Location: Montijo District, Veraguas Map
Area: 503 sq km
Tel. 998- 4871
Isla Coiba National Park covers an island of Coiba off the South Shore of Panama. Isla Coiba National Park covers an area of 503 sq km in the Montijo District of the Veraguas province. In July 2005 Isla Coiba National Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its unique land and marine biosphere.
Created by Executive Decree in the year 1991, the
Isla Coiba National Park constitutes by its extension and by the
wealth of its islands and the marine waters that surround them one
of the natural jewels of Panama. Protects marine, insular and
coastal ecosystems. The largest of these islands of volcanic origin
is Coiba, which with 50,314 ha is the largest island in the Central
American Pacific. Next to it are the Jicarón Islands (2,002 ha),
Jicarita (125 ha, southernmost point of the Republic of Panama),
Canal de Afuera (240 ha), Afuerita (27 ha), Pájaros (45 ha), Grape
(257 ha), Brincanco (330 ha), Coibita (242 ha) and many others form
the 53, 582 ha of island territories.
As a whole, the islands
of the Isla Coiba National Park have more than 240 km of coasts that
are mostly preserved in their natural state. Paradoxically, the
conservation of this archipelago is basically due to the fact that
from 1919 to 2004 Coiba Island was used as a penal colony by the
Panamanian government. During the dictatorships of Omar Torrijos and
Manuel Noriega (1968-1989), the dreaded prison was transformed into
a kind of concentration camp for political prisoners and opponents
of the regime. It is believed that more than 200 people were killed
and tortured on the island. The most famous case is the murder and
disappearance of the leftist leader Floyd Britton. The prison was
demolished in 2004, fifteen years after the invasion of the United
States Army to overthrow the regime of Noriega.
The island of
Coiba has several endemic species, more than 80% of the island is
covered by original vegetation, has mangroves and cativales of
significant magnitude, its beaches come to spawn at least 3 species
of sea turtles, has the best preserved coral reefs of the pacific
Panamanian and an undeniable landscape value provided for tourism,
the sustainable management of these natural resources is necessary
to avoid their degradation.
After an environmental movement
that involved many people and different groups, legal status is
achieved for this area, through the law NO.44 of July 26, 2004 that
creates the Coiba National Park, which regulates the operation of
this area protected, where among other things this area is
established as a National Heritage and part of the National System
of Protected Areas of the National Environmental Authority, as well
as the legal framework that governs the operation of this Park.
Due to the unique characteristics it presents, as a result of so
many years of isolation and its biological importance, the Unesco
World Heritage Committee accepted the proposal made by the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in
granting to Coiba the category of World Heritage Site of Humanity,
in Durban, South Africa on July 14, 2005, this being ratified by
Panama on July 17 of the same year.
Currently this area has a
vital role in terms of its position within the Marine Corridor of
Conservation of the Eastern Tropical Pacific (CMAR) that links five
national parks, including Coco Island in Costa Rica, Coiba Island in
Panama, Malpelo and Gorgona in Colombia and Galapagos in Ecuador.
Conforming thus a great corridor of 211 million hectares including
five national parks and mixing exclusive economic zones of four
countries.
In addition, this protected area is important for
communities located in its continental coastal zone or buffer zone,
where initiatives supported by projects financed by Conservation
International, Avina Foundation and Walton Foundation managed by
ANCON have emerged, where entrepreneurs' ideas have been
strengthened. localities that has resulted in the formation of a
network of sustainable tourism microenterprises called ARTURIS COIBA
(Rural Association of Sustainable Tourism of the Coiba National Park
Damping Area) through which they manage different projects for the
area and make known its services.
The need for constant
patrolling of the entire insular and marine area of the park, led
to the installation of a headquarters of the Aeronaval Authority of
Panama that, among other things, offers logistical support and
surveillance to the park rangers.
Weather
The average annual temperature is about
26 ºC and the average annual rainfall is around 3,500 mm.
Topography
On the island of Coiba coastal plains with elevations
of less than one hundred meters predominate in the north and
southeast of the island, while in the rest of the low elevation
hills that barely exceed 200 masl constitute the dominant landscape.
Only in the central sector there is a chain of hills where the
highest points are found: the hill of La Torre with 416 meters above
sea level and the hill of San Juan with 406 meters above sea level.
Water resources
In Coiba there are numerous rivers such as
the Negro, with 40 km in length and eight tributaries, the San Juan,
with 18.5 km in length and the Santa Clara, with 17 km in length.
Biodiversity
The primary forests are those that predominate
in Coiba although there are also forests intervened as a consequence
of the camps of the penal colony and the forest extractions of past
times. A total of 1,450 species of vascular plants have been
enumerated with the presence of abundant specimens of ceiba (Ceiba
pentandra), panama (Sterculia apetala), espavé (Anacardium
excelsum), tangaré (Carapa guianensis) and cedar thorn (Bombacopsis
quinatum).
Since 1993 and with the collaboration of the
Spanish Agency for Cooperation, AECI, there is a biological station
in the Isla Coiba National Park that to date has recorded 36 species
of mammals, 147 birds and 39 species of amphibians and reptiles,
with a high degree of endemism such as the Coiba ñeque (Dasyprocta
coibae) and the howler monkey of Coiba (Alouatta coibensis) among
mammals, and the Coiba's colaespina (Cranioleuca dissita) among
birds. Coiba is the only place in Panama where you can still see
flocks in freedom of the flag macaw, almost extinct in the mainland.
But the natural wealth of the park is the marina. In the Bay of
Ladies, a coral reef with more than 135 ha of extension is located,
the second largest of the American tropical Pacific. To date, 69
species of marine fish, 12 of echinoderms, 45 of molluscs and 13 of
crustaceans have been identified in the protected area.
Marine species
The seas of Coiba traditionally known for their
abundant fishing harbor species such as the whale shark (Rhincodon
typus), the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier), the ray manta (Manta
birostris), the goldfish (Coriphaena hippurus) and the yellowfin
tuna ( Thunnus albacares).
The seas of Coiba are also the
habitat of four species of cetaceans: the huge humpback whale
(Megaptera novaeangliae), the orca (Orcinus orca), the tropical
spotted dolphin (Stenella attenuata) and the bottlenose dolphin
(Tursiops truncatus). In the waters of the park and adjacent areas,
the occasional presence of 19 additional species of cetaceans found
in the Panamanian Pacific has been observed. On the island of Coiba,
used for many years as a haven for pirates, pre-Columbian remains
have been found dating from about 500 years before our era.