International Cooperation Argentina - Panama

Between August 17th and 31st, 2009, Miguel Iñíguez, Fundación Cethus’ president and Alternate Commissioner of Argentina to the International Whaling Commission, traveled to Panama to carry out the third stage of FOAR (Fondo Argentino de Cooperación Horizontal) mission to that country. These missions are carried out as part of the cooperation between Argentina and Panama, and also under the "Latin American Cooperation Strategy for the Conservation of Cetaceans" which was signed in December 2007 in Buenos Aires. The activities included training courses at the Universidad Marítima Internacional de Panamá (UMIP) for its students and representatives from government agencies. This activity was supported by the Autoridad de Recursos Acuáticos de Panamá (Aquatic Resources Authority of Panama) and the Fundación MarViva of that country.

A second activity was the training provided to Pedasi fishermen in the Peninsula de Azuero. In this course the fishermen were trained in the identification of cetacean species recorded for the Pedasi waters. It is worth mentioning that of 200 fishermen operating in the area, only about 30 are devoted to ecotourism activity, which is known for having among its main attractions the Iguana Island and among the cetacean species, the humpback whales, the pantropical spotted dolphins and the bottlenose dolphins.

On Friday August 28th, the workshop on the "importance of the conservation of cetaceans" was carried out, which was organized by UMIP, MarViva and FOAR. 20 representatives of government institutions (ARAP, ANAM and External Relations), non-governmental organizations (MarViva, etc.) and tourist operators attended the workshop. This activity covered topics related to the conservation of cetaceans, marine protected areas in Panama that incorporate cetaceans and a review of the current state of the study of cetaceans in Panama.