Colon's governor visits the Embera

Colon's governor pays
a visit to the Embera
photos by Fernando Alvarez

Where is Embera country? Yes, there's a comarca that includes two large sections of Darien province, but there are many Embera communities outside the comarca. Some of them are within Chagres National Park, in Colon province. These communities mostly date back to the 1970s, after the Bayano Dam displaced a lot of indigenous communities from the Bayano River valley. The people received little or no compensation and one response was that small bands of the traditionally semi-nomadic Embera just moved to different spots in the jungle. Later their new homes were included in national park, where a lot of their traditional hunting, gathering and woodcutting activities were prohibited.

Most of Chagres National Park is part of the Panama Canal watershed, which provides the water needed to operat the canal. Eventually the Panama Canal Authority, various Panamanian government agencies, the US Agency for International Development and some private foundations saw the importance of helping these communities to find new ways to support themselves that would protect the park and its fauna and flora, protect the canal's watershed and relieve the abject poverty in which the Embera communities have been living. The USAID involvement, which has helped developed new, environmentally friendly businesses among the park's indigenous and non-indigenous inhabitants and neighbors, promoted sustainable agricultural practices and improved sanitation, is winding up and being handed off to local residents.

To recognize the progress that has been made and encourage its continuation, Colon Governor Pedro Ríos and a delegation of local government, business and civic leaders paid a visit to the Embera villagers along the Gatun River on September 18.

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