By Juan Carlos Martinez
Panama in its effort to protect the immense biodiversity contained within its small geographical territory has declared a great part of its natural territory to be protected areas. There are diverse classifications for the protected areas. The most common one are the National Parks which according to Panama's Environmental Authority Anam are 17. These are most definitely not the only protected areas in Panama the list goes on but the difference is in the nomenclature of the area which indicates the type of use, what type of areas it is and the resource management plan depending on the area.
According to the nomenclature in use in Panama a National Park is a tract of land or water usually more than 100 hectares, containing representative samples of the main regions, characteristics or scenery with national or international relevance in which the plant and animal species, geographical sites and habitats are of special scientific, educational and recreational interest. They contain one or several ecosystems which have not been significantly affected by exploitation and human encroachment. The 17 National Parks are: Bastimentos, Golfo de Chiriquí, Metropolitano, Camino de Cruces, Soberania, Chagres, Portobelo, Cerro Hoya, Omar Torrijos aka El Copé, Barro Colorado, Sarigua, Volcan Barú, Coiba, Darien, La Amistad, Santa Fé. (For more articles on these National Parks - link to: http://www.panamaqmagazine.com/contents_adventure.html )
Two of these National Parks have been in the news recently the Parque Internacional La Amistad. It is also known as PILA. It is located in the northwestern corner of the province of Chiriquí and it covers 207,000 hectares of diverse biological, tropical forest of which 97% are in the province of Bocas del Toro and 3% in the province of Chiriqui. It is also the biggest nature reserve in Central America. This park has several trails which can be hiked: Retoño with a length of 2.4 km, Panama Verde with 395 mts and the Cascada with 3.1 km. The PILA was created on September 2,m 1988, in 1990 it was declared by UNESCO "Patrimony of Humanity", then in 1998 it was declared "Biosphere Reserve" and finally in 2000 it was declared "Biological Mesoamerican Corridor". Studies carried out by scientists indicate that there are 285 bird species, 84 mammals, 31 frogs and toads, one salamander specie, one endemic serpent. A curious thing about the PILA is that it is shared territory as part of it is in Panama the other part in Costa Rica so it is a bi-national reserve. To get there you go up to the community of Las Nubes, past Cerro Punta in the province of Chiriqui and request access in the administrative offices of PILA. It is always best to check in at the administrative offices of any park you wish to visit as they can inform you of the the conditions of the trails and climatic conditions as well as advising the park rangers and authorities that there are tourists in the park. To date some 1,500 tourists from Europe and North America have visited the PILA.
The Santa Fé National Park is in the province of Veraguas and was declared a protected area in 2001. It has over 400 bird species including toucans as well as more than 350 species of orchids. The park has an extension of 72,636 hectares. It is located 57 km from Santiago the capital city of Veraguas which can be reached by bus from the Terminal in Panama. Before reaching the park you will find yourself in Alto de Piedra which is the park's buffer zone. It has several trails for bird watching, and some spectacular waterfalls all set within a very cool climate as the Park is set in the Central Mountain Range which runs along the middle of Panama.
This is only a sampling of the natural beauty, largely untouched, that Panama has to offer.
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