a few more days in Bocas

After a 15 minute experiment with my underwater camera, it appears I will be out of camera posts for a while, pending its return to functionality.... A friend told me to try some rice, so i guess Ill give it a shot...

otherwise,,, Things on the project are moving forwards, we are in the process of getting some aerial photos with which we (at this point I) will be creating maps of the community in which we are working (the community centered around Dos Bocas) in Bocas del Torro, Panama. The project is currently a preliminary study of the willingness of people living in the Comarca Ngobe to participate in a Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degredation (REDD) project. Wee are traipsing across the extant beaureaucratic framework, tenous as it is, in Bocas del Torro, getting information, maps and coordinating activities across different government departments. The process is resulting in getting a fairly clear image of the social forces active in the area, as well as complementary and competing economic interests that manifest in different attitudes and relationships with the environment. For instance, the main economic drivers in the area are agriculture (welcome to the home of Bocas Fruit Company, a major piece of Chiquita Banana), tourism, and a large marine fishery. Tourism and the marine fishery depend on the conservation of marine resources, whereas the fruit companies, think at least, that they need to fertilize, and apply aerial pesticides to their banana plantations to maintain a high profit margin. Should those practices change, i.e. responsible and ecological methods of agriculture being practiced, everybody stands to benefit... the trick of course being, a willingness of the agrigiants to change their practices. As is the story the world over, the paradigm of higher yield reigns supreme, though the alternatives, of ecological land management, have yet to be practiced on an appreciable scale (although they are being tested in some places). Thus we are faced with a choice resulting in definite environmental benefits and uncertain economic ones, can we really afford to not make that choice?