Growing the Pie in Panama

NPR recently did a story on Panama’s impressive growth, but also the inequitable distribution of that increasing wealth. Since we first started working in Panama in 2003, we’ve seen the country transform significantly. There is a lot more wealth than there was ten years ago, but that wealth is largely contained in the city among the country’s elite and politically connected. As the post points out, a third of Panama’s 3.5 million still live in poverty.

A view of the Trump Tower sun deck in PanamaAs for-profit business, we believe that everyone can benefit by participating in capital markets. We’re not calling for the redistribution of Panama’s wealth to the urban and rural poor. Rather, we’re working to grow the proverbial pie through profitable, sustainable forestry, while ensuring that our community forestry partners, as an essential part of our business, benefit from that overall increase in wealth creation.

While this may seem altruistic, it’s not. What our sustainable forestry model does is consider the long-term economic, social and environmental impacts of empowering those who are critical to our business. Attracting increased foreign investment and including more local stakeholders as economic winners makes business sense. Higher wages reduce our labor turnover and increase productivity. Profit sharing reduces our political risk. We are ensuring that we have continued access to necessary, and increasingly costly, plantation inputs such as land and labor.

Panama will continue to grow, and holders of our Forest Investment should be glad to see this. But Panama also needs to consider the potential of those who are currently excluded from the economic process. Until they become stakeholders in the growing wealth of the country, Panama will continue to have the road blocks and strikes that point to this economic disparity. In the meantime, we wouldn't feel too bad if all the luxury SUVs in Panama City were made to suffer the wait.

Learn more about Panama.

Darien, Panama trip in January

An investor stands with a young mahogany tree during Planting Empowerment's first investor trip in 2008As we do every year, Planting Empowerment is hosting a group of investors and interested people in Panama to tour the Darien and our operations. This is a great opportunity to learn about Planting Empowerment’s Equitable Forestry Model and see the first hand benefits of your investments.

We are offering trips to the campo (countryside) December 31st-January 15th. As we have already had numerous inquires, don’t hesitate to contact me at amparrucci@plantingempowerment.com if you’re interested in joining.

These trips are always informative and engaging for those involved. The last group to attend, a group of UN climate change negotiators, found the trip to be very relevant to their work.

As a social business, we use these trips to both generate interest in our investments and raise awareness of what those investments support. You’ll learn about the numerous challenges posed by tropical deforestation and see how we’re creating solutions that meet those challenges.

Interested to know what you'll see?

Learn more »

Panama Free Trade Agreement with US

Obama signs the "United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act". Official White House photo courtesty of Pete Souza.After five long years, the US Congress finally signed the free trade agreement with Panama last Friday. While Panama isn’t a huge trading partner for the US in terms of timber or other goods, it will definitely help us as we begin to export valuable hardwoods to clients in the US.

Panama already waives export tariffs on timber produced in managed reforestation plots. The addition of a free trade agreement means that Planting Empowerment's sustainably produced hardwoods won’t be slapped with import tariffs upon entering the US. This will increase returns for Planting Empowerment investors and benefits to our partner communities.

UN-REDD in Panama update

At the UN-REDD meeting recently held in Da Lat, Vietnam, Felix Magallon from the Ministry of Environment (ANAM) represented Panama. The meeting included an update on Panama's national program for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+).

Click to read more ...

January trip

We’re happy to report that our January visit to Panama was successful, and lacked any (major) accidents. The main purpose of this trip was to introduce two members of our Advisory Board to Planting Empowerment’s work on the local level.

I flew down with one of Planting Empowerment's advisors, Grace Goodell. As a distinguished anthropologist and one of our earliest advocates, Grace brings years of experience to the business, providing guidance on everything from our social and environmental programs to the best channels to offer our investment products.

Click to read more ...