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Barro Blanco

“Thousands of fish have died. It smells rotten. The whole eco-system of the Tabasará River is now in grave danger,” says Ricardo Miranda of the Ngäbe and Buglé indigenous territory—ancestral land that may soon be flooded. The controversial Barro Blanco Dam project in Panama directly affects 480 Ngäbe and Buglé indigenous people and their shared, legally recognized territory along the Tabasará River. The third largest river in Panama, Tabasará is home to Ngäbe sacred sites and supplies a key part of the Ngäbe and Buglé’s livelihoods—fish.

The $80 million dollar project, which has been approved by the UN Clean Development Mechanism, is being built by Panamanian company GENISA with funding from the German Investment Corporation (DEG), the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration.

Rainforest Foundation US (RFUS) has partnered with the Ngäbe and Buglé peoples to map and patrol their territory for illegal deforestation. RFUS also contributed to investigative journalism into road and tourism development that threatens their lands.

To learn more about this critical issue, please read the report from the Center for International Environmental Law.

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Didier Devers
Chief of Party – USAID Guatemala
gro.y1711645643nffr@1711645643sreve1711645643dd1711645643

Didier has been coordinating the USAID-funded B’atz project since joining Rainforest Foundation US in April 2022. He holds a Master’s in Applied Anthropology and a Bachelor’s in Geography. Before joining the organization, Didier worked for 12 years in Central and South America on issues of transparency, legality, governance, and managing stakeholders’ processes in the environmental sector. Prior to that he worked on similar issues in Central Africa. He speaks French, Spanish, and English, and is based in Guatemala.