Panama indigenous groups say land under threat
Panama indigenous groups say land under threat
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Wed, 31 Jul 2013 10:45 AM
Author: Erin Berger
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Leaders representing Panama’s seven indigenous groups have called for support in a fight to protect their land rights – a fight that has intensified in recent years with the rapid arrival of land speculators, drug traffickers and landless peasants.
The National Coordinating Body of Indigenous Peoples in Panama (COONAPIP) said the national government has failed to respect their rights as they face an onslaught of newcomers. As a result, indigenous lands, home to over half of Panama’s mature forests, are at high risk.
“We feel tremendously insecure at this time under the force of a great invasion,” said Williams Barrigón Dogirama, former president of COONAPIP and special advisor to the current president of COONAPIP, Betanio Chiquidama. “Our government has committed sins of omission as well as commission, showing great lack of concern about the wellbeing of indigenous peoples.”
The past five years have seen a significant increase in resource-exploitation activities on indigenous lands, and COONAPIP says that the government has done little to stop it. In some cases, conflicts over land have turned deadly. Confrontations between members of the Ngäbe-Buglé community and the police over mining operations and hydroelectric dams on their territory resulted in the deaths of nine people over two years. And two people, including the leader of a Wounaan community in Eastern Panama, were shot during a standoff over illegal logging last year.
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