The most important conservation groups are: Fundación de Parques Nacionales y Medio Ambiente, P.O. Box 6-6623, El Dorado, Panama, (262-8492, fax:264-0371); Asociación Nacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza, (ANCON) P.O. Box 1387, Panama 1, (264-1836, fax: 263-7950); Asociación para la Investigación y Propagación de Especies Panameñas (AIPEP) P.O. Box 2320, Balboa, Ancón Rep. of Panama, (225-6261); Asociación Caribaro de Bocas del Toro, (778-9295); Patronato del Parque Natural Metropolitano, (232-5552); Panama Audubon Society, P.O.Box 2026, Balboa, Ancón, R.P., tel: 263-9446 and fax: 241-4057; Fundación Shinkichi Matsufuji, (264-8909); among others. At government level: the Comisión Nacional del Medio Ambiente (CONAMA) and the Instituto de Recursos Naturales Renovables (INRENARE) make policies, act as regulating bodies and oversee parks' management. A number of international organizations such as the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and Nature Conservancy sponsor several projects in the country.
Panama's integration in the greater Caribbean region had a healthy impact and several agreements were signed to protect " critical" areas such as coral reefs, mangroves marine grass and species of animals and plants of member countries. Forest conservation is one of the main topics of interest and though 17% of Panama's forests are guarded, thousands of hectares are still without protection and some 60,000 hectares a year are deforested. One example of international co-operation is the newly designed project sponsored by Wildlife Conservation International and USAID linking a chain of protected areas in Central America stretching from Belize and Guatemala to Panama, called "Paseo Pantera"( Path of the Panther). Paseo Pantera, over five years, will collaborate with Central American governments and Panama and non-governmental organizations to create plans for protected areas, corridors and buffer zones that will enable animals and plants to disperse more freely throughout Central America and the isthmus.
