The Minister of Environment, Juan Carlos Navarro and his institutional team achieved a broad consensus on January 3, 2026, with more than 60 representatives of national, local, traditional, and administrative authorities from Bocas del Toro and the Ngäbe Buglé region. The consensus is for the conservation and sustainable development of the Protected Landscape of Isla Escudo de Veraguas Degó. This followed over five hours of open and productive discussions during a meeting held in the city of David, Chiriquí Province.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Environment (MiAmbiente) emphasized that the Protected Landscape of Isla Escudo de Veraguas Degó remains closed. These actions correspond to the agreements reached during the coordination, dialogue, and intercultural participation meeting with elected authorities from Bocas del Toro and the Ngäbe Comarca, national authorities, traditional leaders of the Ngäbe people, and civil society representatives linked to the protected landscape. The meeting took place on January 3, 2026, in David, Chiriquí.
During the January 3, 2026, meeting, it was agreed to establish an immediate presence of personnel and park rangers from MiAmbiente at the site, backed by the Environmental Police. They will also conduct a rapid ecological assessment of the area's resources, fully respect Resolution No. 95 of 2009, which created the area, create a subcommission within the National Assembly's Indigenous Affairs Commission to incorporate the Conservation Plan for the Protected Landscape to be agreed upon by the parties in the future, build a permanent refuge for the ministry's park rangers on the island, and immediately begin permanent patrols with the support of the Environmental Police.
The only change from Resolution No. DM-0489-2025, dated October 29, 2025, is that passage navigation and subsistence fishing are now permitted, provided they have prior written authorization from MiAmbiente, as established in Resolution No. DM-006-2026, dated January 12, 2026. Additionally, the ministry suspended Resolution No. DM-005-2026 for 30 days, assigning the administrative management of the reserve to its regional office in the Ngäbe Buglé Comarca during that period.
This consensus will now be the basis for jointly building strategies for protection, ecological restoration, conservation, dissemination, and scientific study of the island's extraordinary natural resources and biodiversity, a protected ecosystem of enormous environmental value considered unique worldwide. It was also agreed to design and implement environmental education and research programs with the local populations of the area, guided by the working group established today, a scientific committee to be created soon, and an advisory committee composed of all parties that participated in this meeting.
The process of creating a conservation and protection plan for the marine and terrestrial resources and a Management Plan for this protected landscape, which is home to endemic species such as the pygmy sloth and the Amazilia, a hummingbird exclusive to the island, as well as reefs and exceptional marine biodiversity that has served for national and international scientific studies, has also begun.
Commercial, industrial, or export fishing is totally prohibited in this protected natural area.
