Two Indigenous groups in Panama are collaborating with researchers in a long-term reforestation project that promises them income in return for growing native trees for carbon sequestration, Mongabay contributor Marlowe Starling reported in May. As part of the project, researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) have partnered with the local leadership in the rural district of Ñürüm in the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca, the largest officially recognized Indigenous land in Panama. With funding support from the U.S.-based Rohr Family Foundation and the U.K. government’s Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate, the project aims to plant native trees across 100 hectares (nearly 250 acres) in Ñürüm. Ñürüm’s landscape has been heavily deforested for decades for agriculture and cattle pasture, as well as government-led plantations of nonnative pine and teak. It doesn’t help that the soil in the area is clay, acidic, phosphorous-deficient and of low fertility. The Smithsonian, through two decades of experience from its Panama Canal Watershed Project in Agua Salud in Colón province, has worked out what types of trees work best on the land. Nearly 30 individuals and families had chosen to participate in the comarca reforestation project at the time of publishing. The community members have already planted several native species on their land, including high-value and low-maintenance trees like cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa), a nitrogen-fixing species whose wood is used for carvings and furniture. “It grows on crappy soils, good soils, grows fast when it’s young, it’s good for covering the land area and it’s got big roots, so…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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