Resilience action plan for the Santa Maria Watershed

Summary

This presentation presents a comprehensive Resilience Action Plan for the Santa María watershed in Panama, developed through climate analysis, community workshops and risk‑reduction tools. It outlines the basin’s diverse climatic zones, projected decreases in rainfall and rising temperatures, and identifies key threats including floods, landslides, droughts, fires, pests and pollution.

Through co‑creation with family farmers and watershed committees, the project documents locally grounded adaptation practices—such as agroforestry, soil conservation barriers, organic fertilisers, diversified crops and natural pest control—alongside a disaster resilience assessment based on the Sendai Framework.

The resulting action plan proposes concrete measures, including protection of water recharge zones, climate‑resilient crop diversification, silvopastoral systems and alternatives to land‑clearing by burning, helping strengthen the watershed’s ecological integrity and reduce climate‑related risks across upper, middle and lower basin communities.