Panama Project Update

We were happy for good turnout for our program presentations in January and February, and for many offers of assistance. This write-up was suggested by Dianne Heidke who moderated our last informational event; this is for people who would like to contribute to our efforts or to learn more about them.

The Big River Foundation has five programs in Panama:

Big River Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)3 educational organization

1. Watershed Watch Expeditions – Rio Teribe – We bring university students to International Park La Amistad to assist the Naso with sustainable development projects in their watershed,  a series of tributaries connecting their 12 communities on the Rio Teribe. The Big River Foundation can bring more volunteers if their travel is sponsored. A donation of $650 sponsors one volunteer for two weeks – two months depending on the expertise of the volunteer, the resources they bring, and the nature of their project. We prefer to schedule volunteers in pairs so they are not alone in the jungle experiencing culture shock.
   

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2. Watershed Watch Expeditions -Rio Caldera – This is an educational program for local school children in Chiriqui. We have identified teachers willing to implement our six-week watershed curriculum in their classes. Funds are needed to pay for buses for the field trip program and lunch on a tributary of the Rio Caldera, at Finca Santuario del Volcan Baru.  The school year just started.  Every $350 sponsorship brings the program to one school. There are dozens of schools in the area. The only limiting factor is the time for Executive Director Stephen Kaczor who opens the program in week one, with a school visit, guides the class in the field all day during week five, and closes the program in week six with another school visit. The teachers run weeks two, three and four with their classes using the curricula materials we provide.
   

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3. Eco-Tourism Development – Bringing visitors to Volcan Baru and La Amistad provides a dynamic experience for tourists, revenue for the foundation and the tribe, and pays for Naso guides and the indigenous families who provide home stay lodging and meals.  We host arrivals in Boquete at Finca Nuevo Colorado at the edge of Volcan Baru National Park so they can summit for a view of the entire watershed including La Amistad, one of the most pristine watersheds in our hemisphere. Following this preview/overview we take them to Naso Territory upstream in a cayuca to visit the villages. Downstream options are inflatable kayaks or the tourists making their own rafts to return to El Silencio as the Naso have done for hundreds of years. We need more inflatable kayaks to increase the size of our groups to directly benefit more Naso families with more frequency. Good inflatables are $1,000.
   

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   This story examines the need for development versus the need for conservation of watershed ecology, the priorities of consumer cultures versus the priorities of sustainable cultures.

4. Grandmother Water is our documentary film project. We made a film short and are presently working on a feature-length documentary highlighting the evolving government in this democratic kingdom and their battle for autonomy to keep new conquistadors from damming their rivers. This will expand our educational mission globally through international distribution. Many communities across the world are fighting similar battles and each struggle enlightens the others. Travel funds are needed for cameramen and fees for professional editors. Each donation of $500 funds a filming expedition. We need to get to each of the twelve communities this year with our equipment to conduct interviews. Here is the link to our film short.
   

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5. Lobbying support is our final program. We cannot directly lobby Panama’s National Assembly as a foreign nonprofit. Rather, we have been funding Naso leadership and local nonprofits’ lobbying efforts. This is basically bus fare, hotel and restaurant expenses. Each donation of $100 funds a lobbying visit to Panama City. Our associates are currently seeking sponsorship for two bills, one to create the Naso Comarca (sign the petition) the other to establish a nationwide moratorium on hydroelectric development pending a comprehensive national environmental impact analysis.

Tax-deductible donations can be made via PayPal or the donate button at Great Nonprofits. However, the latter is more time consuming and expensive for us as fees are deducted and disbursements are made quarterly. The best method is to PayPal us directly using my email, Steve@BigRiverFoundation.org

Anyone wishing to visit the Naso on our next trip, please email or follow us on Facebook for announcements. We are sincerely grateful to our supporters. Our guiding vision comes from Baba Dioum who founded the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in 1968, “In the end, we consrve only what we love; we love only what we understand; and we understand only what we have been taught.” For more insights, visit our website.

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Naso Hearing, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Here is footage of last week’s Hearing of the Inter American Commission on Human Rights in Washington D.C. I live streamed this hearing on Friday.

Testimony was given about the construction of roads for the Bonyic and Chan II hydroelectric projects, Lake Bayano, the rights “universal and indivisible” of the Naso, Bri Bri & Ngäbe-Buglé peoples, legal obstacles to achieving those rights, the need for a legal process for property rights, and the barriers to indigenous access to the justice system in combating mega-developments abuse of power under administrative concessions.

Commission President Rose Marie stated that disputed documents should not be the end of the process and questioned the authenticity of corporate title where indigenous have been displaced.  The question was raised as to why action does not exist on the Naso Comarca. It was recommended that the government reach out to the Naso to get this process started. They face many barriers to organizing a formal legal petition to begin first debate in front of Panama’s National Assembly.

Attending on behalf of the Naso was Osvaldo Jordán of Panama’s Alliance for Conservation and Development (ACD). He provides the following insights:

“I recommend watching the last twenty minutes in which the Commissioners refer to international standards on collective property of indigenous peoples. We believe this has been one of the most productive hearings we’ve had, forcing us to follow up on several commitments both Commissioners as representatives of the state. In particular, we are very concerned that a legal ban still exists to collective title within protected areas, which paradoxically does not extend to administrative concessions that have been taking place since 2007.”

In other words, the government can grant an international consortiums rights to cut trees in a forest reserve, use dynamite, destroy rivers, and build dams, but they cannot give autonomy to the indigenous who have acted as responsible stewards of their ancestral territory (according to UNESCO) because it is “a protected area”. This travesty of justice obviously allows developers to take indigenous lands for their own uses.

Sr. Jordán adds, “When estimating the many communities that may be contained within protected areas nationally, we have a truly worrisome problem that should make us reconsider our strategy for the protection of territories across the country. For those who may be interested, I reiterate the proposal I have been making to hold a forum to discuss the implications of the recent judgment of Bayano and the position taken by the government with respect to protected / indigenous territories.

We will meet when he returns from Washington D.C. to plan this forum.

Naso Comarca, School, Ecotourism Updates

Leadership remains the focus of organizational meetings for Naso autonomy, the subject of public hearings before the Inter American Comission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington D.C. next week, “The Right to Property and the Right to a Healthy Environment of Indigenous Peoples in Bocas del Toro, Panama.”

Naso students returned to school last month and we’re delivering donated school supplies on our next visit. Anyone wanting to visit the Last Kingdom in the Americas can join us for an Easter Weekend Expedition. Detailed updates on these initiatives are the subject of this blog post.

Naso Students at Siejik School

Naso Comarca

Naso leadership remains contested as the people will retain no leader who fails to advance a petition for the Naso Comarca. The other five indigenous groups in Panama have received Comarca status – an autonomous district. With this excellent record on indigenous rights in Panama, there is every reason to believe the National Assembly will respond positively to a formal legal petition brought by its remaining tribe existing in political limbo. Rey Alexis Santana failed to advance such a petition and is in the process of being replaced by the Naso people.

The IACHR has shared testimony stating that cultural genocide would be the result of future natural resource extraction in Naso territory. There are public hearings at their offices in Washington D.C. On Friday, March 20, at 3:15. Osvaldo Jordan of the Alianza para la Conservación y el Desarrollo (ACD) is leading a contingent of Naso for these hearings. Also represented will be the Movimiento por la Defensa de los Territorios y Ecosistemas de la Provincia de Bocas del Toro (MODETEAB), Centro de Desarrollo y Asistencia Técnica Ngobe (CEDETENG), and Organización para el Desarrollo Ecoturismo Sostenible Naso (ODESEN).

A Big River Foundation documentary film short describing the Naso’s battle against new conquistadors coveting their resources is scheduled for its first public screening in Boquete March 28th at 3:15. We’ll ask those who agree with the film’s goals to sign a petition to Panama’s National Assembly to put stewardship of the kingdom’s watershed into Naso hands. We hope to see many of you at our film screening!

Big River Foundation meeting with ANAM

UNESCO has recognized the Naso’s excellent stewardship of the part of the World Heritage Site “La Amistad International Park” where they have lived for more than 1,000 years. ANAM, on the other hand, granted a concession to a Colombian-led consortium to ravage the Naso’s Rio Bonjic for a 30 MW hydroelectric project. This river is within the Palo Seco Forest Reserve which is a buffer zone between La Amistad and Bocas del Toro. The Bonjic project will come online later this year.

The Rio Bonjic feeds the Rio Teribe, the primary river in La Amistad. This river’s water is a mystical goddess to the Naso, providing everything they need, including navigation between their 12 riverside communities. If the river’s flow is lost to reservoir evaporation, or to bottling projects or other private uses, it will end the Naso way of life and one of the most intact and pristine watersheds in the hemisphere.

ANAM’s Bocas del Toro office states there are no plans for future destruction in the biosphere preserves that are Naso Territory. Yet studies for additional projects have been conducted and filed. The Naso have no confidence in ANAM, an environmental agency that destroyed forests inside a forest reserve which they have protected long before Panama existed.

School Supply Drive

The Naso have schools in half of their 12 riverside communities, each with about 30 students on average. One community, Sieykin, has requested school supplies. This is one of the communities we visit most often. Parents from the other schools need assistance as well. Having just purchased textbooks and school supplies for two daughters in Panama, we know this runs $200 per student.

Our goal is to provide half this amount per Naso student. We have placed a donation box at Mike’s Global Grill in Boquete. Naso students need the usual:  Notepads, pencils, colored pencils, sharpeners, construction paper, pens, crayons, scissors, rulers, and backpacks. Cash donations for textbooks can be made in envelopes marked “Naso Schools” via Heidi Rehm at the Global Grill. All deductions are tax-deductible in the USA as the Big River Foundation is a 501c3 educational charity.

Naso Students at Siejik School

You can tour the last kingdom in the hemisphere. It is a democratic kingdom because unsatisfactory leaders can be replaced by the people, but any replacement must come from the ruling Santana family. Only two kings have been deposed in the history of this democratic monarchy, both for accepting the hydroelectric project that has damaged the Naso watershed. The favorite to lead the Naso Comarca is Maestro Santana, superintendent of the schools.

Our next trek is April 3-4-5 to Wekso, the Naso Eco-lodge. Those wishing to join this visit with Grandmother Water and her people can email for details.

Saludos, Steve@BigRiverFoundation.org

Big River Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)3 educational organization

Naso Assemble to Seek Independence

This weekend Panama celebrates 192 years of independence from Spanish rule, as do many indigenous cultures who arrived long before the conquistadors from Spain. The Guna, Embera, Wounaan, Bugle & Ngobe cultures thrived independently on the land bridge now called ‘Panama’ for more than 1,000 years before the conquest of the Americas by Europeans. They are independent today due, in part, to Panama’s admirable tradition of respecting the rights of the first Americans by granting autonomous “Comarcas” to those who pioneered settlements in the New World.

As North America gives thanks this weekend to the indigenous who enabled the survival of English settlers, Panama shares its independence with those who enabled the survival of Spanish settlers. In this regard Panama is a beacon for enshrining in Central America the right of indigenous cultures to autonomy in their ancestral territories.

There is only one tragedy in this triumph of justice for the first Americans. One intact culture, the Tjer Di Naso, gained recognition by UNESCO for its stewardship of its ancestral territory, now a World Heritage Site and International Park, ‘La Amistad’, but it has not received “Comarca’ status. This is the last kingdom in the Americas. It is a monarchy in that all kings come from the ruling Santana family, and it is democratic in that leaders who betray the will of the Naso people are exiled. Tomorrow the Naso convene to choose another member of the Santana family to replace Rey Alexis who failed to respect the people’s wishes to petition Panama’s National Assembly for a Naso Comarca.

In testimony before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) national leaders claimed the Naso were too few to deserve the same legal rights as the other indigenous cultures in Panama. This is an impotent argument debunked in subsequent testimony in IACHR proceedings which state that continued failure to respect Naso territory is tantamount to cultural genocide for this tribe of 4,000 people. The real issue is not the Naso population, but the economic potential of the Naso’s ancestral territory, where many rivers comprise one of the few pristine watersheds remaining in our hemisphere. The Naso’s natural resources are coveted by public private consortiums led by foreign corporations working to profit from the voracious appetite of an extractive consumer culture.

The Naso prize sustainability and see foreign developers as new conquistadores. One candidate to ascend to the royal palace is the superintendent of schools for the 12 Naso communities, known affectionately as “Maestro Santana”. He was narrowly defeated by the recently deposed Rey Alexis Santana because Alexis’ party was originally opposed to hydroelectric development, cattle ranching and logging which has resulted is massive clear-cutting in Naso territory. Now the Naso are saying, “no more”. 2014 will determine the future of this beautiful culture, and that future begins in tomorrow’s assembly to choose a new representative to pursue autonomy for his people.

 

 

Our Trashed Rivers: Cleaning up America’s Waterways

With so much attention paid to climate change these days, it can be easy to forget that there are other pressing threats to our environment. Familiar problems such as litter and illegal dumping are still as prevalent today as they were in decades past. Small rivers and streams carry debris for miles before emptying into the nation’s largest waterways, such as the Mississippi River. The largest bits of trash, including such items as fridges and tires, become lodged in the riverbed. While lighter bits of trash either clump together around vegetation or float all the way out to the sea.

Even though attitudes towards the environment have shifted in recent years, rivers and waterways are still heavily affected by polluters. A study published by the E.P.A. earlier this year found that 55% of the country’s waterways were insufficient to support healthy aquatic life. An additional 23% were found to be in “fair” health, meaning not overly polluted, but not growth-promoting either. Only 21% of rivers and streams were deemed in “good” health with very little contamination. Even more troubling is where these poorly rated rivers are located.

According to the E.P.A., 71% of rivers in the Southern Atlantic and Gulf Coast states are in poor condition. These failing grades are attributed to not just trash, but large volumes of agricultural and wastewater runoff containing large amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen. These chemicals interfere with the natural growth of plants, causing soil erosion and disrupting connected habitats. Other regions fared just slightly better. Over 50% of rivers in the Northeast and Midwest were found to be in poor health, with fewer than 20% marked as good. The only regions where good rivers outnumbered poor ones were the Northern Plains and the Pacific Northwest where 40% and 42% of rivers were found to be  in good condition.

Garge Day on the Snoqualmie River

Fortunately, there are many groups and organizations out there that work to reverse this rising tide of waste. Mississippi-based Living Lands & Waters is a non-profit organization that fields a fleet of barges that they use to clean up trash from the Mississippi and its tributaries. Chad Pregracke, the organization’s founder, states that he has helped pulled over 67,000 tires from the Mississippi, in addition to such oddities as washing machines and hot tubs. In total, Living Lands & Waters has pulled some 7 million pounds of debris from the waters of the Mississippi over the past 15 years.

What type of legacy will we leave to the next generation?

For waste that isn’t so easily scooped out of the river, groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) work to curb pollution from industrial and agricultural activities. The NRDC uses legal remedies outlined in the landmark Clean Water Act to enforce pollution controls, as well as to propose ever more stringent water pollution standards. Cleaning up rivers that suffer from industrial pollution is a long and arduous process that often begins in the court room. Many major polluters are forced to adhere to environmental regulations only after they have been sued by environmental groups or government agencies. But even once the dust settles and the legal battle ends in the environment’s favor, it can still take decades for river ecosystems to recover.

It may seem like keeping waste out of our rivers is a daunting, perhaps impossible, task. But there have been plenty of success stories throughout the short history of the environmental movement. The burning of the Cuyahoga River, the catalyst for many of today’s environmental laws, occurred just 44 years ago. Since then the river has made a remarkable recovery thanks to heavily enforced pollution controls and remedial action plans enacted by the E.P.A. and local authorities. Fish stocks have rebounded thanks to improving water quality, and even bald eagles have made a return to the region with two pairs of nests spotted in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park as recently as 2006.

So long as communities and environmental organizations remain steadfast in their efforts, our nation’s rivers will be able to survive and thrive well into the 21^st century and beyond. You can do your part by ensuring that your trash is properly disposed of and to lend your voice to local environmental groups.

Written by Kevin Rossignol, writer and outreach coordinator for Budget Dumpster, guest blogger. Thank you Kevin, keep up the great work!

 

Tjër Di Naso to seek Comarca for Conservation Autonomy in their Ancestral Territory to Protect Natural Resources from Developers

The UK’s Darwin Initiative funded a three-year project in 2006 led by London’s Natural History Museum in La Amistad International Park, Naso territory.  Some 12,000 species from two continents were documented, more than two dozen new to science.  Shortly after this first and only scientific exploration of the Rio Teribe watershed, a hydroelectric developer brought the first heavy equipment, roads, bridges, and dynamite to one of its key tributaries. The Naso have been recognized by United Nations Environmental, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for their sustainable stewardship, but their territory is under pressure from all sides.

Giant Bascilus

Two kings have now been exiled for failure to conserve their democratic kingdom where all leaders must come from the ruling Santana family. Like his Uncle Tito before him, Rey Alexis was forced to leave the royal palace last month for failure to respect the will of a supermajority of his people who want comarca status to conserve their ancestral territory. A new election is set for November 30th.

I first met with Naso leaders in 2007 as they developed an Organization for the Development of Sustainable Eco-tourism for the Naso (ODESEN). The Big River Foundation (BRF) works with ODESEN to bring groups to the Naso biosphere reserve for “Watershed Watch Expeditions” to explore the pristine Rio Teribe watershed by hiking and kayaking to study an increasingly rare intact river ecosystem.

Upriver the Rio Teribe is Caribbean-blue, deep, and teaming with life. Big River Foundation Director Stephen Kaczor with ODESEN Leader Edwin Sanchez

We shared the Naso’s heartbreak when former king Rey Tito Santana betrayed the wishes of his people. He granted a hydroelectric concession to a Medellin-based consortium on the Naso’s Rio Bonyic. He was immediately deposed by a supermajority of his people and lives in exile to this day.  The people voted Rey Valentin to replace Tito, but Panama’s National Assembly would not recognize Rey Valentin until the Bonyic project was near completion, knowing he would have cancelled the concession.

In 2012 the National Assembly finally recognized a new ruler, Rey Alexis, the youngest Santana in Naso history to rule this tribe of 4,000 people. The hydroelectric consortium immediately co-opted him, so the people ousted Alexis from the royal palace just like his uncle Tito. With developers ready to install a 2^nd project on the Naso’s Rio Shey, this is a critical time for the Naso, who are presently electing a new king, this time with the specific charge of petitioning for a Naso Comarca in 2014.

After years working together to develop ecotourism in their region, we have established a solid working relationship with ODESEN leaders. They now request logistical, tactical, financial, and professional assistance to file a formal legal petition to create an autonomous Naso Comarca to protect their Rio Teribe at the watershed level, 160,000 hectares.  They need a professional presentation for the first debate with Panama’s legislature in 2014.  We advocate strongly for the Naso to join the other tribes in Panama already recognized with Comarca status, to include an area sufficient to conserve their watershed with an adequate buffer zone. We have helped ODESEN leaders appear before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington DC; the Commission supports the Naso position.

Leaders of all twelve Naso villages are organizing in advance this time, to avoid a replay of conditions that led to the first hydroelectric project.  We are constant contact during this planning period. The habitat of La Amistad was recognized as a World Heritage Site because it comprises a land bridge for migratory and other species from two continents, sandwiched between two seas. It is too important to fall to corporate for-profit development, as is the case with hydroelectric developers under SIEPAC, the interconnection of Central American power grids. This is a private plan to export electricity by harvesting public rivers in Central America and transmitting as north as far as Mexico under the Pueblo-Panama Plan. This may be the largest heist in the history of man. Water is life.

Panamanians recently demonstrated that they stand with the indigenous against the development of natural resources in their autonomous territories. This was evidenced by President Martinelli repealing a mining investment initiative (2011’s Law 8) after his administration’s polls showed 70% of voters against exploitation by foreign corporations of natural resources in the cloud forests of the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca.  We have shared this encouragement with Naso leaders and are producing a documentary film short to share the Naso’s plight internationally; it is in final editing.

Yasuli & Alexandra at the Naso Eco-lodge, Wekso

Naso is the last intact indigenous culture in Panama without autonomy to conserve their territory. The Naso expect that a conservation set aside will be granted, and this is one of four goals for the New Year:

1. Baseline freshwater fish, crabs, shrimp, all river species
   1. above/below tributary of new hydroelectric project; and,
   2. above/below tributary of 2^nd (proposed) hydro project.

The Naso have witnessed massive extinctions on the Rio Bonyic where this tributary meets the Rio Teribe as a result of the first hydroelectric project. No longer do freshwater crabs, shrimp, or fish grow in the tributary to find their way to the main river. Birds no longer feed there. Species die-off will be quantified with empirical data to further document the case against a second project on the Rio Shey. Data will be compared between the two tributaries to illustrate the effects of hydrological disturbances in the Naso watershed.

2. Publish results in scientific journals and local periodicals.

3. Craft a presentation with a large map of the Naso’s ancestral territory showing boundaries of UNESCO’s World Heritage site known as La Amistad, its buffer zone known as the Palo Seco Forest Preserve, and Bocas del Toro province at El Silencio. This map will highlight the proposed autonomous territory for the Naso Comarca showing their 12 communities along the Rio Teribe . The longstanding Naso Conservation Management Plan will also be made available to National Assembly members.

4. Advocate throughout the process for the Naso’s petition to join the other indigenous cultures on the isthmus with their own Comarca, inviting testimony from UNESCO, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, IACHR, the Big River Foundation, ODESEN and Naso Leaders. We hope to fund Naso leaders travel expenses to and in Panama City as needed during this process, and to facilitate legal counsel.  The first trip for the new leader and his team will occur immediately after his coronation.

Grandmother Water is a documentary examining the need to balance development versus the need for conservation of watershed ecology, the priorities of consumer cultures versus the priorities of sustainable cultures.

The Naso worship “Tjër Di” as their Grandmother Water, literally the water in the Rio Teribe, as a sacred deity, she who nurtures Mother Earth who provides for us all. She provides everything the Naso need to sustain their culture – water, food, transportation, eco-tourism, recreation. Cultural genocide would be the result of the death of Grandmother Water, of the Rio Teribe being made unnavigable, according to testimony before the IACHR.

We have a grant application pending with the United Nations Rapid Response Facility to support this Naso initiative. Donations also help us to provide the level of assistance needed and are tax-exempt under IRS code 501(c)3. There are four ways to lend your support to this cause:  Visit BigRiverFoundation.org and click “Donate Now” at the top right; make direct contact in Panama at +507 6966-2691; arrange a tour to present your contribution directly to ODESEN leaders; and/or, share this story. For more information, see earlier Rio Teribe posts.

“May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

One River, One Tribe

The Naso navigate by water taxi on the Rio Teribe. Photo by Jennifer Long

The Naso are a Leaver culture. They wish to leave their forests and rivers as they inherited them from their ancestors, clean & crystalline. Takers wish to develop them for profit but the Naso regard their water as a sacred deity, Grandmother Water, Tjer Di in their language.  The Naso will not exchange her, she who sustains all life, for roads and bridges they don’t need, to drive cars they don’t want … to jobs they don’t like.

The Naso are not seeking to consume or sell the environment that has provided everything their people have needed for more than 1,000 years. They wish to conserve their culture, heritage, and natural resources, not trade them for video games, microwave burritos, nor any other aspect of consumer culture. They prefer to leave the frantic object-based, convenience-obsessed culture to die of natural causes. They choose to live in harmony with nature rather than selling her to corporations flying the flags of profit.

Raphael fishes with a snorkel mask and underwater slingshot. Photo by Stephen Kaczor

In his epic adventure of the mind and spirit, Daniel Quinn presents us with a teacher who is a gorilla, Ishmael.  Ishmael has a message on the wall of his den: “With man gone, will there be hope for gorilla?”  The other side of the poster reads: “With gorilla gone, will there be hope for man?” The book goes into depth regarding the evolution of Leaver vs. Taker cultures and embodies the Naso struggle.

The book begins with an ad in the personals section:

 “Teacher Seeks Pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person.”

Leavers like the Naso have much to teach the Takers. Quinn explains, “Takers and Leavers accumulate two entirely different kinds of knowledge. The Takers accumulate knowledge about what works well for people, but not for all people. Each Leaver people has a system that works well for them because it evolved among them … and this kind of knowledge is called wisdom.

The Naso have wisdom of which plants in the rainforest cure which ailments. They have wisdom of how to build rafts to go between their communities and to market with a zero carbon footprint. They know their Rio Teribe like the back of their hands, navigating upstream with small outboard motors even in times of low flow. They have wisdom of where the fish, freshwater shrimp and crab live, and how much they can harvest without overfishing breeding stocks. They have wisdom of how to sustainably harvest wood and plant new seedlings; they do not clear-cut their forests.

Edwin Sanchez navigating the Rio Teribe at night. Photo by Jennifer Long

Naso have wisdom of how to navigate their forests on foot, which is no small task given that their ancestral territory includes the one-million acre biosphere reserve that is the UNESCO World Heritage Site La Amistad and its buffer zone, the Palo Seco Forest Reserve. They have wisdom to create an organic producers cooperative and an organization for the development of sustainable eco-tourism to share their paradise with the world.

Karina Sanchez with her daughter at Wekso, the Naso Ecolodge. Photo by Jennifer Long

“Someone who knows what works well for people has wisdom. On the other hand, knowledge of what works well for production is what is valued in the consumer culture. And every time the Takers stamp out a Leaver culture, a wisdom ultimately tested since the birth of mankind disappears from the world beyond recall, just as every time they stamp out a species of life, a life form ultimately tested since the birth of life disappears from the world beyond recall. Ugly. It is ugly.”

“You want to know what this has to do with anything? The world of the Takers is one vast prison, and except for a handful of Leavers scattered across the world, the entire human race is now inside that prison. During the last century every remaining Leaver people in North America was given a choice: to be exterminated or to accept imprisonment. Many chose imprisonment, but not many were actually capable of adjusting to prison life.”

“Naturally a well-run prison must have a prison industry. I’m sure you see why”, Ishmael says to his student, who replies, “Well it helps to keep the inmates busy, I suppose. Takes their minds off the boredom and futility of their lives.”

The teacher asks, “Yes, can you name your prison industry?” The student gives it some thought, “Consuming the world”.  Ishmael nods,“Got it on the first try”.

Quinn explains, however, that “People can’t just give up a story. That’s what the kids tried to do in the 60’s. They tried to stop living like Takers, but there was no other way for them to live. They failed because you can’t just stop being in a story. You have to have another story to be in. And if there is such a story, people should hear about it.”

Naso home, riverside in Sieyik.  Photo by Jennifer Long

This story is Grandmother Water, a story about Kings and Presidents, Leavers and Takers, a story about “One River, One Tribe”, a story in which a beautiful  and sustainable indigenous culture asks the question, What Price Paradise?

For more details, or to support this effort with a tax-deductible contribution to the Big River Foundation visit us at Indiegogo. We also have volunteer opportunities in paradise.

“In the end, we conserve only what we love; we love only what we understand; and we understand only what we have been taught.” – Baba Dioum, Founder, International Union for the Conservation of Nature

Rio Teribe Interviews

This month in Central America we are subtitling interviews to produce a short news video in advance of filming the documentary ‘Grandmother Water’ in September. We are working to help the Naso give voice to their struggle, to introduce viewers to their goddess, Grandmother Water, “Tjër Di” in their language. We were surprised to learn that our first translator summarized the interviews. While we’re working on a full translation for the video, here are Mimi’s summaries to update our fellow supporters.

Naso students and families commuting on their Rio Teribe

INTERVIEW #1:

Steve: We are here at Wekso, the Naso Eco lodge, with Edwin Sanchez, an ODESEN leader. (Organization for the Development of Sustainable Eco-tourism for the Naso) Sr. Sanchez, please share with us your experience with ODESEN…

Edwin: I have been working 12 years for the development of eco-tourism. When I started working at Wekso, I was very young, shy and didn’t speak Spanish very well, but I learned from our visitors. This organization has been very beneficial for our community because it has generated many jobs for our people.  It has also given us opportunities to better ourselves.  Visitors have also donated many things for our community.

Steve: I understand that lately, along with ODESEN, you’ve done some work for the hydroelectric consortium. How did that experience compare with ODESEN?

Edwin:  The government has been trying to convince authorities in our community about the benefits. There has been opposition to the building of hydroelectric projects in Naso territory. Complaints have been made with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Jobs are positive, but the project gives temporary jobs, it is not really acceptable because it is not being done the proper way. We see jobs that last for only 45 days; after that the person is laid off.  And we see that there are a lot of external influences in this project, leaving us behind.

In the negative, we can see in the Bonjic community areas with families that live in huts or homes built by the hydroelectric project, but at the same time these people are left with no drinking water or secure electricity. Unfortunately these are the consequences of these projects.  If more of the proposed hydroelectric projects are built it becomes a big threat for Naso people, because it destroys our culture, our river, our way of life.

Steve: If you have just one question you’d like your new king to address, what would it be?

Edwin: I would ask about the changes he was going to make for this community. Rey Alexis convinced us that he was going to help us but we have not seen anything come to fruition, nothing in writing for the Naso Comarca. Promises are not being kept and the company is expanding in our territory. What our ancestors left us is going to be lost. They left us this land for us to care for. We expect our King to give us the support we deserve.

Steve: What can be done to change this situation?

Edwin:  There is no one to go out and fight for us, this is something we have to find for ourselves. We see many of these candidates on television who say they want to support our community, but we no longer believe in them.

How the Fortuna hydroelectric consortium AES left a neighboring river.

INTERVIEW #2

Steve: Meet Adolfo Villagra, ODESEN Leader. Sr. Villagra, please share the background of the current Naso struggle…

Adolfo: In 1995 the Panamanian manager of the Bonjic project negotiated with EPM of Colombia to launch the project based on previous studies, but the Naso rejected the project. The former Naso King, Rey Tito Santana won the elections in 1999 and allowed additional studies to be undertaken along with the king who preceded him, Rey Cesar Santana… only to make studies of the Bonjic, Shey, and Teribe rivers.

The people did not authorize Tito to develop the project. However, in 2004, this King signed to develop the first of three proposed hydroelectric projects against the will of his people. He was overthrown and lived in exile as the Naso chose a new king, Rey Valentin. Panama’s government would not recognize Rey Valentin because he respected the will of the people.

In 2011 the government needed to negotiate the placement of transmission lines in Naso territory, and they finally admitted they were not negotiating with the true king chosen by the people, but they refused to recognize Valentin, again because he would not tell them what they wanted to hear. So they asked us to choose a new king.  The people chose Rey Alexis Santana because he had opposed selling our rivers from the beginning.

By the time Alexis Santana and his team were selected by the community, the first project had been performed and it is a disappointment to the community due to many deceptions. The Naso people disagree with hydroelectric. They never agreed with the execution of the project. The former king did not fight for the rights of the region but for his own gain.

Now that the Kings have made business with the Panamanian government, they receive a compensation of $8 million over 20 years. The Naso have no law to negotiate benefits that would be more equitable. King Tito’s government received only $300,000 for the compensation plan for Naso community, in the form of development. But they build a road that goes only to their project on the Rio Bonjic and call it development for the Naso. The road doesn’t even go to the Bonjic community.

From 1997 to 2011, I was President of the NASO board. We worried about the impact caused by hydroelectric projects on our rivers, mountains, animals, people and the economy of the Naso people. Now we know the impact and reject again these destructive projects in our territory.

Steve: What is next?

Adolfo: It’s a difficult situation because we could not stop the Rio Bonjic project. They now expect to do more work on Rio Teribe that would end the rights of the Naso population. Today they are announcing another project, on the Rio Shey, another tributary of Teribe. We have been trying to get information about this but the company and the government are keeping it secret. We have not had access to any information about this project, a major project proposed in our territory.

These projects in no way benefit our community. We have no choice but to oppose more development of this type in our community. We have always said: “Over our dead bodies, if we have to shed blood and fight so the Naso people do not lose their river, we will”. We’ll do what it takes to maintain our ancestral territory, rivers and watershed.

We need the authorities to understand that the mission of the Naso community is to maintain the environment, culture, and that which feeds our people. We have been waiting for over 40 years for legal recognition of our human rights and autonomy for our land. The Panamanian government opposes it because economic interests favor the rich in the government. But we will not rest until the Naso community has a Comarca just like the other five indigenous groups in Panama, the Ngobe, Bugle, Embera, Wounaan, Kuna.

Steve: Why would a nation that has admirably recognized the rights of every other indigenous group within its borders deny the Naso the same rights?

Adolfo: We are being discriminated against. At a meeting of the IACHR leadership in Washington DC, the Panamanian government said that the Naso people have too small a population with only 4,000 inhabitants. But the government will not give us our land for political reasons.

Tito Santana made ‌‌a bill creating the Comarca Naso. It failed in the National Assembly by just two votes. Then Tito began working with the hydroelectric  project and the Comarca was forgotten until now. Alexis Santana has been in office for two years, but there is no evidence, nothing in writing, to show that he is honoring the will of our people. As a result our fight has been futile. The Naso people have been refused Comarca status due to interests in the commercial potential of our rivers.

Steve:  It seems odd that this is happening in a Forest Reserve, International Park, a Biosphere Preserve recognized as an UNESCO World Heritage Site. What would you say to those who are supposed to be protecting these resources in your ancestral territory?

Adolfo: The Bonjic & Shey Rivers are at the edge of the international park in a buffer zone called the Palo Seco Forest Reserve. They feed the Rio Teribe, a river born in the park on the Costa Rica border. They are part of the La Amistad watershed. Why are they building hydroelectric projects if this is part of our heritage? We now have dead fish floating downriver from the Rio Bonjic, in a forest preserve. Why aren’t the institutions created for the conservation of the environment doing anything?

Like “clean coal” this is propaganda to push through privatization of public resources. Such projects lead to cascading ecosystem failure upriver and downriver. Water that nourished the cloud forest for centuries is now being lost to evaporation in this reservoir, as a once-riparian valley experiences desertification.

INTERVIEW #3

Steve: I am here with Rufina Santana, a member of the Naso Monarchy’s ruling family. Sra. Santana, what is the political situation with the project on the Rio Bonjic?

Rufina: For now the river has a good flow and is running smoothly. But as they make roads through (video shows tractors and trucks in the river) this affects us. We get out drinking water from this river. We use it for washing our clothing. People living in Changuinola also drink the water. It is not that we don’t want any development in our community. We want to move forward, we want our children to have an education; however we need to leave our river as God gave it to us, clean and crystalline.

The companies came on our land without consulting us during the reign of Tito Santana, who is my cousin. We have rights, but the government does not take them into account. They overlook our rights. They just don’t care. Many members of the community have taken to the streets and staged strikes (protest photos) yet the government invades our land. We are willing to fight for our rights so long as we are alive. They are no good if we are dead, are they?

Steve: You lead a group called APUD (Agricultural Producers United). How do Naso producers feel about the current struggle?

Rufina: In this group a team of producers form the board of directors but we work independently. We meet with beans, cocoa, oranges. We now have dryers to dry the cocoa, with this a lot of producers are happy – the cocoa dries better and it’s cleaner. Before we had other methods for this, we had to deal with a lot of setbacks. Each producer has its dryer now this benefits our harvest.

Steve: Are they ready for autonomy?

Rufina: This is the struggle always. This is not a struggle for Alexis Santana only. When I was Queen we also fought for this. We marked the trees with some red paint so others would know that this was our territory. We were doing what we could to mark the boundaries of our community. My dad, may he rest in peace, and my grandparents also fought for our rights. Still we have not achieved our independence. Just as other indigenous have their autonomous regions, we want ours. We have our own language, origins, songs, culture. We don’t want to live in collectiveness, we want our Comarca. We’ve asked every administration that comes to power to give us our shrine.

The Naso hope to stop their ancestral river from being squeezed for corporate gain. They see her as their mystical goddess “Grandmother Water”, she who nurtures Mother Earth who provides for us all.

INTERVIEW # 4

Steve:  Sr. Guevarra administers the Naso’s legal documents. Thank you Sr. Guevara for your time. Three questions. Can you update us on the documentation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington DC.

Luis: Thanks for the interview, my name is Luis Guevarra, I am from the Naso territory, which is located within the La Amistad International Park. Most of our inhabitants live in a place called the Palo Seco Forest Reserve. The villages have been fighting for 40 years. Every government that comes along refuses to take seriously the Naso’s rights to their territory.

We presented the facts that occurred from 2004 to 2009 to the IACHR in a petition made by the Naso people. Unfortunately the government is providing false documentation. For this reason the Commission has been unable to decide anything for the Naso. Our own authorities have been manipulated and our demands forgotten.

Steve: Rey Alexis Santana told me in an interview that he was working on the Naso Comarca, that it was his top goal. What does Panama’s National Assembly say about this?

Luis: In November I was with the Commission of Indigenous Affairs in Panama . They said that no authority has ever submitted any petition for the region for the law creating the Naso County 19. I asked what was the political status of the indigenous territory. They said the Naso leadership and King Alexis Santana at no time  talked about the region with them. They said no one has come to inquire about the matter.  According to them there are no developments and, if they handed the territory over to the Naso, we wouldn’t know how to manage it.

Steve:  But the Naso have managed it sustainably for more than 1,000 years, their ancestral territory, and were recognized in the binational application to the United Nations for a World Heritage Site as excellent stewards of the regions’s forest and rivers. What would you say to those suggesting that you don’t know how to manage your territory as they permit the dynamiting of your rivers, the clear cutting your forests, and the bulldozing of your shoreline?

Luis: The hydroelectric project within the Naso community is illegal. They have not consulted with us and they do not have our approval. They are operating illegally. At first the government said that this project was for an expanded population.  However, the government continues to exploit our natural resources for private profit. This is the reason they have no interest in creating a Comarca.  This has divided the Naso people into two camps. There is a minority who are paid by the companies to support the project.  The majority of us will fight for our region.

This story examines the need for development versus the need for conservation of watershed ecology, the priorities of consumer cultures versus the priorities of sustainable cultures.

Thanks to Cinematographer Aaron Lawler for these photos, Director Ed Gish, Philanthropist Jennifer Long for fundraising, and everyone helping produce this video news short.

For more details, or to support this effort with a tax-deductible contribution to the Big River Foundation visit us at Indiegogo. We also have volunteer opportunities in paradise.

“In the end, we conserve only what we love; we love only what we understand; and we understand only what we have been taught.” – Baba Dioum, Founder, International Union for the Conservation of Nature

Healthy Rivers, Healthy Communities!

The Big River Foundation is the latest recipient of a grant award from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. John’s and Laura’s latest project is the Giving Library. It started when the young billionaire couple began looking for worthy nonprofits to support. John Arnold was a hedge fund manager known on Wall Street as “the king of natural gas”. He and Laura signed the Giving Pledge in 2010 when their foundation had assets of $711 million in order to devote more time to philanthropy. They share an office in Houston Texas.

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According to Forbes the Arnold’s “had the time and money to spend on the searches and meetings with executive directors. They soon realized that it not a smart use of anyone’s time. Most philanthropists were only getting exposed to a small handful of nonprofits, while executive directors were being forced to spend an inordinate amount of their time on fund-raising.” They beginning brainstorming a better way to identify worthy organizations and connect them with philanthropists.

Laura Arnold explained, “we saw a need to create more efficiency in the system to have a more organized vision of receiving and processing information on nonprofits.” Her husband added, “We started to do our own research, trying to go to websites to read about nonprofits. We realized we got much more insight by speaking to the founder. If you have significant resources, it’s worth their time to sit down and meet a particular funder but that’s not always practical for the majority of funders or nonprofits.”

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Forbes’ Louisa Kroll described the concept behind the Giving Library as a collection of videos of charitable organizations on-line, “to allow them to tell their stories in a deeper way to a much broader audience. For starters, they sent hundreds of letters to nonprofits, some of which they knew (Teach for America, the Innocence Project, and KIPP schools are all groups that the Arnold’s have personally backed that have videos posted), but plenty that they didn’t. There were no filters in terms of substance or geography; the only requirement was that it had to be vetted and confirmed.”

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The goal of the Giving Library is to feature 250 charities to help philanthropists learn about the nonprofits. The Big River Foundation (BRF) was selected for inclusion based on its mission … from more than 3,000 applications. The Laredo-based foundation’s mission is to teach communities in The Americas to value the vital role rivers play in the web of life. The foundation presently incubates programs in the USA, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama to foster respect and appreciation for river ecology and conservation, encouraging kayaking, canoeing, and rafting to explore rivers, their tributaries and watersheds. They sponsor programs in partnership with schools, youth groups, local governments, non-governmental organizations, river outfitters, and community advocates. Through experiential education, recreation and advocacy, the foundation mobilizes community support for river-based initiatives throughout the hemisphere.

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BRF Executive Director Eric Ellman will get the VIP treatment next month while being flown to the Giving Library’s production studio in Houston, Texas. He will be filmed talking about the amazing work his foundation performs on the Rio Grande in Mexico & the USA and an upcoming documentary about watershed conservation based in Costa Rica & Panama.  This film is being produced by award-winning documentary filmmakers Jeffrey Porter and Tony Pagano in collaboration with Jennifer Long & Stephen Kaczor. The documentary extrapolates the experiences of the indigenous Naso Tribe in the last kingdom in the Americas in their epic struggle against the latest conquistadors, corporations flying the flags of profit in the Naso’s ancestral territory.

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Recent bi-national events in the USA and Mexico will be discussed tonight in Texas as Laredo’s City Council considers the renewal of annual funding for the Big River Foundation. The foundation’s city and county funding will be matched by the Meadows Foundation of Dallas, Texas, to support efforts to repair the reputation of the controversial Rio Grande, known in Mexico as the Rio Bravo. This river is one of the largest in the hemisphere. It joins two nations; life in this desert region would be impossible without it.

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The Giving Libary video will feature BRF’s  mission on-line for philanthropists world-wide who are seeking worthwhile endeavors to support. Laura & John will unite their foundations’ staff with BRF’s to co-create a video in interviews describing programs for “Healthy Rivers, Healthy Communities”. Eric will share his foundation’s philosophy, a vision shared by Baba Dioum, Founder of International Union for the Conservation of Nature, “In the end, we conserve only what we love; we love only what we understand; and we understand only what we have been taught”.

El Lider’s story in this morning’s paper about the Big River Foundation.

News from the Rio Teribe

Our Naso friends in the last kingdom in the western hemisphere are having a difficult time with politics. You see, they are also the last indigenous tribe in Panama without autonomous territory, which Panama calls a “Comarca”; they are a river tribe whose ancestral territory includes untold natural resources in an UNESCO World Heritage Site that is a one-million acre international biosphere reserve; and, they are a democratic kingdom. In the Naso monarchy, all rulers must come from ruling Santana family.

It is this last component that is proving difficult. For a background on the king that was exiled for betraying his people to a hydro-electric company, please see previous blogs. Panama’s National Assembly would not recognize the king elected to replace the traitorous king. They could not … the government had given a concession to Medellin-based EPM to dynamite a 2-mile tunnel into a Naso river, against the wishes of a super majority of Naso people. Corporations seeking energy, lumber, and ranch lands continue to covet the Naso territory including International Park La Amistad shared by Costa Rica & Panama. Costa Rica is set to import electricity from the Naso’s Rio Bonjic; the transmission lines already cross the border along Naso territory… and Mexico’s Carlos Slim, richest man in the world, proposes connecting them to the grid for Mexico’s D.F, picking up electricity from 54 dams throughout Central America. The territory of the smallest of tribes is sought after by BIG business, revealing a global problem with a group of corporations franchising everything from seeds to energy to water.

Naso commuters greeting their neighbors

In Jan. 2012, with the Bonjic Project nearing completion, the new King Reynaldo Alexis enjoyed both his coronation and recognition by Panama’s National Assembly (unlike his predecessor). In a recent interview, Rey Alexis shared with me his two primary goals: a Naso Comarca and the termination of plans for any additional hydroelectric projects on the Rio Teribe or its tributaries. These two initiatives enjoy popular support by the Naso people who rely on their river for water, food, and navigation. For the Naso, this river is the mythical goddess Grandmother Water who nurtures Mother Earth, who nurtures us all. One reason Rey Alexis was chosen as the youngest king in Naso history above the elder teacher, Maestro Santana, is that this young prince comes from the only political party that actively opposed the Bonjic hydroelectric project from the beginning; his party actually opposed the concession his rogue family member sold for a pittance.

Naso commuters greeting heavy equipment preparing materials for a 2-mile tunnel being blasted into a tributary with heavy explosives.

Now tribal leaders and their community members are concerned that a year has passed with no documentation of progress toward their goals. The people are concerned because tribal leader Adolfo Villagra recently returned from the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington DC to report that Panama’s national government responded to an IACHR complaint writing that the Naso Comarca was “in first debate”. First debate begins the process to make a bill a law in Panama. The people are waiting for their representative to issue a notarized letter along with a copy of this documentation to the National Assembly, demanding they make good on their claim to begin the Naso’s legal march toward autonomy.

When Naso neighbors, the Ngöbe-Buglé tribe, made this same demand to a previous administration, Panama did the right thing and returned autonomy over a land area representative of the tribe’s proportion of the national population, almost 10%. So, not only does the precedent exist six times over, there is a very recent precedent in law. This was 1997. There is a Naso Assembly meeting regarding their own Comarca initiative in two weeks. Their goal is to push for written action. President Martinelli knows this, and he could solidify his favorable reputation for indigenous rights by adding Naso autonomy to his legacy, the last Comarca for his nation. This would be a fine follow-up to his recent stance repealing the law that would have turned the Ngöbe Comarca into an open pit copper mine leaching chemicals into Panama’s watersheds and seas, all to benefit a Canadian corporation representing the government of South Korea.

In the meantime, the Naso are concerned for three new reasons. First, the king recently ordered that only village leaders initiate petitions. This makes a nation-wide petition impossible unless all village leaders coordinate, and it prohibits Mr. Villagra’s organization, ODESEN, from initiating such a survey to document the wishes of the people. ODESEN is the Organization for the Development of Sustainable Eco-tourism for the Naso. Second, there has been discussion about the possibility of requiring all visitors to Naso territory be approved by the king in advance. Third is the fact that the young Rey Alexis has been in meetings with rich developer members of the international hydroelectric consortium EPM, along with politicos. These meetings in the absence of formal action toward the Naso Comarca this past year are a major source of concern. The king has held many Naso community meetings, but his people are ready to see formal filings with the government now that he has enjoyed 15 months as their leader.

Poster speaking to the amazing biodiversity of the Naso Kingdom

The Naso hope and trust that their confidence in Rey Alexis is properly placed. With a Comarca comes a more formal leadership structure. Many fear the Santana family has never shared power in the manner of Panama’s six indigenous tribes which govern under the Comarca system, rather than a monarchy. They worry, could the young king’s advisers be suggesting he put the Santana family above the needs of the Naso tribe? The leaders I’ve spoken to are confident that those flying the flags of profit are offering their young king untold riches in exchange for an agreement for future projects in Naso territory. Two of the proposed projects would result in cultural genocide for the Naso way of life, according to IACHR testimony. The Naso are a shining example of sustainable river conservation and forestry management for all the world. Naso children are among the happiest I have ever encountered in this world, a testimony to the their extraordinary river culture.

The Big River Foundation is working to help create an annual “Naso Rio Fest”, a river festival to raise funds for tribal development in a sustainable manner consistent with the Naso way. This year we are working with Joern Ziegler, Jennifer Long, and Eric Ellman to engage students in Germany, Costa Rica, USA and Panama to create sister city/sister school programs with Naso villages such as Bonjic, Sieykin and Sieyik. These programs will involve the students in social media publicity and fundraising for a Naso River Festival, our documentary film about the Naso, La Amistad eco-tourism opportunities such as Watershed Watch Expeditions, a Naso Cultural Center, and UNESCO biological monitoring programs. For eco-tourism insights, take a look at ODESEN’s new website, developed by Lisa Nelson of Visual Adventures.

This is an exciting time for the Naso. Hopes are high that Rey Alexis will become the most legendary leader in Naso history, taking his place alongside other respected leaders from all over the world, including Central American Chief Urraca, admired for his resistance against Spanish conquistadors, honored on Panamanian coins. Rey Alexis will need much help working against corporations, the new conquistadors, to save the Rio Teribe and Grandmother Water, and to prevail in long-standing battles with cattle and lumber corporations. With success, he will gain autonomy for his people – autonomy enjoyed by every other indigenous tribe in Panama. We wish him well. Sincere thanks to all those lending a helping hand.

King Reynaldo Alexis Santana with Big River Foundation Chairman Stephen Kaczor