environment

Natura joins protest

The non-profit conservation organization Fundación Natura yesterday joined the group of NGOs opposed to the move made by the Cámara de Comercio and the Asociación de Productores Panameños de Energía Renovable (Apper), to have the Government investigate the sources of funding for environmentalists protesting against the country's hydroelectric projects.

Natura's project director, Elvin Britton, said that environmentalists cannot be faulted for stalling some of the nation's hydroelectric projects and rejected the suggestion that protesting in defense of the environment is merely a response to the interests of third parties who finance them and not to environmental issues.

Many of the projects are stalled because they have not gone through the proper approval process, Britton said. "There is a requirement for completing environmental impact assessments, which must be reviewed and approved by the Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (ANAM)," Britton noted. "These studies involve public consultation, which, owing to the irresponsibility of some promoters---not all---have been handled in a deceptive way, provoking a logical reaction from the communities" affected by them. Natura stressed that protesting against hydroelectric projects that do not comply with environmental regulations or whose employers abuse adjacent communities does not require much financing.