Indigenous community in Panama to see carbon payments from forest conservation

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the Panama-based branch of the Smithsonian Institution, will offset its carbon dioxide emissions by working with an indigenous community to conserve forests and reforest degraded lands with native tree species. The agreement was announced Sunday. "This Smithsonian contribution to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions is a direct result of Catherine Potvin's foresight in adapting her studies of plant carbon uptake to Panama's cultural and economic reality and represents a very positive step in support of our basic research on the impact of global change on tropical forests and water availability and our Climate Partnership with HSBC, the World Wildlife Fund, Earthwatch and the Climate Group," said Eldredge Bermingham, director of the institute." [Catherine Potvin is a McGill biology professor and a research associate at the Smithsonian who has worked closely with the Embera community in Ipeti].