Panama: Guna Yala, at sea level

Guna Yala, the land of the Guna, is a semi-autonom­ous re­gion in the north of Panama on the Carib­bean coast. Since the re­volu­tion in 1925, the Guna have owned their land and the ex­clus­ive right to use nat­ural re­sources. Its di­verse, cen­tur­ies-old in­di­gen­ous cul­ture is today sub­ject to many in­flu­ences.

"Our ap­proach is to edu­cate people so they can un­der­stand the is­sues and work to­wards im­prov­ing re­source man­age­ment and help­ing com­munit­ies sus­tain­ably use the nat­ural re­sources."

Since 2004, the Fun­dación BALU UALA and sev­eral mu­ni­cip­al­it­ies in the autonom­ous re­gion of Guna Yala on the Carib­bean coast of Panama have been work­ing to­gether on this pro­ject. The pil­lars of the pro­ject at War­gan­dup, Di­gir, Niadup, Ug­gub­seni and Dad Nagg­we­Dub­bir are en­vir­on­mental edu­ca­tion, mar­ine pro­tec­ted areas (MPA), sus­tain­able ag­ri­cul­ture and waste man­age­ment.

For the im­ple­ment­a­tion, spe­cial com­mis­sions have been formed and trained by the mu­ni­cip­al­it­ies. The main func­tion of these com­mis­sions, which are sup­por­ted by an en­vir­on­mental edu­cator, is to con­trol and pro­mote mar­ine pro­tec­ted areas, the pro­vi­sion of en­vir­on­mental edu­ca­tion on rel­ev­ant top­ics in the re­spect­ive com­munit­ies, the pro­mo­tion of waste man­age­ment (eg. through train­ing and clean-up ac­tions), the sup­port of sus­tain­able fish­er­ies un­der the rules of the self-gov­ern­ment Con­greso Gen­eral Guna (CGG) and pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able local food pro­duc­tion.

We have as­sessed our re­cent work, tak­ing into ac­count our strengths and weak­nesses, our op­por­tun­it­ies and the risks we face as an or­gan­isa­tion, and used them to stra­tegic­ally plan for the fu­ture. We dis­cussed this in Septem­ber 2024 with pro­ject pro­moters from Guebdi, Di­gir, Niadup, Ug­gub­seni and Dad Naggwe Dub­bir, four mem­bers of MPAs and ag­ri­cul­tural com­mis­sions, ten young people from Dad Naggwe Dub­bir and other pro­ject co­ordin­at­ors.

Balu Uala aims to be a force for com­munity edu­ca­tion and lead­er­ship train­ing for the ra­tional use and man­age­ment of Nabg­wana (nature) based on the Guna world­view and sci­entific know­ledge to cre­ate and strengthen com­munity re­si­li­ence and res­ist­ance in the face of a sys­tem that threatens life.

Our goals are:

• Reactivation of MPAs and their commissions
• Monitoring the state of local reefs and other marine ecosystems
• Establishment or reactivation of model agricultural plots
• Solid waste management
• Preservation of traditional varieties of food and medicinal plants and exchange of seeds
• Creating the conditions for a marine research and education centre (acceptance, use)
• Inclusion of a new topic in our work: promoting knowledge of traditional knowledge, especially among young people, with the help of traditional authorities (saila, argar, inadule, etc.)

2019 - 2024

Our study on pub­lic per­cep­tion of cli­mate change in co­oper­a­tion with the Fac­ulty of So­ci­ology at the Uni­versity of Panama has formed the basis for in­form­a­tion and aware­ness-rais­ing cam­paigns since 2023.

In 2022, the Is­ber­gun­galu co­oper­at­ive sup­por­ted by Balu Uala suc­cess­fully com­pleted all the ne­ces­sary steps to be­come a fully re­cog­nised and op­er­a­tional co­oper­at­ive.

In re­sponse to our calls for real and ur­gent cli­mate ac­tion, the Uni­versity of Panama de­clared a ‘cli­mate emer­gency’ in 2022 and com­mit­ted to in­clude cli­mate edu­ca­tion in the cur­ricula of all fac­ulties and de­gree pro­grammes and to con­trib­ute to cli­mate solu­tions through its re­search to the best of its abil­ity.

The schools reg­u­larly in­vite the pro­ject staff (pro­moters) to give lec­tures on en­vir­on­mental top­ics or to help or­gan­ise activ­it­ies. The local of­fice of the Min­istry of Ag­ri­cul­ture (MIDA) also works very act­ively with the local BALU UALA groups, as these are now among the most im­port­ant farm­ers' groups in the re­gion. ARAP, the Mar­ine Re­sources Au­thor­ity, also re­ceives our sup­port when they carry out their activ­it­ies.

In Dad Naggwe Dub­bir, Ug­gub­seni, Niadup, Di­gir and Uar­gan­dup, the teams have given lec­tures and video present­a­tions in local schools, or­gan­ized art activ­it­ies such as paint­ing, paint­ing or pro­cessing garbage into art ob­jects. They also col­lec­ted rub­bish on local beaches, snorkeled at MPAs, gave lec­tures for vari­ous or­gan­ized groups such as sports clubs, wo­men's groups, and gave lec­tures at local meet­ing houses.

The MPAs pro­moted by BALU UALA have now been taken over by the mu­ni­cip­al­it­ies and have been anchored in their local reg­u­la­tions. Re­cently, at a meet­ing of the Con­greso Gen­eral Guna, in which all 48 com­munit­ies of Guna Yala par­ti­cip­ated, sev­eral lead­ers poin­ted out the im­port­ance of the ex­ist­ing MPAs and the need to es­tab­lish fur­ther pro­tec­ted areas in each com­munity.

2008 - 2018

• In each island community, one or two project members and members of the MPA commissions are now implementing the education program. The educational program has since been extended to a total of 13 island communities.
• The fisheries inspectors elected by the municipalities supervise the fishery-related regulations. The monitoring of marine protected areas is now common practice of community work.
• In 2010, a total of nine Marine Protected Areas have been set up so far.
• The General Guna Congress stopped the good cooperation in 2009 after several conflicts. However, it has accelerated the adoption of the idea of a sustainable use of marine resources as an important project objective.
• MPA commissions take over agricultural tasks on the mainland and pick up the topic of waste and garbage. Overall, the role of commissions in the communities is becoming stronger and more autonomous.
• Formation of a cooperative for the education of organic agriculture.
• The coral reef monitoring shows a relatively intact situation of the corals and in some areas overfishing.
• Event of the first "Festival del Mar" since 2005.
• Marine reserves are respected in all communities, lobster fisheries have declined as a result of other sources of income.
• New focus: pollution from waste and the removal of sand and corals for construction.
• By the end of 2018, all pa­pers have been ap­proved and the of­fi­cial doc­u­ment re­cog­niz­ing the co­oper­at­ive Isbergun Galu as such is avail­able.

2004 - 2007

• First educational workshops on marine biology and ecology, conservation, coral biology and environmental education in six, later twelve Guna Yala communities.
• In each community at least one volunteer was found and trained as project representative.
• Special teaching materials, videos, leaflets or posters are developed by Balu Uala
• Establishing a basic fisheries monitoring program with data collection on number of species, biomass, sex, fishing effort, fishing grounds, own use or export etc.
• The fishermen in twelve communities were registered and the current fishing practice was reviewed. Every community now has a fisheries inspector who records daily catch, inspects catches and confiscates illegal catches like lobsters that are too small or shiny.
• Six communities set up Marine Protected Areas (MPA). An MPA commission of 8 to 15 members takes control and is an effective instrument for the coral reef management.
• Due to the protected areas the number of lobsters, young snapper and gilthead bream increases. Thus, the municipalities interest in participating the project clearly increases