Panama, Panama!

I finished up my last class with a field trip to the northern part of the country, in a place called Sarapiquí. The class was called, Forests, Forestry, and Poverty and it focused on the dynamics of forestry practices correlating with poverty in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

It was an interesting thing to consider that the methods used to harvest forest products can be directly related to poverty stricken communities. It's not something I've ever considered. I've always focused on the element of deforestation due to the mismanagement of forests. Apparently mismanaged things can have other consequences as well.

On our field trip to Sarapiquí, we checked out a few different things. First was a forest plantation. Traditionally I had been against forest plantations because it's human's manipulation of the forest and 100% unnatural. But I quickly learned that the land area used to produce trees on a plantation was far smaller than the forest land area affected by harvesting the same amount of trees. This means that the more plantations that exist, the less natural forests are needed to provide forest products to meet society's needs! Plantations are a form of preservation! Oh, what a grand new perspective!
Our next stop was to a sustainably managed forest. Even though plantations are far better producers of wood products, they still don't produce enough to meet society's overwhelming demand. Of course, consuming less is the best answer, but it's also the hardest method of which to convince people. Because of that, forests are still being cut down to meet our needs. The best way to do that is to do it sustainably. This means that we take a minimum amount of trees from the forest so as to not affect the forest's health. Sure, there are damages to the forest, but if trees are harvested in a way that the damage is not severe, then the forest can recover and continue being a happy, healthy forest! The plot of forestland that we visited was a great example of this. There were lots of health indicators and it felt nice to hike through it. At least through most of it. Half way through our hike, the rains of the rainy season hit us hard! It was intense! I had been walking through the forest delicately so as to not get stung or bitten by any of the terminally poisonous things we were identifying such as Poison Dart Frogs and Bullet Ants. I've been attacked by Fire Ants and Army Ants during my short time here, but I hear it only takes four bites from the inch long Bullet Ants to end me! Yikes! Anyway, after the rain hit, my delicate hiking tactics went right out the window. I was grabbing trees and plants and soil, anything to get myself out of the valley in which I seemed to be stuck. I was at the end of the class so everyone that had hiked through before me destroyed all the traction I could have had. I was slipping and sliding all over the place! When I finally made it to the top and out of the forest, I was completely covered, head to toe, in mud - and soaking wet! No worries though, the intensity of the rain rinsed the mud right off of me by the time I got back to the bus...Our last stop was to a hydroelectric power plant, which has a unique relationship with the land owners of the upstream forests. The hydroelectric power plant knows that the consistency of the river flows depends on, and is influenced by, the existence of forests upstream. In order to preserve their interests, the flow of the river, they are employing a plan called Payment for Environmental Services. Through governmental money and coordination by a group called FUNDECOR, they're paying landowners to not cut down their forests. That is, the landowners are receiving money to leave the upstream forest land alone. Financial incentive for conservation! What a great spin on natural forest protection! It's been working great for the last few years with no signs of changing in the near future! It's a great example that I wish more governments would support.

So why the Van Halen title for a forestry blog? Simple - I had a five day break after this class finished and I celebrated by going to Panama! Panama! That and I needed to renew my 90 day visa...The funniest part of the whole trip happened when we crossed the border into Panama from Costa Rica.

There was some kind of fumigation chamber that the bus parks in before leaving the country. The purpose was obviously to kill any bacteria, fungi, pollen, etc. from dirty Costa Rica before entering sterile Panama. We quickly closed the windows in fear of being poisoned! The bus sat there and the temperature seemed to go through the roof! Nothing happened. Finally the bus pulled out of the fumigation chamber and crossed a rickety old bridge over a dirty brown river that serves as the border. Confused that no chemicals had hit the bus we decided to open the windows again for some much needed fresh air. Ah refreshment! On the other side of the bridge, the bus stopped in another fumigation chamber. Unfortunately we were oblivious to this action, as the excitement of being in a new country (50th for me!) was upon us! All of a sudden, we all got sprayed in the faces from something outside! Damn fumigation chamber! We scrambled to close the windows but were too late. I tried to use my lack of sense of smell and interesting work history to determine what kind of pesticide had covered us all. No dice. So Becca asked the border guard. "Oh, don't worry." He said calmly. "That's for the bus, not for you." Hahaaaa!!! We tried to explain to him that we had been sprayed and wanted to know with what we had been sprayed, but he was adamant about those chemicals being for the bus and not for us. Thanks, guy.

I was in a group of 10 other students and we traveled to some islands off the northeastern coast of Panama called Bocas Del Toro. It was beautiful there!We spent our days exploring different beaches of the islands in kayaks, hanging out at Caribbean Sea side bars, swimming our brains out, and not relaxing at all! It was a blast!I'm now back in Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica and have started a new class. Research Methods. Oh boy! As you can imagine, I'm spending lots of time, glued to my computer researching. Or learning how to research, as it were. I'm using this class to get a foundation for the thesis I'll be doing at the end of the school year. Get ready for some reading and editing! I mean, if you want. Seriously - please let me know if you're willing to proof read my thesis next spring-ish when I have it ready!

XOXO