IHCantabria provides technical assistance to the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Panama in a study on vulnerability to climate change in the Gulf of Montijo, province of Veraguas

Researchers from the Environmental Hydraulics Institute of the Universidad de Cantabria(IHCantabria) are providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Panama in a study on vulnerability to climate change in the Gulf of Montijo, Province of Veraguas. This study is financed by the EUROCLIMA Program, through Expertise France (the French public agency for the design and implementation of international technical cooperation projects) and has as beneficiary the Ministry of Environment, through its Climate Change Directorate. IHCantabria offers its technical assistance from February to September 2024.

The kick-off meeting of this project, held at the end of February in Panama, was attended by representatives of all the entities that are part of the project; IHCantabria was represented by the following participants Javier Lopez Lara -who is a professor at the Universidad de Cantabria and head of the Climate Risk, Adaptation and Resilience Group at IHCantabria – and Maria Fuentes Alvarez de Eulate, a researcher at IHCantabria. As part of this meeting, Panama’s Ministry of the Environment organized a technical meeting and a presentation workshop with local communities.

For the execution of this project, IHCantabria has the support of the Panamanian company Itaca, led by Laura Canevari, who will be in charge of the citizen science part of the project.

The Gulf of Montijo is located on the Pacific coast of Panama, south of the province of Veraguas, and is located within the National System of Protected Areas (SINAP) of the Ministry of Environment of Panama. “In relation to the ecological richness of the area, the Gulf of Montijo has an extensive mangrove area. It is so important that it is defined as a Wetland of International Importance, also known as a Ramsar site,” explains Javier López Lara, researcher at IHCantabria.

The main objective of the project is to analyze the climate risks associated with marine dynamics and the impacts caused by sea level rise, as well as to formulate adaptation measures for the communities located in the Gulf of Montijo and to build capacities for the continuity of the identified actions. Specific objectives include the analysis of climate risks associated with sea level rise for local communities, including shoreline dynamics and erosion. For this purpose, IHCantabria will analyze both natural geomorphological processes and those derived from anthropogenic activity.

Of the tasks planned within the framework of this project, IHCantabria will be responsible for the following: 1) analysis of the evolution of the coastline over the last 40 years, including the evolution of the beaches and mangrove forests, 2) determination of flood maps of the study area and future erosion rates for different climate change scenarios, and 3) analysis of the vulnerability and risks to mangrove forests due to climate change, considering potential impacts (such as flooding, lack of fluvial sediment supply, erosion/recession of the coastline and anthropogenic actions). Surveys will also be applied to local communities to assess public perception of risk.

The Ministry of Environment of Panama will share the progress of the project, through its Climate Risk and Vulnerability Module, which can be accessed through the following link: https://transparencia-climatica.miambiente.gob.pa/modulo-vrc/

In recent years, IHCantabria has participated in multiple studies in Panama, which have been financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and, in this case, by the EUROCLIMA Program through  Expertise France.