The grueling series of meetings and one-on-one interviews led up to the approval this year of an idb-financed sustainable development project for the province, the country’s poorest. The project, whose preparation involved extensive consultation with all affected groups, will include paving the 184-km-long dirt highway that is the Darién’s main link with the outside world.

Many of the province’s residents are members of indigenous communities, who will benefit through demarcation of their lands and programs to improve health and education.

Panama’s largest province, the Darién, also has the country’s highest indices of poverty and deforestation. The population growth rate of 4.5 percent has tripled the province’s population in the past 20 years to 60,000. The influx of newcomers has sparked conflicts among the three main ethnic groups: the indigenous people, Afro-Latin Americans and increasing numbers of Latin American colonists.

A great deal is at stake in the Darién. Not only are traditional ways of life threatened, but also irreplaceable ecosystems created when the flora and fauna of two continents met 2.5 million years ago.