Coiba Island National Park
The right conservation of natural resources could provide the right conditions for a more balanced human development in areas where poverty is the main condition of the local communities.
The Panamanian government has in its hand the opportunity to preserve one the most spectacular marine settings of the Pacific coast of Central America by providing the rights conditions, legally and environmentally, for a long lasting development.
At this moment there is a big discussion about which parties should be involved, and how all the parties (various governmental agencies, local communities from the mainland nearby the Island and private organizations like Lindblad Expeditions) should interact.
Besides this discussion is the proposal of adding to the current extension of the park about 200,000 hectares of marine waters that include remote islands inhabited by rare species. They serve as a marine biological corridor between islands like Cocos or even the remote Clipperton to the famous Galápagos Archipelago and Malpelo.
The proposed model for the development of the island is one similar to the one Lindblad Expeditions has been using for about 20 years: low impact visits to the island in which a vessel or a local mainland communities serve as the base of all the services of the visitors.
In our full day visit to this national park, we enjoyed wonderful walks, excellent birding and the best snorkeling in the pacific of Central America, proving that the model works and that development does not necessarily lead to the destruction of the environment.
The right conservation of natural resources could provide the right conditions for a more balanced human development in areas where poverty is the main condition of the local communities.
The Panamanian government has in its hand the opportunity to preserve one the most spectacular marine settings of the Pacific coast of Central America by providing the rights conditions, legally and environmentally, for a long lasting development.
At this moment there is a big discussion about which parties should be involved, and how all the parties (various governmental agencies, local communities from the mainland nearby the Island and private organizations like Lindblad Expeditions) should interact.
Besides this discussion is the proposal of adding to the current extension of the park about 200,000 hectares of marine waters that include remote islands inhabited by rare species. They serve as a marine biological corridor between islands like Cocos or even the remote Clipperton to the famous Galápagos Archipelago and Malpelo.
The proposed model for the development of the island is one similar to the one Lindblad Expeditions has been using for about 20 years: low impact visits to the island in which a vessel or a local mainland communities serve as the base of all the services of the visitors.
In our full day visit to this national park, we enjoyed wonderful walks, excellent birding and the best snorkeling in the pacific of Central America, proving that the model works and that development does not necessarily lead to the destruction of the environment.
