Swamp things, protests and progress in Panama

After a brief visit back to my hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana (and yes, they 'bout it 'bout it) to visit family and friends, I arrived back in Panama during the onset of the wet season... and a bit of chaos...

"Sorry folks, park's closed, the moose out front should've told ya." Permanent closure of my old swampy stomping grounds... flood came through days after this photo and all this was back underwater

The road of excess was supposed to lead to the palace of wisdom... and still may... but you'll need to clear it yourself

Nature refuges closed due to flooding/poor management? Lock the wildlife in the pokey for the consumers to point at! Gators on display for sporting goods store in Shreveport.

Dude's plotting escape - listen closely and you can hear 'em singing... "cold sweatin' as i dwell in my cell, how long has it been? they got me sittin' in a state pen - i gotta get out but that thought was thought before, contemplating a plan on the cell floor..."

"Stop lude acts" - a last desperate plea etched on the back of the C. Bickham Dickson park entrance to the Red River National Wildlife Refuge, about a week before complete flooding... perhaps they need to be more specific

Tree clearing for the trucks to pass the 4x4 road out to San Miguel

Protests shut down major highways on 5/26/25 and effected travel across the country

Several of our staff members were stuck in protests and ended up walking 3+hours to make it to work...

Despidos masivos en Chiquita Panamá profundizan la crisis económica y social en Bocas del Toro

Bocas del Toro enfrenta una de sus peores crisis en décadas tras la decisión de Chiquita Panamá de despedir a más de 4,000 trabajadores por abandono de funciones, luego de casi un mes de huelga. Esta medida ha encendido las alarmas en una región donde la economía depende casi por completo del cultivo bananero.

Otra semana de protestas y represión policial en Panamá - Tercera Información - Tercera Información

La víspera, una multitudinaria marcha partió desde el parque Urracá, en esta capital, hacia la Presidencia de la República, convocada por la alianza Pueblo Unido por la Vida, para entregar un pliego de reclamos en defensa también de la democracia y los derechos humanos.

...and in "good" local news: In Panama, an Indigenous-led project rewrites the rules of reforestation

ÑÜRÜM, Panama — Isidrio Hernandez-Ruiz has a soft spot for the bright yellow flowers of the guayacan trumpet tree (Handroanthus guayacan), a native species that blooms across Panama each spring. It’s one of many reasons why Hernandez-Ruiz, a rural farmer known locally as a campesino, chose to participate in a reforestation effort to plant native trees across his land that will soon earn him income — without harvesting them. Between the nonnative pines on his land now grows a mix of native trees that promise at least 20 years of payments for the carbon they sequester.

Neighbors in Mamoni doing some great work with PES programs... Paying to prevent deforestation is positive & not 'nothing' (commentary)

In reality, however, eastern Panama’s rainforests, both inside and outside its Indigenous territories, are in danger. Global Forest Watch reports a loss of 117,000 hectares (289,000 acres) of total forest cover in Darién (the easternmost region of Panama) between 2001-2023, equivalent to 10% of its area and representing 23% of all deforestation in Panamá. In the same time period, Darién lost 21,500 hectares (53,100 acres) of primary forest, representing 2.9% of its total. This comes at the surreal moment in which the earth system has begun demonstrating obvious signals of abrupt climate change, with atmospheric CO2 measurements around 430 ppm, marine and terrestrial carbon sinks failing, record high sea surface temperatures, record low global ice levels, widespread fires, floods, and catabolic ecosystem alterations. Furthermore, geopolitical feedback loops continue to decimate these areas, already resulting in massive human migrations, at a rate of 60,000 per month through our bioregion.

...and lastly, in super local news, some friends from a nearby wildlife refuge rescued an abandoned baby sloth - here is a video of it munching down a Cecropia leaf -

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/3f2df9_10a93568dfce4f9db357cd5754063bb2/480p/mp4/file.mp4