ANAM and Red Frog make the front page of La Prensa

A friend of mine has a nephew who lives in Panama wrote me a brief note this morning which said:

...front page of the newspaper yesterday announces that ANAM (the environmental protection agency) has fined Red Frog Beach Project $130,000 for their behavior with regards to the environment and ANAM rules and regulations. They are also laying out some guidelines for the future development, calling for a section of the project to be used for
reforestation, and up to 25 hectares to be devoted to green or undeveloped areas.

This apparently is OLD news from last year and one can only imagine why this showed up in Wednesday's paper. Once again I went to the source and asked Scott to respond:

The report on the meeting held on September 29 of 2006 analyzes and features a chart containing the project’s mitigation and control measures in order to verify compliance and the submittal of evidence from the data obtained from the inspection and follow-up report presented by the company, and documents the following possible non-performances:

• Verification of the 25-ha-conservation zone contemplated as a measure for compensating the felling that would result from the construction of the new infrastructure
• Domestic waste management: waste from workers’ food lied all over the soil of the project, and certain findings (animals’ tracks) lead to think that wild animals may be getting used to eating processed food
• The temporary solid waste dumping site was not adequate
• Collapsed sediment meshes
• The complex’s artificial lighting poses a risk to turtle nesting activities typical of the region

The Regional Environmental Administration of Bocas del Toro conducted another inspection on January 25 of 2007 at the request of the company through a proposal of evidence.

The Technical Report resulting from such inspection states that the non-performances are not generating findings and so there are no damages to the environment. Likewise, such report points out that the measures related to by-pass channels and temporary mounds of earth have been replaced by other more effective measures intended to contain sedimentation, as is the case of geotextile mesh barriers, which invalidate the deshredding force of rain impact on removed soil, covering them with plastics. The report also indicates that stake-supported barriers composed of hay bales and meshes were placed in construction areas, intended to control flow of sediments to the natural drain lines existing in the project area. The report concludes that the developer has been able to reduce sediment contamination of sea.

So clearly we are doing our best to protect the environment. While our guys aren’t perfect by any means, they really do a pretty good job. ANAM has just been trying to find other issues. In fact, instead of saying do this or do that to protect the environment, they basically are asking for Plans, reports, and monitoring programs, that’s it!

And I don't know if saw it but there was another article in the newspaper where Mr. Milciades Concepción, Chairman in the assembly for Environmental Matters, made some comments regarding ANAM being irresponsible and unprofessional in most of the cases. Obviously Ligia Castro (head of Catastro) came out to defend ANAM. Milciades is without a doubt referring to the Red Frog issue.

So there you have it, we will appeal the fine and keep on protecting the environment which is what we want to do.

- Scott Harris