Resource information
Panama is experiencing spectacular
economic growth, averaging 7.5 percent during 2004-06; a
construction boom; and emerging new opportunities and
growing export markets. Despite this impressive growth
performance, at the national level poverty remained almost
unchanged during 1997-2006 at around 37 percent (masking a
decline in rural poverty and an increase in urban and
indigenous areas). Key development challenges for Panama
include: (a) sustaining its accelerated recent growth
performance, and (b) translating growth into poverty
reduction. Natural resources and the environment must be
key elements of any successful strategy to meet these
challenges. The main objective of the Panama Country
Environmental Analysis (CEA) is to provide an analytical
foundation to enhance the country's capacity to
establish and address environmental policy priorities linked
to poverty reduction and sustained economic growth. This
report covers three main areas. First, the report analyzes
the capabilities of Panama's institutions to perform
essential tasks to manage the environment and natural
resources; namely identifying problems and designing and
implementing policies to solve them. The analysis therefore
places great emphasis on the clarity of policies; mechanisms
for coordination; use of and access to information,
participation, and consultation; and, mechanisms to promote
compliance with legislation. The premise of the
institutional approach is that only strong institutions are
able to offer efficient, equitable, and durable solutions to
the increasingly complex problems faced by modern societies.
Second, the report identifies environmental and natural
resource management issues of key sectors, such as mining
and tourism, to provide information on strategic synergies
and tradeoffs involving the environment, economic growth,
and poverty. Finally, the report offers new quantitative
estimates in the fields of environmental health and climate
change that will help the Government of Panama establish
policy priorities.
