Send message to Contributor

Contribution short abstract

Darién holds high biodiversity, and rich social and cultural richness. It experiences a progressing land-use frontier and institutional abandonment, affecting both human and ecological systems. I conducted interviews and participant observation near its capital to characterize land-use regimes.

Contribution long abstract

The Panamanian Darién holds high biological and ecosystemic value, as well as rich social and cultural diversity deriving from Emberá, Wounaan and Guna indigenous groups, Afro-Darienitas, and colonial settlers who arrived through different migration waves. Despite its relevance, Darién remains understudied and misunderstood. Historically, it has been associated with harmful colonial imaginaries of wilderness and uninhabitability, reinforced by recent narratives surrounding the migration crisis through the Darién Gap. Although the region has reemerged as a diversity hotspot, it continues to experience deforestation due to the progressing land-use frontier and institutional abandonment, affecting both human and ecological systems.

To improve our understanding of recent changes and dynamics in land-use frontiers, I conducted 2.5 month of fieldwork in the hinterland region of its capital, La Palma. To characterize these systems, I used the notion of land-use regimes because of its potential to add nuance and reveal patterns within comparable dimensions in an area marked by high actor heterogeneity. I conducted interviews and participant observation and subsequently implemented iterative and integrated data analysis. Six distinct land-use regimes were identified, being extensive commercial colonial-settler/Afro-Darienita cattle ranching the predominant regime, evolving from the convergence of extensive subsistence colonial-settler agriculture and subsistence Afro-Darienita swidden agriculture. Future regime shifts are possible as intensive land-use trends emerge in the region as land-decision makers anticipate increased connectivity to the commercial centers through either the completion of the highway, the promises of the bridge or the community-led construction of a ramp intended to reduce dependence on tidal cycles.