The water resource is the driving force for the operation of the Panama Canal, the socio-economic dynamics of the provinces of Panama, Colon and West Panama, and contributes substantially to the country's sustainable economic development by providing water for human consumption, transit of ships, electricity generation and production activities in the different regions of its river watershed and adjacent cities.
In this sense, it is important to emphasize that there is a multipurpose use of water from the waterway that includes the aforementioned and other activities that serve as a showcase in different dimensions of human knowledge and activity, from education, tourism, history, culture and biology, among others not less important.
The ecosystems, biodiversity and socio-historical and cultural scenarios present in the Canal watershed provide the setting for the development of practical actions for the study and strengthening of processes related to water resources, environmental education, science, sustainable tourism and the relationship of indigenous peoples with their environment; all from a holistic, historical, socio-cultural, educational and ethnographic perspective of these different visions and human-nature relations.
For an understanding of these three factors: environmental education, sustainable tourism and ethnographic research, two interesting examples are presented:
- The first refers to the historical development of environmental education in the Canal watershed, based on the importance of water as a transversal axis that facilitates the path towards a water culture and environmental governance in the region; and
- The second allows to make an interpretation of the reality of the Emberá people settled in communities within the national parks Chagres and Soberania.
Environmental education
A fundamental historical fact for its development in the watershed, goes hand in hand with the transfer of the inter-oceanic route to Panamanian hands, on December 31, 1999, under the responsibility of the Canal Authority (ACP), which, together with the Ministry of Education (MEDUCA), the National Environment Authority (now the Ministry of Environment) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), strengthened the environmental education through a Memorandum of Understanding in 2002, which created the Interinstitutional Program of the Watershed Guardians: an educational model and operating scheme of unique environmental education platform in the country, which became the "flagship program" in this important region. (RCheca, 2005).
The conditions provided by water as the study axis, the relationship with the populations, their conservation and protection, have allowed the achievement of several important milestones from environmental education in the last 15 years, among them:
- Strengthening interinstitutionality (ACP-MEDUCA) and the implementation of a model of environmental education for the construction of responsible environmental leadership and behavior.
- Active and committed participation of the educational community, demonstrated with successful experiences of environmental education.
- Proposals and development of environmental cutting projects and activities that positively impact the educational community.
- Teachers with permanent training in environmental education, participating in regional and national academic activities.
- Development of inter-sectorial and inter-regional integration activities to strengthen the Basin Guardians program.
- Building a sense of belonging and strengthening of the water culture, for the attainment of changes of attitude and pro-environmental behaviors in the territory.
- Joint strategy for the conservation of natural resources, especially water, based on coordinated actions from the educational community in the Working Regions of the river basin.
- Implementation of strategies and actions for the improvement of the quality of life of members of the educational community.
- A permanent and dynamic environmental education program into the Panama Canal Authority; and
- More than 50,000 students and 2,000 teachers from 153 schools participate dynamically and committed each year.
Ethnography research
Prior to the analysis of the indigenous people, it is important to note that in Panama, there are seven ethnic than occupy 20% of the national territory, representing 12% of the country's population. According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), 6% of this population suffers extreme poverty.
In the case of the Emberá established in the Canal, there are several interesting considerations that allow to interpret several aspects from an ethnographic perspective, including:
- The displacement of the members of the Emberá ethnic group, that originates of the region of Darién (east of the country) to the Chagres River, was part of a "social - military experiment" of the U.S Army and NASA in the so-called Canal Zone, in order to have an indigenous instructor who trained astronauts from NASA different space programs in jungle survival between 1960 and 1975. (RCheca, 2016).
- Subsequently, more individuals migrated and settled in the Chagres River, applying their traditional practices for the use of natural resources within their reach. But, the territory where they were established is declared a "national park" in 1985, and many of their activities were banned by the new legislation of the protected area.
- However, they found in environmental education and sustainable tourism a different way of prosperous in harmony with nature, achieving an alternative of local economic development which provides complementary benefits to the traditional productive activities permitted by law and keep them away from poverty conditions.
- Environmental education is part of their ancestral knowledge, but over time, they have been strengthened by the exchange of information with institutions such as: Panama Canal Authority, National Environmental Ministry, Smithsonian’s Tropical Research Institute and other local and institutional actors.
- Under a combined environmental education and sustainable tourism scheme, they provide a service to national and foreign tourists and contribute to the protection and sustainable use of the natural and cultural resources of this important region, which provides more than 42% of the water needed for the lakes system of the Panama Canal.
There are many research opportunities related to the multipurpose use of water in this region, which will enable the community at large to have a clearer understanding of the importance of the resource and the need for its conservation and protection in the present and future, for its sustainable use and the need to prepare us for the challenges ahead.