Pandora's American highway.

The Pan-American Highway runs unbroken from Alaska to the shore of Magellan's Strait, save for one gap: the 185 kilometer expanse of Central America's largest remaining continuous rain forest. The Darien forest, which spans the Panama-Colombia border, covers 1.6 million hectares. Hoping to increase trade and tourism, Colombia and other South American countries, as wall as South American corporations, are eager to complete the highway. Conservationists and people who live in the forest fear that the project will damage the ecology, and indigenous cultures of the Darien.

As the geographical bridge between two continents, the forest is home to species from both eco-systems and a number of species unique to the area. Over 30,000 indigenous people from the Kuna and Choco groups also live there. For them, the Darien is far more than just a source of beauty and recreation. Rafael Harris, a Kuna chief, says, "For me, the forest is my pharmacy. If I have sores on my legs, I go to the forest and get the medicine I need to cure them. The forest is also a great refrigerator. It keeps the food I need fresh. We Kuna need the forest, and we use it and take much from it. But we can take what we need without having to destroy everything."

In Latin America, road construction has tended to increase access to forested areas, allowing colonizers to move in and clear the land for cultivation. Since 1947, forest cover in Panama has fallen from 70 percent of the country to 30 percent. Over three quarters of Colombia was forest in 1960; now less than half of that cover remains.

In Panama, where most of the Darien lies, the Kuna and the Choco people live on semi-autonomous homelands where they retain rights to the land and its above-ground resources. Leaders of the six largest indigenous groups in the Darien have formed a political organization to oppose the highway, the Indigenous Pan-American Highway Commission. In December 1993, the Commission called on the government to reject the idea of building the road, and to halt all feasibility studies in the area. Indigenous leaders are also working with international conservation groups to block construction. In Colombia, indigenous groups are less integrated into the political mainstream, but a Choco group was successful in halting construction of an earlier section of the highway, by lying down in front of the bulldozers.

Colombia has a strong export sector, and is well-situated to exploit a north-south trade route. Both business and the government are eager to complete the highway. Panama is more concerned about maintaining internal stability, a crucial asset for its international banking operations. Fears that the highway could increase drug trafficking and illegal immigration have dampened Panamanian interest in the project.

In October 1993, a trade agreement between the two countries called for an assessment of the impact of three possible routes: along either the Atlantic or Pacific coasts, or through the middle of the forest. Preliminary results show that the middle route is the shortest and cheapest, but it is also likely to be the most damaging to the forest. The coastal routes would do extensive damage as well.

The highway would have to cross several large rivers and swamps, so it would require expensive engineering. The lowest estimated cost of construction is US $300 million, but actual costs would probably be much higher. Neither Colombia nor Panama have the resources to foot such a bill and there are as yet no firm commitments of outside funding. Staunch indigenous resistance backed by international pressure could discourage construction.