Reporter’s Journal: Times are getting dark
By Mongabay Special Reporting Initiative Fellow Ruxandra Guidi. Photo by Roberto Guerra. This is the season of hurricanes and heavy storms. But the archipelago of Kuna Yala, located south of the hurricane belt, is typically spared the damage and strong winds that hit islands further north in the Caribbean, year after year. In recent years, however, rains have forced the people living in these islands — an estimated 30,000 — to start...
BBC World Service: Climate Change and Community Forest Management in Kuna Yala, Panama
Mongabay SRI Fellow Ruxandra Guidi published a seven-minute segment on BBC World Service’s Science in Action program. The piece focuses on the indigenous Kuna of Panama, whose livelihoods and homes are already being affected by sea level rise and climate change, and the ways in which they are adapting to it while trying to preserve their customs and sovereign control of their forests. Listen to the full segment...
Reporter’s Journal: From Panama
By SRI Fellow Ruxandra Guidi Don Jesus was tasked with the logistics for the conference, and Don Feliciano would be taking care of all the meals for more than 25 people. This was no small feat for these two septuagenarian men, who had to do a lot of phone calling and running around in order to try to secure things like ice and a motorboat and a generator. In the end, ice was the only thing they couldn’t get — and that’s because...
Beautiful Birds of Panama
By Hannah Lindstrom Panama has a total of 972 bird species, of which 20 are considered to be globally threatened. Since the 1940’s, Panama’s tree cover has been reduced by over 50% which is having an effect on the avifauna of the nation. Species in Panama range from Giant Harpy Eagles, Panama’s national bird, to small species of kingfishers, with many in between....
Photo: A giant tree
Me in front of a giant kapok or ceiba tree on Barro Colorado Island in Panama. This is nowhere near the largest kapok tree I’ve ever seen — they get considerably bigger — but it is nonetheless gigantic. The same ceiba, which is called “The Big Tree”, seen from a distance. The same ceiba tree seen from a boat on Lake Gatun (e.g. Panama Canal). Looking up the trunk of the kapok tree Again, me for...
Up-close with a crab-eating raccoon
A crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorous) in Panama. Photo by Rhett A. Butler, 2007. Up-close and personal with a crab-eating raccoon in Soberania National Park in Panama. Shorter fur than the common raccoon makes it look smaller. The crab-eating raccoon is not threatened. To see more photos of mammals in...