More Police, Less Trees for Metropolitan Park

The Ministry of Economy and Finance is proposing to build a new National Police headquarters inside the Metropolitan National Park.

The project is not fully defined but environmentalists say that it would consist of pouring cement over some 25 acres.

Law 8 of July 5, 1985 created the park, simultaneously prohibiting civil construction works, but was first modified in 1985 under the Ernesto Perez Balladares administration to construct the Northern Corridor.

The original law reads:  ”Reserve a natural area within Panama City that contributes to maintaining the balance between the natural environment and its urban habitat in particular, in order to prevent contamination and propitiate a healthy environment.”

Opposition to the project includes The Nature Conservancy, the Center for Environmental Impact and the Metropolitan Equestrian Club which would have to give up its concession to make way for the police.

“Today it’s the police, tomorrow it’s a real estate project,” Alejandro Balaguer, General Director of the Albatros Media Foundation told La Prensa.

The 573-acre park is one of the last refuges of the nearly extinct dry tropical forest of the Central American Pacific.  It is home to 227 bird, 45 mammal, 36 reptile and 14 amphibian species.

View to Panama City from the Metropolitan National Park