OPINION: Panama's environmental fragility

With two days left before the end of the last presidential term, the Environment Ministry sent a note to the Attorney General to solve a question: how to collect a multi-million dollar bill from the Minera Panama project? This situation is surprising. According to the original document of the environmental authorities, the debt exceeds $11 million and had been carried forward since 2012.

 In addition, the mining company had to reforest more than 1,920 hectares and had only done so in 145. Beyond the content of this controversy, worrying signs are evident: the environmental institution is too weak to fulfill its very important tasks. Even worse, a multinational company that made environmental commitments with the country has had six years of non-compliance in the aforementioned aspects. This behavior raises serious doubts about Panama’s ability to supervise and oversee megaprojects of this nature, and severely questions the good faith of the partners that the country acquires for the development of these projects.

The Ministry of Environment has a leading role in facilitating the decarbonization of our economy and the transition to a sustainable society. With this background, the present and the future of Panama are in serious danger because of the games and the institutional fragility.- LA PRENSA, Sep. 21