The Casco Community Garden Was Once a Glimmer of Hope for Future Generations: Now it is Scheduled to be Demolished

Six years ago, the dream of a green space for the Casco Community of Panama had finally been realized. What was originally a dumping ground and a place for the homeless was transformed into a “living space” where plants, wildlife, and people could coexist. Every week, volunteers attended to support the preservation of the garden, which included a rich biodiversity with not only plants, but also different species of animals, enriching the ecosystem and serving as an important education tool for future generations.

In 2019, work began on the creation of this project for the community of one of the country’s historic districts, when the Association of Neighbors and Friends of the Old Town (AVACA) obtained the land where the garden would be located. However, it wasn’t until the arrival of Iva and Bernadette, along with foreign friends and other volunteers from surrounding areas, that the project gained momentum.

The garden also featured a vegetable patch where fruits and vegetables were grown, from which everyone could take what they needed to use at home. New foods could also be planted there. Local children have said that thanks to the garden, they have begun to apply similar planting practices at home.

The impact that the garden has had within the community is undeniable, because it promoted sustainable development in the population.

The Destruction: Profits over People

Recently, the administration responsible for the property, Dekel Property Holdings, verbally informed the community and volunteers of the garden that construction work will soon begin, and that as a result, their community garden will soon be demolished. Dekel gave the community 60 days to vacate.

The president of AVACA, Iva Mei-Yin Du writes to her Community Garden volunteers: “Over the past six years, different groups of volunteers have given their time, effort and care to transform the once-abandoned, rubbish-filled lot into the garden full of life that our community knows and values today. Whether you have accompanied the garden for years or only recently joined us, your contribution has been deeply valuable. None of that effort has been in vain. We will need to organize the relocation of the plants that can be transplanted.”

Iva states she would like to hold one final farewell and appreciation gathering before the garden closes, inviting everyone who has been part of its story to come together once more and preserve the memories that they have created over these past six years.

She says the news fills her with enormous sadness. She hopes they can accompany the garden through this final stage and think together about how everything it represents might continue to grow, in some form, somewhere else.

Thank you for all the love you have given our garden.

What The Casco Community Garden has achieved in the last six years is truly remarkable, and that is timeless. The garden became the magnet of the people of good faith, willing to give to the Community their time, their talent, and their generosity.

It became also the place where neighbours, of all social classes, economical status or education, met to enforce and consolidate what a real community is. And of course, the smile of all those kids from 10, 11, 12 and 13 street that adopted this place like if it was their second house.

It was not just a garden, that was the excuse. It was a link of friendship, solidarity and the reinforcement of the sense of belonging. Thanks Iva. Lets look for a new place.

What Will We Take From the Children? 

A poem by Stephen Spring, 23-Sept-2026 

What happens to children
When the garden disappears?

When the trees that gave them shade are replaced by concrete,
When the soil beneath their feet
Is buried beneath foundations,
When the places where they ran
Become walls, gates, and parking spaces?

Where will they lean
That food doesn’t come from a package?

Where will they dig their hands into the earth, plant a seed,
Watch something grow,
And discover that patience
Can become a mango tree?

A garden gives children
A reson to go outside,
To move,
To explore,
To breathe beneath trees
Instead of staring through windows at another wall of concrete.

It gives them a place
To meet neighbors,
To make friends,
To learn responsibly,
To discover that they belong
To be a part of something larger than themselves.

And then the bulldozers arrive.

The trees came down.
The gardens vanish.
The birds leave.

And in their place:
Luxury condos,
More concrete,
More walls,
More places to live –
But less room to live.

Imagine being a child
And watching the place you planted
Turn into someone’s investment.

Imagine asking,
“Why did they destroy our garden?”
And being told:
“Because the land was worth more that way.”

What price do we put
On a child’s chance to run though a garden?

What price on shade?
On fresh air? On growing food?
On touching the earth? On belonging?

Children don’t get to vote
On what disappears from their childhood.
Adults make those decisions.

So let us make sure
The don’t inherit a city
Where every open space
Has been sold, paved,
And built over.

Protect the garden.

Protect the trees.
Protect the soil.
Protect the space where children
Can run, learn, grow,
And imagine a future
That isn’t made entirely of concrete.

Don’t take the garden away
And then ask children
Why they don’t feel connected
To the world around them.

Save the garden
For the children,
For their health,
For their childhood,
For the future they deserve.