Panama is hosting the first meeting of Ministers of Environment and Tourism of Central America and the Dominican Republic and this morning during its inauguration, the Minister of Tourism, Iván Eskildsen, said that Panama has adopted a formula that will provide a guarantee that the peoples will be able to be the most faithful custodians of natural resources, indicated that this proposal can also be imitated by the other countries of Central America and the Caribbean.
For his part, the Minister of Environment, Milciades Concepción, explained that the central theme of this meeting is to evaluate the state of tourism in the region and the application of sustainable models in this activity that represents an important asset in the entire region.
During this meeting, Concepción called on the population not to lower their guard regarding the proper disposal of waste, “we cannot continue throwing garbage in the streets”, this, after seeing the tons of garbage in various rivers of the country with the first rains of April.
“The first line of not throwing garbage is ourselves in our homes, jobs, streets, cars, let’s not continue throwing garbage, tourists will not come to our country if we continue to be irresponsible with garbage,” he said.
Concepción confirmed that there are sectors in Panama where the impact of climate change is already being seen, such as the Guna Yala region, where they have had to relocate several islands to the mainland, since they are sinking.
“In San Blas, in Guna Yala it is already happening, there are a couple of islands that are being moved to the mainland because the rise in sea level is covering some of the San Blas islands,” he said.
He stressed that our country was built when there was another climate scheme and today with the effects of climate change the consequences are being seen, so it is necessary to carry out early warnings to those who live in areas at risk of flooding or landslides.
With information from Yissel Arévalo.
