USAID supported seed production program in the Chagres National Park buffer area moves ahead
Panama City , Panama. July 21, 2009:- A field day was held at the community farm “El Madroñal” in Chilibre to demonstrate sowing and cultivation practices for plantain seedbed parcels which will be established in the Chagres National Park buffer zone. Eighteen seed producers (5 women and 13 men), who were the first to establish plantain seed production parcels in their communities, participated in the event. They learned how to select good plantain seed and best practices for cleaning, disinfection and sowing. Five hundred plantain seed stocks were distributed and once cleaned and disinfected with organic products furnished by the project, the participants sowed them in the seedbed parcel at the site. The production of good quality seeds free of diseases and plagues is one of the best practices promoted by the USAID Conservation of the Biodiversity in the Panama Canal Watershed activity. This is part of the strategy to promote clean productive processes that are environmentally friendly and generate income for rural dwellers, neighbors of the natural ecosystems that contain high biodiversity in this strategic watershed.
USAID and the Bank of Agricultural Development begin assessments of credit applications for sustainable livestock projects
Panama City , Panama. July 14, 2009:-Officers from the Agricultural Development Bank (BDA) and the Chagres National Park (ChNP) accompanied USAID on the first round of visits to producers in the ChNP and its buffer zone to fine tune the conditions under which the commercial credit to local cattleranchers would be approved. The USAID team visited two farms in the buffer zone of the ChNP and within park boundaries. Farmers who qualify for commercial loans will implement farm plans to make their farms more environmentally-sustainable, applying the best management practices learned through USAID-funded training.
New watershed management council established
Panama City , Panama. July 13, 2009:-The Panama Canal Authority (ACP for its acronym in Spanish) swore in the fourth watershed management council of the Panama Canal Watershed (PCW). This council covers the sub-watersheds of Ciri Grande and Trinidad rivers and its formation was possible thanks to ACP’s counterpart contribution funds to the USAID-ACP Incentive Fund for the Management and Recuperation of the PCW. The PCW is divided into seven regions for the establishment of watershed management councils to strengthen local governance with the objective to improve management of natural resources with a focus on the water resources. USAID works with the ACP to empower communities to be in control of their natural resources while receiving income to improve their livelihoods.
$9.2 Million Assistance Agreement Signed to Promote Positive Youth Development and Direct Service Provision for Vulnerable Youth
Panama City , Panama. July 7, 2009:-The U.S. Agency for International Development and the new Government of Panama (GOP), represented by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, signed an important Assistance Agreement aimed at improving security in Panama. The budget in this multi-year agreement totals $9.2 million, of which $7.0 million is the USG donation and $2.2 million corresponds to the GOP’s contribution. It envisionsa new area of programming for USAID in Panama, with an emphasis on both direct service provision for youth at risk and the strengthening of institutions and networks to ensure continued impact over time. The geographic focus of a community youth at risk activity under this Assistance Agreement will be in three priority urban areas within Panama, experiencing high crime and violence with a significant vulnerable youth population. Activities are also anticipated in the rural Darien area. The Minister of Economy and Finance, Alberto Vallarino, and the Director of USAID, Littleton Tazewell, co-signed the Agreement. Present at the signing ceremony were the Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Juan Carlos Varela, and U.S. Ambassador Barbara J. Stephenson.
Local Farmers Market in Salamanca Benefits Producers and Surrounding Communities
Panama City , Panama. June 30, 2009:-The fifth Local Farmers Market was held successfully in Salamanca with the participation of eighteen producers from the communities of Santo Domingo, Boquerón Abajo, Santa Librada, and La Bandera. The market offered customers more than 32 types of fruit and vegetable products, all grown on their farms using best management practices and cleaner technologies. This agricultural activity, in addition to generating income for the producers, seeks to commercialize the variety of organic products produced in the area and improve agricultural practices from sowing to harvest, post-harvest, and sales. More than 200 persons from different communities came to the Salamanca Community Center to buy a variety of products including yams, beans, yucca, bananas, pineapple, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, “otoe” and honey, among others. Everything the producers brought to the market was sold out, and the next farmers market is scheduled for July 19th. The Salamanca Local Framers is supported by USAID as part of our strategy to promote natural resources best management practices and develop market-oriented, environmentally-friendly productive activities in the Panama Canal Watershed.
Panama Canal Watershed beekeepers are trained in multiplication of beehives
Panama City , Panama. June 26, 2009:-Honey producers from the Salamanca, Chilibre, and Altos de Pacora communities participated in the beehives multiplication training. Its purpose was to emphasize the need to work with new queens in order to achieve a better production and learn new techniques that will allow them to make their apiaries bigger. The U.S. Agency for International Development through the conservation of the Canal Watershed supports environmentally-friendly businesses that generate employment and income in target sub-watersheds.
Improving financing for sustainable productive activities in the Chagres National Park
Panama City , Panama. June 16-17, 2009:-Within the framework of the new financing policy for sustainable productive activities of small farmers in the Chagres National Park, USAID promoted a working session among representatives of the Agricultural Development Bank (BDA), the Chagres National Park (PNCH), and producers from the communities of Santa Librada, La Llana, Boquerón Arriba, and Boquerón Abajo, all inside the PNCH. Loan officers from BDA interacted with producers who have farms in the Chagres National Park. The objective of this session was to explain the strategy and operating procedures to obtain financing to adopt best management practices according to the farm plans developed by the farmers and approved by the National Environmental Authority (ANAM). As a result of the meeting, more than 20 producers showed interest in obtaining financing for their sustainable projects. USAID-funded assistance is helping to develop a financing policy for sustainable productive activities in the Chagres Park. Improved financing will facilitate best management practices in the use and conservation of natural resources and biodiversity.
USAID and CICH officially installed the Chagres-Alhajuela and Transisthmus Corridor-Colón Watershed Consultative Councils
Panama City , Panama. June 16, 2009:- To promote the participation of local actors and government institutions in the sustainable use of the natural resources of the Panama Canal Watershed, USAID in collaboration with the Inter-institutional Commission for the Watershed (CICH) and the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) supported the official installation of the Chagres-Alajuela and Transisthmus Corridor-Colón Consultative Councils. The event was chaired by Mr. Esteban Saénz, Chief of the ACP’s Environment, Water and Energy Department and Mr. Littleton Tazewell, as USAID Mission Director in Panama. Each Council groups more than 20 community and private sector organizations located in the subwatersheds of the Chagres, Boquerón, Salamanca, Pequení, Gatún, Limón, Agua Sucia, and Gatuncillo rivers. The Councils are a legally-recognized instance to analyze and resolve in a peaceful manner aspects related to the development of the communities and the conservation of the natural resources in their sub-watersheds. This model of organization and watershed management developed by USAID is now the model promoted by CICH to manage the whole Panama Canal Watershed.
nd cultivation practices for plantain seedbed parcels which will be established in the Chagres National Park buffer zone. Eighteen seed producers (5 women and 13 men), who were the first to establish plantain seed production parcels in their communities, participated in the event. They learned how to select good plantain seed and best practices for cleaning, disinfection and sowing. Five hundred plantain seed stocks were distributed and once cleaned and disinfected with organic products furnished by the project, the participants sowed them in the seedbed parcel at the site. The production of good quality seeds free of diseases and plagues is one of the best practices promoted by the USAID Conservation of the Biodiversity in the Panama Canal Watershed activity. This is part of the strategy to promote clean productive processes that are environmentally friendly and generate income for rural dwellers, neighbors of the natural ecosystems that contain high biodiversity in this strategic watershed. 
ark (ChNP) accompanied USAID on the first round of visits to producers in the ChNP and its buffer zone to fine tune the conditions under which the commercial credit to local cattleranchers would be approved. The USAID team visited two farms in the buffer zone of the ChNP and within park boundaries. Farmers who qualify for commercial loans will implement farm plans to make their farms more environmentally-sustainable, applying the best management practices learned through USAID-funded training.
and Trinidad rivers and its formation was possible thanks to ACP’s counterpart contribution funds to the USAID-ACP Incentive Fund for the Management and Recuperation of the PCW. The PCW is divided into seven regions for the establishment of watershed management councils to strengthen local governance with the objective to improve management of natural resources with a focus on the water resources. USAID works with the ACP to empower communities to be in control of their natural resources while receiving income to improve their livelihoods.
Panama. The budget in this multi-year agreement totals $9.2 million, of which $7.0 million is the USG donation and $2.2 million corresponds to the GOP’s contribution. It envisions a new area of programming for USAID in Panama, with an emphasis on both direct service provision for youth at risk and the strengthening of institutions and networks to ensure continued impact over time. The geographic focus of a community youth at risk activity under this Assistance Agreement will be in three priority urban areas within Panama, experiencing high crime and violence with a significant vulnerable youth population. Activities are also anticipated in the rural Darien area. The Minister of Economy and Finance, Alberto Vallarino, and the Director of USAID, Littleton Tazewell, co-signed the Agreement. Present at the signing ceremony were the Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Juan Carlos Varela, and U.S. Ambassador Barbara J. Stephenson. .JPG)
ation of eighteen producers from the communities of Santo Domingo, Boquerón Abajo, Santa Librada, and La Bandera. The market offered customers more than 32 types of fruit and vegetable products, all grown on their farms using best management practices and cleaner technologies. This agricultural activity, in addition to generating income for the producers, seeks to commercialize the variety of organic products produced in the area and improve agricultural practices from sowing to harvest, post-harvest, and sales. More than 200 persons from different communities came to the Salamanca Community Center to buy a variety of products including yams, beans, yucca, bananas, pineapple, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, “otoe” and honey, among others. Everything the producers brought to the market was sold out, and the next farmers market is scheduled for July 19th. The Salamanca Local Framers is supported by USAID as part of our strategy to promote natural resources best management practices and develop market-oriented, environmentally-friendly productive activities in the Panama Canal Watershed. 
ticipated in the beehives multiplication training. Its purpose was to emphasize the need to work with new queens in order to achieve a better production and learn new techniques that will allow them to make their apiaries bigger. The U.S. Agency for International Development through the conservation of the Canal Watershed supports environmentally-friendly businesses that generate employment and income in target sub-watersheds.
Park (PNCH), and producers from the communities of Santa Librada, La Llana, Boquerón Arriba, and Boquerón Abajo, all inside the PNCH. Loan officers from BDA interacted with producers who have farms in the Chagres National Park. The objective of this session was to explain the strategy and operating procedures to obtain financing to adopt best management practices according to the farm plans developed by the farmers and approved by the National Environmental Authority (ANAM). As a result of the meeting, more than 20 producers showed interest in obtaining financing for their sustainable projects. USAID-funded assistance is helping to develop a financing policy for sustainable productive activities in the Chagres Park. Improved financing will facilitate best management practices in the use and conservation of natural resources and biodiversity. 
e Inter-institutional Commission for the Watershed (CICH) and the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) supported the official installation of the Chagres-Alajuela and Transisthmus Corridor-Colón Consultative Councils. The event was chaired by Mr. Esteban Saénz, Chief of the ACP’s Environment, Water and Energy Department and Mr. Littleton Tazewell, as USAID Mission Director in Panama. Each Council groups more than 20 community and private sector organizations located in the subwatersheds of the Chagres, Boquerón, Salamanca, Pequení, Gatún, Limón, Agua Sucia, and Gatuncillo rivers. The Councils are a legally-recognized instance to analyze and resolve in a peaceful manner aspects related to the development of the communities and the conservation of the natural resources in their sub-watersheds. This model of organization and watershed management developed by USAID is now the model promoted by CICH to manage the whole Panama Canal Watershed.