Darién communities record more than 200 species for biodiversity credit market — Mongabay

Four Indigenous Wounaan and Emberá-Wounaan communities in Panama's Darién Forest have launched a biodiversity monitoring project amid illegal logging and the expansion of agricultural land near their territories. The project is intended to document the conservation status of the forests, Mongabay reports.

More than 200 recorded species

As part of the monitoring, the communities registered more than 200 species across 18,000 hectares of threatened forest. At least 15 documented species are classified as threatened.

The list includes three umbrella species: the jaguar, Baird's tapir, and the crested eagle.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

Data for the credit market

The communities are using the collected data as a baseline for joining the biodiversity credit market. They hope this could provide income in a region with few earning opportunities.

Monitoring is being conducted through bioacoustic observation and camera traps, with support from the Panamanian non-governmental organization FSC Indigenous Foundation and the international nonprofit Health In Harmony. The methodology was developed by Savimbo, a company working with biodiversity credits that was co-founded by Indigenous representatives. It uses 15 indicator species as a measure of forest condition.

Wounaan community resident Samuel Cheuzarama said that this work has already changed people's behavior in the communities. According to him, people no longer go hunting and are discussing putting up signs prohibiting hunting.