jarango

Panama in the grip of a terrible drought

Reuters: “After seven months without rain in a tropical country that usually sees heavy rainfall for most of the year, farmers and city-dwellers alike are suffering the effects of almost two centuries of deforestation, as one of Panama’s worst droughts in living memory takes hold.”

The rainforest is Panama’s most important and valuable natural resource. This drought is a major disaster, brought on by obsolete and ignorant land management practices that the Panamanian government has done little to correct.

May 5, 2003 | Archived in Random Notes