This is not a picture of Panama, thank God!  One of the many reasons I came to live here for 15 years now is not having to deal with alien substances coming out of my nose if I sneeze!

Only three countries in the world, Panama, Bhutan and Suriname, are classified as “carbon negative,” meaning they absorb more greenhouse gases than they emit from human activities.

Melani Acosta, climate change mitigation analyst at Panama’s Environment Ministry said “Panamanian forest lands capture more carbon than total gas emissions , which defines us as a carbon negative country.”

This is because 65.4 percent of Panama’s territory comprises forests and other wooded lands, 32.5 percent belongs to other lands and 2.1 percent to inland water bodies according to a 2019 report by the Environmental Information Directorate of the country’s Environment Ministry.

The Panamanian expert, part of the national greenhouse gas Inventories coordination team, said nevertheless that her country has an enormous responsibility, and must continue “carrying out the progressive reduction of the balance between emissions and removals.”

For this reason, and despite the Covid-19 pandemic, in the first quarter of this year, her country presented its second Biennial Update Report on the commitments made in the Paris Agreement against climate change.

This report shows the progressive decrease in the balance between emissions and removals and where the decrease is 32.5 percent since 1994, and 17.1 percent since 2013.

In this sense, Panama plans to reforest 50,000 hectares of land, “which will contribute to the absorption of carbon of approximately 2.6 million tons of CO2 equivalent, by the year 2050” Acosta said. EFE

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