CO2OL Tropical Mix

Education

We continue on to the mainland and the north-western region Chiriquí, where the project's oldest sites can be found.

Not only here, the children from the surroundings of the project sites benefit from better education opportunities and educational excursions to our project sites.

Furthermore, several fincas have built education trails like this one in Las Lajas promoting and enabling a lively experience of sustainable forest management. Maybe they will encourage some of the students to become a forest ranger?

Photo: Rafael Lau

Finca Los Monos

By the way, the Finca Las Lajas is better known as "Los Monos" because of the large groups of capuchin monkeys (los monos= the monkeys). No wonder they like it here, as this finca is designated as a high conservation value forest which is a forest area that contains rare, threatened or endangered ecosystems.

Next to the monkeys, you can find many other endangered animals like sloths, anteaters and green-and-black poison dart frogs which you can see on the picture.

Afforestation

While we are in the area, you should have a look at Finca Madera Fina, one of the project's oldest fincas.

The photo shows forest areas 15 years after the first trees were planted. Notice how dense the forest has grown already after half of the project period!

Nursery

Only a few hundred meters west you can see where all of these projects begin. Not only do the tree nurseries provide an important tool of independent project management, they also offer employment opportunities.

This nursery in Santa Cruz supplies the Chiriquí, Panamá and Darién regions with seedlings.

Photo: Andres Espinosa

Wood Processing Center

In contrast to the nurseries, we now become witnesses of the end of an around 20 years old tree's life. But don't worry, it will live on as stairs, windows or beautiful furniture. This may sound surprising, but in fact the use of timber as sustainable building material or as a renewable energy source is an important element of sustainable forest management projects. To ensure maximum stability within the ecosystems, the extraction of the timber is strictly organized and monitored.

Here, we are looking at one of the two sawmills in Chiriquí. The operation of the sawmills creates employment opportunities for the local population as well as for investors. In this Wood Processing Center, valuable timber like Teak (Tectona grandis) or Cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa) is processed with high quality standards.

Photo: Katrin Spanke

Knowledge transfer

Knowledge exchange, like we see in the nurseries and the sawmill, and also in the forests themselves, plays a crucial role in all Gold Standard projects.

The project staff engage with and exchange know-how with local advisors and academic partners. By doing so we ensure sustainable capacity building…on both sides!

On this picture you can see one of our CEOs at a chainsaw class with forest workers to ensure the correct handling of the tool while creating a safe and efficient work environment.

Agroforestry and sustainable cacao

We now travel north towards the atlantic coast. Here, in the north-western region Bocas del Toro, the three cacao fincas produce the finest cacao.

At our first stop on Finca Quebrada Limón, you can see our Panamanian colleagues preparing harvested cacao fruits for further processing.

Finca Quebrada Pitti

A bit further south, on Finca Quebrada Pitti, the cacao beans are prepared to be dried after a five day long fermentation process in wooden boxes.

Finca Rio Uyuma, the smallest and most southern of these three fincas, is comparatively the most productive site given its size. Just recently, it has also been certified as an organic farm!

Wild Forests

We continue our tour clockwise towards the east and cross the Panama Canal until we reach the province of Panamá. Here, not too far from Panama City, a lonely Finca lies between green forests.

On all our project sites, more than 25% of the total area has a special conservation status. Finca Mamoní is not any example for the worth of these hectares: in the finca's protected areas scientists found over a hundred of different bird species.

Fire protection

We approach the final stops of our tour as we reach the most eastern region of Panama, Darién.

Here, we want to show you an example of fire protection measures. Fire breaks are some of the most important infrastructure to ensure longevity of forestry projects. This is why these aisles need to be kept clear from vegetation (or "fuel") at all times.

If you zoom in on this point, you can even see a clear aisle cutting through the whole landscape

Reforestation

To change the perspective once again, this drone picture from the Finca Buenos Aires shows corridors of natural vegetation that are supplemented with a variety of species to capture carbon in the most natural way.

With its fertile soils, the region of Darién is generally well suited for afforestation projects.

Camp Site

As this remote workers camp lies deep in the coastal forests, it is more easily reached by boat than with an hour long car drive on muddy streets.

It offers accomodation for employees as well as for students and film teams who come here to study the tropical forest ecosystem of Darién.