Parte Alta de la Bahía de Panamá

Conservation

Habitat Description
The entire site is on a coastal alluvial plain on the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Panama and consists of mangroves and adjacent mudflats. In places the mangroves form a thin fringe along the shore, but the estuary of the Rio Bayano towards the center of the site contains 9,300 hectares of mangroves, including some areas dominated by palms. The gradient off the coast is very low which, combined with a tidal range of over 5 meters, results in exposed mudflats exceeding 2 km wide at the lowest tides. The mudflats range from fine-grained, almost soupy mud to sand bars found mostly at the mouth of the Bayano River. Some areas have volcanic rock outcrops.



Species That Use This Site
Max. Single Day Count
Black-bellied Plover 3,440
Snowy Plover *
Wilson's Plover *
Semipalmated Plover 30,592
Killdeer *
Am. Oystercatcher 403
Black-necked Stilt 100
Greater Yellowlegs *
Lesser Yellowlegs *
Solitary Sandpiper *
Willet 12,413
Spotted Sandpiper *
Upland Sandpiper *
Whimbrel 6,862
Long-billed Curlew *
Marbled Godwit 25
Ruddy Turnstone 28
Surfbird *
Red Knot 2,460
Sanderling 55
Semipalmated Sandpiper 47,147**
Western Sandpiper 28,2163**
Least Sandpiper *
Pectoral Sandpiper *
Dunlin *
Buff-breasted Sandpiper *
Short-bill. Dowitcher 11,745
Common Snipe *
* Present in small numbers, but no population estimate available.
**estimated from marking studiesData from Watts, 1998.
In addition to shorebirds, the site contains nesting colonies that include 600 Great Egrets and 700 Neotropical Cormorants. It is used by many other waterbirds, including Roseate Spoonbill, Wood Stork, Snowy Egret, Tricolored, Great Blue, Little Blue, and Cocoi Heron, White Ibis, and many gulls and terns. Neotropical River Otter, Crab-eating Raccoon and American Crocodile are among threatened species presumed to occur.

Land Use
The land surrounding the site is used for rice cultivation, cattle ranching, and subsistence agriculture. The western end of the site is adjacent to the capital city, Panama, and has urban and suburban housing and an international airport abutting the mangroves. In this section, only the mudflats are included in the site. The mangroves are excluded. Further to the east, rice farms and cattle pastures, often reclaimed from wetlands by cutting mangroves and channelizing streams, are adjacent to the site. There are some areas of second growth. The eastern part, beyond estuary of the Rio Bayano, has a higher proportion of subsistence agriculture and even some primary forest bordering the mangroves.

Habitat Protection
All mangroves in Panama are considered to belong to the state and it is illegal to cut them down. This law however is commonly ignored.

The site has just recently been placed on the Ramsar list of Internationally Important Wetlands. In so doing, Panama promises to preserve the ecological services the site provides.

Impacts/Disturbance
Near the coast, sand is being extracted for use in construction. In various places, industrial chemicals, raw sewage, and agricultural chemicals from rice farms flow into waterways in the mangroves and ultimately across the mud flats. A new sewage treatment plant is being built at the western end of the site. Some mangroves around the periphery of the mangrove area are being cut for use as pasture. A few shrimp farms were built in the mangroves many years ago and then fell out of use but it is not unlikely that the mangroves will again be used for the same purpose.

Threats
The major threat is clearing of mangroves for housing near the city. In the rural areas, clearing of land for cattle and agricultural use continues, but not at a rapid rate.

We do not know exactly what impact removing mangroves will have on the birds using the mudflats. Certainly mangroves export a large amount of detritus to the food web on the mudflat, but we do not know how important this is compared to nutrients coming from water offshore. Presumably the particle size and consistency of the mud is important to many birds, and some kinds of development might affect this, but we have no information on possible impacts. The threat to roosting areas is not well known because, with the exception of a major area converted to housing, we do not know where they are located. Loss of roosting areas could have a major impact on the shorebirds. Clearly more research is needed, but in the meantime, it is prudent to make as few changes as possible to the mangroves.

Management Priorities
There are currently no forest wardens assigned to the area. Guards with suitable transportation by boat, car, and occasional overflights by plane are needed to ensure that mangroves are not cut down illegally. Public education on the value of mangroves and mudflats is necessary to gain sufficient public support to reduce development.

Status of Conservation Efforts
The Upper Bay of Panama is composed of 5 different Important Bird Areas (IBAs), which were identified through completion of a Birdlife/PAS program to identify IBAs in Panama. PAS considers the Upper Bay of Panama to be one of its top priorities for conservation work and has been conducting a series of public awareness and educational projects on the importance of its preservation for the past 5 years.

Panama's environmental authority, ANAM, is very supportive of conservation efforts in the Upper Bay of Panama but has a limited budget for work in the area.

Shorebird and Related Research
1989 - 1993. Winter survey of waterbirds on the entire coastline of Panama. (Morrison et. al. 1998)

1995 - 2000 Inventory of Important Bird Areas in Panama, which identified the Upper Bay of Panama as one of the highest priority sites for bird conservation in Panama. George Angehr/PAS.

1997. Survey of use of Upper Bay of Panama by shorebirds during fall migration under direction of George Angehr/Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) (Watts, 1998)

2002. Research on bill morphology and feeding techniques in Western Sandpipers by Silke Nebel, Simon Fraser University. (Nebel, 2005a, 2005b)

2002. Counts of overwintering and spring migrant shorebirds. Deborah Buehler, Royal Ontario Museum. (Buehler, 2003).

2003 Shorebird counts by air and land during fall migration by Deborah Buehler, Alberto Castillo and George Angehr, PAS. (Buehler et. al, 2004.)

2004 Western Sandpipers radio-tagged in Upper Bay of Panama to track migration route. Study done by Pat Baird, Kahiltna Research Group, California State University with assistance of Kim Mathot, Simon Fraser University and Audrey Taylor, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

2005 Survey of herons and other waterbirds in the Bay of Panama, including an inventory of major nesting colonies of herons and cormorants in mangrove areas of the site. James Kushlan, National Museum of Natural History, and George Angehr, PAS/STRI.

Documents and References
Agüero, M., E. González and Equipo Profesional de ICSED. 1998. Informe Final: Estudio, Valoración y Evaluación Preliminar de distintas alternativas de Uso-Explotación y Preservación de los Manglares de Juan Días, Bahía de Panamá. Centro Interamericano para el Desarrollo de Ecosistema Sustentable (ICSED). Santiago, Chile.

Angehr, G. and O. Jordán. 1998. Informe del Programa de Áreas Importantes para Aves en Panamá. Sociedad Audubon de Panamá. Panamá República de Panamá.

Angehr, George R. 2003. Directory of Important Bird Areas in Panama. Sociedad Audubon de Panama and Birdlife/Vogelbescherming Nederland, Panama and the Netherlands. 342pp.

Anguizola, R., V. J. Cedeño & G. Sopalda. 1990. Inventario de manglares de la República de Panamá. Instituto Geográfico Nacional Tommy Guardia. 8pp.

Brooks, Cl. and D. Riley de la R. 1986. Observación Ecológica sobre Vertebrados Asociados a un Manglar de Avicennia en Juan Díaz, distrito de Panamá. Tesis de Licenciatura en Biología conespecialización en Zoología. Universidad de Panamá. Facultad de Ciencia Naturales y Exactas. Escuela de Biología. Panamá. 75pp.

Buehler, D.M. 2002. Shorebird counts in Panama during 2002 emphasize the need to monitor and protect the Upper Panama Bay. Wader Study Group Bull. 99: 41–44.

Buehler, D.M., Castillo, A.I. & Angehr, G. 2004. Shorebird counts in the Upper Bay of Panama highlight the importance of this key site and the need to improve its protection. Wader Study Group Bull. 105: XX–XX.

Butler, R. W., R. I. G. Morrison and F. Delgado. 1992. The distribution of fish-eating, wading, and raptorial birds in the Gulf of Panama. October 1991. Canadian Wildlife Service. 198 (5): 1-3.

Dames & Moore. 1997. Estudio de Impacto Ambiental del Corredor Sur Tramo Ciudad Radial- Tocumen. Ciudad de Panamá. Dames & Moore Group Company. Fotocopias.

Duellman, E.E. and C.W. Myers. 1980. The Panamanian herpetofauna: historical biogeography and patterns of distribution. Páginas. 44-48. in: W.G. D’Arcy ed., Botany and natural history: a simposium sygnalling the completion of the “Flora of Panama”.

D'Arcy, W.G. 1987a. Flora of Panama: Checklist and Index. Part I: The introduction and checklist. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. Vol. 17: 1-325.

D'Arcy, W.G. 1987b. Flora of Panama: Checklist and Index. Part II: Index. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. Vol. 18: 1-670.

D'Croz, L. and B. Kwiecinski. 1980. Contribución de los manglares a las pesquerías de la Bahía de Panamá. Revista de Biología Tropical 28(1): 13-29.

D'Croz, L. 1985. Manglares: su importancia para la zona costera tropical. Páginas 167-181 en M. Heckadon and J. Espinoza eds., Agonia de la Naturaleza. Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuaria de Panamá/Smithsonan Tropical Research Institute. Panamá City. Panamá.

D'Croz, L. 1997. La contaminación de la Bahía de Panamá. VII Encuentro del Centro de Estudios para la Independencia Judicial y el Ejercicio Libre de la Abogacía en Panamá. ULACIT, Panamá 17-19 de abril.

Ernst, C.H. and R.W. Barbour. 1989. Turtles of the world. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 313 pp.

Farrugia. S., and E. Ponce. 1998. Distribución Vertical y Horizontal en un Manglar del Corregimiento de Juan Díaz Durante Época Seca. Tesis de Licenciatura en Biología con especialidad en Zoología. Universidad de Panamá. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas. Escuela de Biología. Panamá. 80pp.

García, G. A. 1997. Historia, Desarrollo Social del distrito de Chepo y sus pobladores en su entorno desde los siglos XVI al XX. Trabajo de graduación Universidad de Panamá.

Instituto Geográfico Nacional Tommy Guardia (IGNTG). 1988. Atlas nacional de la República de Panamá. Tercera edición. Panamá. 222pp.

Jiménez, J. A. 1994. Los manglares del Pacífico Centroamericano. Universidad Nacional (UNA)-Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio). Editorial Fundación UNA. Heredia, Costa Rica. 336pp.

Mérida, J. 1965. Análisis Regional del Bayano Medio, un estudio de Antropología Social. Trabajo de Graduación. Panamá, Universidad de Panamá. 149 pp

Ministerio de Salud. 1997. Resumen ejecutivo: Plan Maestro para el Saneamiento de la Ciudad y Bahía de Panamá. Panamá. Morrison, R.I.G., R.W. Butler, E. S. Delgado, and R. K. Ross. 1998. Atlas of Nearctic shorebirds and other water birds on the coast of Panama. Canadian Wildlife Service, Ottawa. 112pp.

Nebel, S., D.B. Lank, P.D. O'Hara, G. Fern·ndez, B. Haase, F. Delgado, F.A. Estela, L.J. Evans Ogden, B. Harrington, B.E. Kus, J.E. Lyons, F. Mercier, B. Ortego, J.Y. Takekawa, N. Warnock & S.E. Warnock. 2002. Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri) during the nonbreeding season: spatial segregation on a hemispheric scale. Auk 119:922-928.

Nebel, S. & G.J. Thompson. 2005. Foraging behaviour of Western Sandpipers changes with sediment temperature: implications for their hemispheric distribution. Ecological Research 20:503-507.

Nebel, S. 2005. Latitudinal clines in bill length and sex ratio in a migratory shorebird: a case of resource partitioning? Acta Oecologica 28:33-38.

Osorio, O. 1994. Situación de los manglares de Panamá. Páginas. 176-193 en: Suman, D.O., ed.. El ecosistema de manglar en América Latina y la cuenca del Caribe: Su manejo y conservación. University of Miami & The Tinker Foundation, Miami. 263 pp.

Panamá, Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente. 1999. Manejo Integral de la Cuenca del río Bayano, subcuenca del río Maje y áreas adyacentes al embalse. Informe final, Diagnostico-Tomo 1. Consorcio Louis Berger International, Inc. Delca Consultores, S. A.

Panamá, Ministerio de Comercio e Industrias (MICI). 1978. Estadística Pesquera, Junio 1978. 69pp.

Panamá, Ministerio de Comercio e Industrias (MICI). 1991. Mapa Geológico de la República de Panamá. Escala 1:250,000. Dirección General de Recursos Minerales, Ministerio de Comercio e Industrias, Panamá. 12 hojas.

Panamá, Ministerio de Comercio e Industrias (MICI). 1991. Plan nacional para el desarrollo y ordenamiento pesquero. 25-29pp.

Panamá, Ministerio de Comercio e Industrias (MICI). 1992. Estadística Pesquera: 1981-1991. 59 pp.

Panamá, Contraloría General de la República. 1999. Estadísticas panameñas. Situación cultural, Educación en los años 1996 – 1997 – 1998

Panamá, Contraloría General de la República. 2000. Censos Nacionales X de Población, VI de Viviendas. Cifras preliminares, Departamento Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos.

Pineda, M. 1994. Impacto de la Colonización Humana en el distrito de Chepo. Trabajo de Graduación, Universidad de Panamá., 165pp.

Savage, J.M. 1982. The enigma of the Central American herpetofauna: Dispersals or vicariance?. Ann. Missouri. Bot. Gard. 69: 464-547.

Solís R., V., A.J. Elizondo, O. Brenes and L.V. Strusberg (eds.). 1999. Lista de fauna de importancia para la conservación en Centroamérica y México: Listas rojas, listas oficiales y especies en Apéndices CITES. UICN-WWF. San José, C.R. 224 pp.

Stallard, R, T. García and M. Mitre. 1999. Hidrología y Suelos. Páginas 57-83 en M. Heckadon, R. Ibañez y R. Condit eds., La cuenca del Canal: Deforestación, Contaminación y Urbanización. Proyecto de monitoreo de la Cuenca del Canal de Panamá (PMCC). Sumario Ejecutivo del Informe Final. Imprelibros, S. A. Colombia

Tosi, J. 1971. Zonas de vida: Una base ecológica para las investigaciones silvícolas e inventariación forestal en la República de Panamá. PNUD-FAO. Informe técnico. 89 p. map., il.

UICN. 1996. Red list of threatened animals. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). Gland, Switzerland. 368 pp.

Villa. R. B. 1993. Registros nuevos para algunos mamíferos de Panamá. Anales Inst. Biol. Univ. Nac. Autón. México. Ser. Zool. 64(1): 79-85.

Watts, Bryan D. 1998. An Investigation of Waterbirds Within the Panama Canal Zone and the Upper Bay of Panama. Final Report. Center for Conservation Biology, College of William & Mary. 95pp.

Watts, Bryan D. and the Center for Conservation Biology at William & Mary. 1998. Migrant Shorebirds within the Upper Bay of Panama. Center for Conservation Biology, College of William and Mary. 16pp.

Watts, B. D. 1998. Las Aves playeras migratorias en la parte alta de la bahía de Panamá. Center for Conservation Biology. College of William and Mary. 16pp.

Site Facts

Country, State,
Province/Region
Panama Province,
Republic of Panama

Relative Location:
Pacific coast of the Isthmus of Panama

Latitude/Longitude:
8˚ 57' N, 79˚ 01' W

Category:
Hemispheric Site

Basis for Designation:
Usage by more than 1,000,000 shorebirds annually

Size:
48,919 ha. Approximately half are mudflats exposed at low tide, most of the remainder are mangroves

Joined:
January, 2005

Site Owner/Steward:
State owned, managed by the Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (National Environmental Authority)

Site Partners:
Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (ANAM)
Panama Audubon Society (PAS)

Human Population within 100 km:
Over 1 million

Contact:
Panama Audubon Society audupan@cwpanama.net