Can Forests Save Panamas Economy?
For years developing countries have been cutting down their natural rainforests for financial gain. In the central regions of Panama, rainforests were destroyed to clear land for cattle grazing, an activity which was infinitely more profitable than standing trees. Now with no trees to hold soil together, the land is degrading and becomes increasingly unsuitable for cattle grazing. In some areas, rearing cattle is the only activity that communities have any experience of, and as the lands degrades, the industry slows down and employment becomes scarce. With no experience or formal education in other activities, some communities struggle to feed their families and to find drinking water during summer months, often resorting to illegal logging of the diminishing remaining rainforest. For some of Panama’s communities, salvation could come in the shape of a Paulownia Tree. Incredibly fast growing and revered in China and the Far East for hundreds of years, Paulownia is a tree with many adva
