws too. So, what are the environmental problems and who causes them?

Panama Environmental Concerns

Environmental concerns in Panama include deforestation and soil erosion according to a Panama government report. Soil erosion is said to be occurring at the rate of 2,000 tons a year which is per hectare. In the 1990’s deforestation reached a rate of 2.15% a year. It should be noted, however, that not all of the deforestation or soil erosion are from real estate projects. In fact, most of this comes from agriculture, often subsistence agriculture. In attempt to repair environmental damage Panama offers a visa to those willing to invest in reforestation and environmental groups are active in agricultural regions promoting sustainable agriculture and organic farming.

Environmental protection in Panama falls under the jurisdiction of three government agencies, The Institute for Renewable Natural Resources, the Ministry of Agricultural Development, and the Ministry of Health.

Current Soil Erosion and Agricultural Practice and Panama’s Natural Environment

A Panama government report states that in Panama’s interior farmers and cattlemen use fire, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides as well as scraping and burning practices indiscriminately as farming and land clearing methods. According to experts this is a problem throughout Central America’s Pacific slope. Most of the deforestation and soil erosion and degradation in Panama are in the “dry arch” across central and northern Panama. This is Panama’s agricultural bread basket.

Inflation, Cost of Food, Poverty Reduction, and Farming Practices

Panama has made major strides in reducing poverty in the last decade or more. This has been done primarily by creating jobs. In the last year or two before the fall in oil prices, inflation, including the rising cost of food, has threatened Panama’s gains in reducing poverty. When the price of food goes up local farmers are encouraged to plant and produce more to avoid importing food. Then more land is put into production. Farmers rely on traditional methods of agriculture and deforestation with which soil erosion occurs.

Although real estate projects bear their share of the blame for deforestation and soil erosion both in Panama and Costa Rica the problem of protecting the environment while still feeding people is larger and more broadly based. Foreigner investors are an easy target in Costa Rica. One wonders if Costa Rica will ever pass a law allowing ten percent of voters to stop a farmer from cutting down trees and burning the stumps in order to plant more corn?