Pedasí Internship

I am finally writing a post about my internship.. I will try to keep it short! As part of the Environment program at McGill you are required to do an internship/research project over a semester. We did ours in Panama. I worked with two other girls, Isobel and Tanya, for the Ecotourism Cooperative of Pedasí in the Pablo Arturo Barrios Wildlife Refuge. This Wildlife Refuge has been listed under the National Authority on the Environment (Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente) as a protected area since 2009, yet little measures have been taken to reinforce its protection (i.e. no management plan or much else besides a list of a few prohibited activities within the limits that are not really enforced). This Cooperative consists of members of the community in Pedasi. They are trying to sign a co-management with the National Authority on the Environment so that the community can be more involved and directly participate in the general management of the protected area. 

We were asked to do what they called a "social inventory": interview fishermen and general members of the community (60 in total) about different topics... the main objective was to learn about their knowledge and opinions about this protected area all the while communicating the existence of the refuge (only 65% knew of it), identifying the most important challenges regarding its conservation (deforestation, turtle egg harvesting, lack of law enforcement), identifying how (and if) people wanted to be involved (most were fans of the turtles.. and wanted to work towards creating a sanctuary for them) and many other things (the interviews were 45 minutes long and done all in Spanish).

We traveled to Pedasi about once a month, each time for 4 to 7 days to conduct our interviews. We stayed in host families.. and worked worked worked doing background research and analyzing our results.. to create a 91 page report that we had to hand in to McGill in English, and to the Cooperative and community in Spanish! Our report also included recommendations for the management of the refuge, based on our results and on other research. 

a sign introducing us to the community

interviews in hand.. waiting for the fishermen to arrive

enjoying the sun on an afternoon off

During our last trip to Pedasi, we presented our results to the community. We quickly understood that the only way to get the community involved in conservation would be to create a party out of it so during March and April, we helped organize a Celebration of the Refuge that took place on Earth Day (April 22). The event was a great success, at least 100 people came (in the beginning we were very unsure as to how it would turn out). Food and drinks were offered, tipico music played all morning. The night before, Tanya, Isobel and I (with the help of a local friend who gave us the wood) created a sign that was put up the next day (see photo). Many important stakeholders and decision makers were present and spoke to the community.

one of our professors asking a question after our talk in Pedasí

the sign we made.. stayed up all night to carve out the letters, much harder than it looks!

Needless to say it has been an exhausting past two weeks trying to finish it all in time, we also gave a presentation at the Smithsonian Institute in Panama City. We were thrilled that everything came together in the end!

three locals enjoying a Panama beer on Earth Day

Isobel and I with our host family (Panamanians don't tend to smile in photos!)

the beach cleanup