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Projects That Never Happened: Ecological Insights from Darien, Panama

2014; Ecological Society of America; Volume: 96; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1890/0012-9623-96.1.54

2327-6096

Alan P. Covich,

Wildlife-Road Interactions and Conservation

Ecological research often reveals new issues so that the discovery process continues to benefit from additional data and perspectives. Early results are essential in communicating what else is needed for a more complete understanding and can form the basis for long-term analyses. If development projects lack sufficient ecological understanding, the economic and environmental costs are often higher than the expected benefits. We can learn a great deal from analysis of large projects that were not completed, such as two large projects proposed for Darien, Panama more than 50 years ago. These examples illustrate that success in obtaining the necessary ecological data to evaluate large-scale environmental impacts requires both thorough and rapid responses. In the 1960s ecologists made a strong case that demonstrated some projects were not feasible. My early experience in Panama as a field assistant and undergraduate researcher in the 1960s provided some lessons that I use in my research and teaching today. The study on the Darien tropical rain forest published in BioScience (Golley et al. 1969) first reported some essential information on the structure of this unique ecosystem. The paper was presented in a symposium on environmental studies related to a proposed sea-level canal (McGinnis et al. 1969). A paper trail demonstrates how these data contributed to understanding the value of this uniquely diverse rain forest relative to one of the most ambitious projects in Panama, the Atomic Energy Commission's Project Plowshare to build the Trans-Isthmian Sea Level Canal. Funding for the ecological research in Darien came from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commissions to the Battelle Institute and the University of Georgia. Interest in the Darien focused on concerns regarding a proposal to use nuclear explosions to construct new harbors and canals as part of the Atoms for Peace Program initiated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower (Kirsch 2005, Kaufman 2013). After a series of studies, this project was delayed and then stopped. Another large project, the Pan American Highway, had similar strong political and economic support initially but it too was not completed because of a combination of higher than first-anticipated ecological, economic, and cultural costs (Miller 2014). Frank Golley completed his dissertation in 1958 and become involved in several major research projects early in his career (Covich 2015). In 1966 he led a team of ecologists to conduct some early studies of the tropical rain forests in Darien, Panama. The paper by Golley et al. (1968) contributed to understanding some of the environmental impacts that later led to re-evaluation of the value of intact tropical rain forests and the risks of nuclear explosives for construction of the new canal. A different outcome would have resulted in the loss of Darien's biodiversity and eliminated this unique forest and the associated river habitats needed by indigenous peoples to sustain their livelihood and for the many species to survive. Golley continued his research on productivity and nutrient cycling in tropical rain forests by extending this early work in Darien to compare with other tropical forest ecosystems (Golley and Golley 1972, Farnsworth and Golley 1974, Golley 1983). The high biodiversity of Darien is important because of its unique geographic location that provides a biogeographic connection between the northern and southern hemispheres as well as a crossroad of commerce (Palka 2005). One of the first protected rain forests was established in 1946 on Barro Colorado Island by the Smithsonian Institution of Tropical Research as part of the Panama Canal (Leigh et al 1983). Research on the Darien rain forest was funded as a result of planning for Project Plowshare and the Pan American Highway. This narrow land bridge with a north-south width between 60 to 80 km and an east–west length of about 840 km has attracted biological studies as well as research exploring sites for inter-ocean canals (Fig. 1). Although relatively limited in area (77,400 km2, which is less than the size of the state of South Carolina), the physical complexity of Panama's tropical habitats is determined by its mountain ranges, extensive lowlands, and complex coastlines. Volcanic and tectonic processes produced mountainous chains with several peaks greater than 1000 m (Palka 2005). The isthmus has separated the planet's two largest oceans for nearly three million years. Connecting the marine and estuarine biotas was viewed as risky. The Pan American Highway (solid line) crosses Panama but ends in the Darien rainforest (shaded area) past the town of Yavisa. The plans for constructing a sea-level canal proposed during Project Plowshare (dashed line) across the isthmus were never implemented. In the 1950s, there was international interest in finding new ways to harness nuclear energy for peacetime uses. Following the negative consequences of the atomic bombs used in World War II, scientists developed beneficial uses of radioactive isotopes in medicine and radiation therapy to treat cancer were developed (Creager 2012). At the same time there was great controversy over the continued atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons during the Cold War (Kwa 1993, Jesse 2014). Project Plowshare was proposed as a way to use nuclear power for excavation. The plan was based on the potential to use underground nuclear explosions to develop transportation in several places around the world. Other potential uses were to extract water from deep deserts and natural gas and oil from geological deposits. This earth-moving technology was intended to create a new “geographical engineering” to demonstrate the peaceful applications of “constructive nuclear explosions,” but concerns regarding unintended consequences halted Project Plowshare after a great deal of research and debate (Kirsch 2005, Kaufman 2013). The Atlantic–Pacific Interoceanic Canal Study Commission proposed five routes for a sea-level canal as one part of Project Plowshare. The least-cost, most remote route (Sasardi-Morti) was to cross Darien, Panama; it was thought to minimize impacts on the existing canal and on large population centers (Fig. 1). However, this route would have long-term, detrimental effects on one of the most species-rich tropical forests in Central America with extraordinarily high endemism. The highway would also have affected the livelihood of indigenous Choco and Kuna as well as African-American and Hispanic settlers who occupied scattered villages in the Darien, whose livelihood depended on fishing and river travel (Bennett 1968, Wali 1993). In 1972, as a result of efforts to delay these two construction projects in eastern Panama, there was an opportunity to protect one of the most biologically diverse and largest tropical rain forests in Central America, with the establishment of Alto Darién Protection Forest. In 1980, the Darién National Park was established and recognized as a World Heritage Site in 1981, and a Biosphere Reserve in 1983. This protected area extends over 575,000 ha of mountains, wetlands, and floodplains defined by the drainages of the Chucunaque-Tuira, Balsas, Sambú, Congo, and Sabanas rivers. Populations of Afro-Americans and indigenous groups including the Embera, Wounaan, and Kuna continue to use the rivers as sources of fish and the forests as sources of fruits, wildlife, and building materials (Herlihy 1989, 2003, Runk 2012). Although gold mining, deforestation, political unrest, and agricultural expansion continue to some extent, there remains an opportunity to manage this large region and to sustain biological and cultural diversity. I went to Darien in the early 1960s while an undergraduate at Washington University in St Louis with partial support from an Undergraduate Research Participation grant from the National Science Foundation (G-21349). The lesson I later learned from Frank Golley was that timing is important in ecological research. Data do matter and new information can change the way people value cultural and biological diversity if the studies are done sufficiently early, before irreversible mistakes are made. My senior thesis was based on just two summer months of field study in Panama on plants used for food, medicine, and house construction by the Embera Choco Indians (Covich 1964, Covich and Nickerson 1966). Together with my faculty advisors (Owen Sexton and Norton Nickerson), we travelled by dugout canoe along the Rio Chucunaque and two tributaries, the Rio Tuquesa and Rio Chico. We stayed in small Choco Indian villages and homes along the rivers. We interviewed 115 adults living at 26 sites. We hiked forest trails where highway survey workers had marked large trees to indicate the proposed bridge sites for crossing the many meanders of these rivers. At that stage in the planning of the Pan American Highway the United States was funding bridge construction along most of Central America. It was easy to imagine how rapidly the forest and rivers would drastically change following completion of this last section of the Pan American Highway, let alone a new sea-level canal. There were frequent discussions about what would be the impending effects of all this new construction through Darien based on the deforestation and erosion that followed other roads being built in the tropics. I assumed both the new highway and sea-level canal would likely happen. It seemed that time was too limited to learn much about pre-construction baseline conditions to fully evaluate the impacts. The prospects for establishing any protected rain forest reserves also seemed unlikely. I was wrong in part because Golley's research and that of others were making good use of the time. These ecologists provided the information needed to demonstrate that the projects would have many large-scale negative impacts. The values of the Darien rain forest and the importance of environmental ethics were becoming widely appreciated and better understood following these early studies (Kaufman 2013, Covich 2015). The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), now the Department of Energy, established Project Plowshare in 1958, with approval by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Plowshare was one part of the president's Atoms for Peace initiative. The name reflected the biblical injunction from Isaiah 2:4 that “They shall beat their swords into plowshares…nation shall not lift up their sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” The reasoning was that the relatively inexpensive energy available from nuclear explosions would prove useful for a wide variety of peaceful purposes. There was widespread interest by corporations to develop underground engineering applications of “nuclear dynamite” to develop new sources of deep groundwater and to mine oil and gas deposits. Sanders (1962) noted that “one type of long-range problem, worldwide fallout, most likely will not trouble us. Plowshare scientists conclude that excavation explosions almost certainly will contribute only to local fallout…” Sanders' book summarized a series of debates and symposia that reviewed proposals for major projects around the world to determine the effects. It remained unclear if the early assumptions and conclusions by AEC scientists were valid. Between December 1961and May 1973, the United States conducted 27 Plowshare nuclear explosive tests comprising 35 individual detonations, primarily in Nevada. In 1958 John N. Wolfe, a plant ecologist from Ohio State University with research interests on how microclimate affected plant succession and geography, joined AEC. Wolfe headed the Environmental Science Branch of the Division of Biology and Medicine. His previous research included effects and transport of volcanic dust in the atmosphere (Coleman 2012). That experience was relevant to concerns of wind dispersal of radioactive fallout from nuclear tests. As a former associate editor of the Ecological Society of America's journal, Ecological Monographs, Wolfe recognized the need to communicate to professional ecologists. He was effective in securing funding for ecological research and in working with academic scientists. The AEC authorized studies prior to an experimental harbor excavation, called Project Chariot, at Cape Thompson on the northwestern coast of Alaska. Wolfe formed the Committee on Environmental Studies and appointed several biologists to study the project's potential environmental impacts on the arctic ecology and human populations (Kirsch 2005). The results of this initial project were needed to determine how nuclear explosions could be used for larger construction projects such as the sea-level canal in Panama. Wolfe (1959) summarized the main ecological issues regarding the potential impacts of radiation on food webs, risks to humans, and effects of fire that might be associated with nuclear explosions during Project Plowshare. As Sanders (1962) had asserted, most AEC physicists and engineers generally assumed that the initial underground tests could be safely conducted without release of radioactivity to the atmosphere. Some non-AEC scientists involved in the studies thought that the design of the experiment was inadequate, while others thought the entire project was incompatible with environmental safety. The first tests indicated more radioactive dust was transported farther by wind than first estimated by AEC scientists (Kaufman 2012). Wolfe later formed an advisory committee that included nationally recognized ecologists such as Yale Professor Paul B. Sears, a past president of the American Association for Advancement of Science in 1956, a past president of the Ecological Society of America in 1948, and a recipient of ESA's Eminent Ecologist Award in 1965. Sears was acquainted with AEC's Wolfe through their previous connections with Ohio State University. According to his daughter, Paul Sears was troubled by the committee's responsibilities to properly evaluate the environmental impacts of these belowground nuclear explosions (Sears 2009). As Project Plowshare continued, other advisory committees were formed to provide more evaluation of unintended consequences of the explosions. Ultimately, the initial demonstration project in Alaska was cancelled because of concerns for radiation effects on local populations, after Stewart Udall, Secretary of the Interior, intervened after reviewing the bioengineering studies (Kaufman 2012). By mid-1959, several Plowshare smaller-scale plans were developed to demonstrate peaceful uses of nuclear energy, in addition to construction of a sea-level canal in Panama. Once the Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963 resulted in extending the previous moratorium on atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, there was increased interest in testing nuclear explosives belowground (Kirsch 2005, Kaufman 2013). In 1964 an 18 million dollar, five-year study began to evaluate feasibility of a new sea-level canal, including ecological research on the Darien rain forest. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the Atlantic–Pacific Interoceanic Canal Study Commission in 1965 to help AEC organize the studies. The Plowshare Program continued through 1975. The proposal for constructing the new sea-level canal included plans for a least-cost route (number 17) that was expected to require 294 nuclear explosions across the Sasardi-Morti route in Darien, Panama. However, the uncertainty of environmental impacts raised objections among several different groups regarding release of strontium-90 and other radiation. The magnitude of each detonation would have been larger than any previously considered for other purposes such as oil production from tar sands and extraction of natural gas from rock formations (Kaufman 2013). An ecological survey of the Isthmus was proposed along with other large research projects following a Conference on Tropical Biology held in Panama at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in 1966 (Buechner and Fosberg 1967). The ecological results of the large-scale research by Golley and colleagues were some of the first studies of old-growth, wet-tropical forests. This study provided comparisons with other tropical research funded by the AEC in the Luquillo Mountains of El Verde, Puerto Rico by Howard T. Odum and his colleagues, including Frank Golley (Golley et al. 1962, Odum 1970, Lugo 2004). H. T. Odum provided an important link as a result of spending three years during World War II in Puerto Rico and in Panama serving as a military meteorologist. Odum later completed his dissertation in 1950 at Yale University under supervision of G. E. Hutchinson on the atmospheric circulation and biogeochemistry of strontium-90 in the global ecosystem. A large-scale, comprehensive approach was important in generating an improved understanding of the types of complex ecosystem disruptions that would result if Project Plowshare were to be approved by the Congress and additional radioactive fallout continued to enter the atmosphere (https://www.osti.gov/opennet/reports/plowshar.pdf). Other earlier studies on tropical coral reefs by H. T. Odum and Eugene Odum were part of AEC's efforts to understand how radiation affected the biosphere and led to use of radio-tracers in a wide range of ecological research (Kwa 1993, Creager 2013). In 1969 the National of Academy of Sciences was asked to form a Committee on Ecological Research on the Inter-Ocean Canal to obtain independent, objective advice and evaluation of the Plowshare Program in Panama. The Academy's previous committees on environmental impacts related to nuclear energy were composed only of engineers and physicists. This committee was headed by the Harvard evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr and included eminent ecologists (Edward O. Wilson from Harvard, Joseph H. Connell from the University of California, and Howard Sanders from Woods Hole), as well as several other marine biologists and oceanographers. A symposium was organized in 1970 on nuclear explosives that included several discussions regarding Project Plowshare. General R. H. Groves represented the Army Corps of Engineers on the Canal Study Commission. He reported that it was not feasible to remove 25,000 people from Darien to avoid impacts of the project's potential for radioactive releases. Others expressed concern for the biodiversity and ecological impacts (Newman 1972). The public's growing concern about radiation, pesticide contamination, and strontrium-90 in milk and baby teeth underscored the risks of nuclear excavations (Commoner et al. 1961). The physicist Linus Pauling actively warned against the release of strontium-90 into the atmosphere from either atmospheric or underground testing of nuclear weapons. In 1962 Pauling was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize based on his role in organizing the protest by scientists around the world to stop atmospheric testing. When the Atlantic–Pacific Interoceanic Canal Study Commission finished its report in 1970, they concluded that the techniques of nuclear excavation had not yet been developed to a sufficiently safe level, but that this approach would be useful some day to build a sea-level canal. Even before Congress finally rejected the use of nuclear excavation in 1975, there was a growing interest in an alternative approach that would use conventional construction methods to dig a sea-level canal across the isthmus near the existing canal, which was considered outdated. That proposal led to more research on the potential impacts on biodiversity (Rubinoff 1968, Challinor 1972). The conclusion was to abandon the idea of a sea-level canal. The Pan American Highway was intended to link the entire American hemisphere from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. The planning had started in 1923 and highways to connect the capitol cites throughout the hemisphere were mostly constructed in the 1950s. Only the relatively short distance across the “Darien Gap” still remains to be completed, so that any automobile linking of the capitol cities of Panama and Colombia now requires ferry boat connections. If the highway had been completed, it was clear that the Darien rain forest would rapidly be cleared for farms and pastures (Suman 2007). Despite the economic interests in increasing trade between South and Central America, there were concerns about loss of one of the largest and most diverse remaining rain forests (Miller 2014). Importantly, the United States Department of Agriculture was concerned that hoof and mouth disease would spread from Colombia to Panama and throughout Central and North America. Studies of cattle-free zones on both sides of the Colombia-Panama border in Darien concluded that these could not be effective. The need for careful inspections of transported animals would not be sufficient to prevent the spread of this economically important disease. The last outbreak of this highly contagious virus in North America was in 1929, and led to large losses of both domestic livestock and wildlife. No effective vaccine existed to immunize cattle, and the concerns about disease transmission resulted in a decision to end construction of the highway. In 1971 the concept of creating national parks on each side of the border led to further discussions regarding completion of the last segment of the highway. Other concerns regarding control of the international drug trade as well as guerrilla warfare with paramilitary groups along the border, and the loss of the high biodiversity, have continued to prevent completion (Suman 2007). Also in 1971, a National Security Council committee cited invasive species as one of the reasons for abandoning the Plowshare plan for a sea-level canal, and this same decision persisted again in 1978. As Christine Keiner (2014) notes, “the fact that biologists had forced officials at the highest levels to acknowledge a novel ecological concern signified a new phase of the environmental management state.” The history of the Panama Canal provides a basis of learning from past accomplishments and mistakes (Carse 2012, 2014). Currently, the Panama Canal Expansion Program is using non-nuclear construction technology to widen the existing Panama Canal. By adding a new set of locks, this new construction will allow larger ships to move through the canal. Because of concerns about drought impacts, new designs will reuse a significant amount of the water needed for moving ships through the locks (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 2012). The Panama Canal is expanding its capacity in its original location and celebrated its centennial in 2014. It is timely to remember that when open discussions in the 1970s were based on strong research, the results were significant in sustaining informed environmental decisions. Today, similar issues continue to challenge ecologists to help provide information about the environmental effects of large construction projects. Another new interoceanic canal is scheduled to begin in Nicaragua that includes a route across Lake Nicaragua (also known as Lake Cocibolca), and could affect flows in the San Juan River that borders Costa Rica (Huete-Pérez et al. 2013, Huete-Pérez and Meyer 2014). Construction and dredging to build and maintain the Nicaragua Canal Development Project will likely affect water quality, result in loss of significant aquatic biodiversity, and have a cascade of effects on people living along the route. The Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company (HKND) has an extensive economic development plan that includes the canal and related transportation projects. The canal is expected to cost at least $40–50 billion, and is planned to be completed over five years. Environmental studies are needed on the immediate and long-term consequences of dredging and on the possible construction of a new reservoir to supply water for a series of locks. Excavation of the canal to connect with Lake Nicaragua could affect 400,000 hectares of rain forests and wetlands in addition to disrupting indigenous livelihoods (Huete-Pérez and Meyer 2014). The environmental impact analyses are being conducted by an international consulting firm, Environmental Resources Management (ERM). Their Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) was to be discussed in community workshops and focus groups beginning in October 2014. The ESIA results are scheduled for public release in April 2015, four months after construction is scheduled to begin. The Academy of Sciences of Nicaragua invited the InterAmerican Network of Academies of Science (IANAS) and the International Council for Science–Regional Office for Latin American and the Caribbean (ICSU–LAC) to co-sponsor a workshop in early November 2014 to discuss potential impacts (www.cienciasdenicaragua.org). Proposed canals in Nicaragua, like the Panama canals, have had a long, complex history (Brannstrom 1995). However, previous considerations apparently did not provide sufficient baseline data for a comprehensive evaluation of this new construction. Environmental groups in Nicaragua and some political parties are opposing the project, but it remains unclear what effect they will have. In general, if comprehensive environmental analyses are completed, alternatives can emerge and substitute for those that are shown to be too risky, too expensive, and too destructive of natural and cultural resources. Long-term studies help to avoid large mistakes that are difficult or impossible to reverse. These studies need to start well before a project is scheduled to begin in order to provide sufficient high-quality baseline data. As large projects continue to be proposed, more comprehensive ecological studies will be needed and we will need to continue the analyses in order to learn how to avoid mistakes. When Frank Golley was president of the Ecological Society of America he emphasized the importance of a holistic, multi-disciplinary, international approach to global ecological issues (Golley 1978). This approach will remain important for many more years.