In Panama the weather is separated into two distinct seasons, the wet season (la lluviosa) and the dry season (la seca) which occurs during the months of December through April. Right now Panama is still in the midst of its dry season, and because of the absence of rain maintenance on our plantations has been minimal. This has given us the opportunity to focus on the UNDP – GEF Small Grants Program project that we’re helping our indigenous partners in Arimae to coordinate.

Kate Kirby, who has done a lot of extensive research on carbon emissions and land cover change with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, completed a participatory mapping workshop in February with community members teaching them how to use GPS units to map coordinates of the forest reserve. This information along with historical knowledge from the community will be used to determine the rate of land cover change over time. When combined with data on carbon storage in different land cover types, this information will give the community the raw data needed to begin the process of estimating its carbon stocks.

Construction of the tree nursery is complete and the seedling trays have finally arrived from the manufacturer in Sweden. This week the community will begin the process of planting the seeds collected from the reserve into the seedling trays. The nursery will produce approximately 9,600 native species saplings which will be ready for transplant during planting season.