Panama Canal to implement plan for reducing carbon emissions in the Watershed

News Release Panama Canal Authority June 19, 2012

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Panama
City, Panama, June 15, 2012. - The Panama Canal
Authority (ACP) signed a Technical Cooperation Agreement with the National
Environmental Authority (ANAM) and the German Agency for International
Cooperation to apply mechanisms that will reduce emissions in the Canal
Watershed.
The agreement aims to
establish the terms and conditions for the design and implementation of a pilot
program in the Panama Canal Watershed, compensation mechanisms for the
sustainable management of forest resources that can be replicated nationwide,
under the parameters of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation (REDD +).
In a ceremony
held yesterday, the document was signed by Panama Canal Authority (ACP)
Administrator Alberto Alemán Zubieta, ANAM Administrator Lucia Chandeck, and
Laszlo Panzel, from the German Agency for International Cooperation and Program
Director for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD
+).
During the signing ceremony
Alemán Zubieta said: "With this agreement, Panama is in a win-win
position to reduce the effects of carbon
emissions, as we
will also be able
to capture carbon.  This agreement with the German government will
benefit our country."
The Panama Canal carries out
activities aimed at improving the quality of life
for residents of the Canal Watershed, an area of strategic importance to the country because
it houses the water sources, supplies potable water to more than half of the Panamanian population
and provides sufficient water for the safe and continuous operation of the
Canal.
The mechanism for Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD +) that will be
applied in Panama for the first time, will highlight the service that forests
provide the world by storing large amounts of carbon emissions.  This
program will offer innovative alternatives for producers in the Canal Watershed
and, at the same time, the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions will have
positive effects in reducing deforestation and forest
degradation.
REDD + activities focus on
the conservation of carbon reserves and also on the sustainable management of
forests.  This program will encourage the transition from certain
activities that affect the forests to others that are
sustainable, thus reducing harmful patterns of land use.<A
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