Off Panama’s Pacific coast lies Isla Gobernadora, a peaceful and natural haven practically untouched by modern preoccupations. For the local inhabitants, primarily fishermen, island life tends to revolve around the seasons and tides, and the absence of roads and cars means that people get around by boats or boots. This hasn’t however prevented outsiders from beating a path to the famous surfing point of Santa Catalina or establishing a base for diving trips into Coiba National Park or nearby Isla Cebico.

Boats on the Isla Gobernadora shore await use in this ideal diving area. The beautiful waters of the Pacific off Panama draw some of the best divers in the world.

Art Lodge in Action

The only accommodation on Isla Gobernadora is the Art Lodge, established by two French artists who loved the island enough to make it their home. Now, more than a home, it’s the site of an opportunity they’ve enriched that brings together tourists and locals in a mutually beneficial fashion – a concept truly at the heart of responsible tourism. Today, during a stay on the island, guests can fish with locals, meet artisans resident in the local village and plant their own trees on the lodge’s property.

It all began when, after living on the island for some years, the artists – Valerie and Yves – began to see how tourism could be used to fuel sustainable and responsible economic growth for the local population that used slash-and-burn techniques for their annual crops. The practice – notorious the world over for its indiscriminate destruction of natural resources and contribution toward catastrophic desertification – was endangering the delicate balance of life on Gobernadora.

A woman from the island works at a stand to sell local handicrafts. The Art Lodge has trained these women how to make the products and the best way to sell them to visitors to Isla Gobernadora.

This prompted the pair to initiate two programs – one focusing on agricultural reform using appropriate agro-forestry techniques and the other in support of local women’s artistic ventures.

Looking Toward the Future

The proceeds from the Art Lodge initiatives are earmarked as funds for the reintroduction of a tropical home garden to the island, a vital step in educating the populace about alternative ways to make the most of their land. The project will concentrate first on canopy and shade-grown products such as kola nut, coffee, vanilla, honey and cacao, as well as fast-growing, rapid-producing fruit trees for local consumption such as biriba, abiu, and jackfruit. More appropriate soil management practices will be taught alongside an intercropping polyculture system, whereby different crops are cultivated between the main ones to maximise the use of resources. These additional crops can then be used in bio-fertilisers and for foliar feeding to support the crucial commodity crops.

The objectives for the pilot nursery garden are to assemble a group of resident locals who can find land for and take charge of a community farm. Then the real legwork will begin: collecting and purchasing the seeds for a traditional tropical garden, with an initial focus on nitrogen-fixing trees, rapid-producing plants and vanilla. The group will then build the basic nursery, identify a viable water supply and arrange protection from foragers and plant predators. Looking to the future, the commodity crops will be the source of new economic opportunities for islanders interested in selling them to the lodge, as well as other communities and even businesses located in Santa Catalina.

Another Art Lodge plan is to consolidate the island’s handicraft activity. Since 2007, they’ve trained women and men to create marketable crafts that can be sold both on the island and around the Panama isthmus. They’ve also constructed two showcase stalls in the village where unique local products are on display. They hope to continue to improve the quality of the artisan stalls, help legalise the small-enterprise practices, train three more women in handicraft production and sales techniques, and enlist the support of volunteers in the area, since partnership with other NGOs will further increase market access.

Local women from Isla Gobernadora, Panama, craft unique handmade bags to sell on the island. They hope their art will become a sustainable source of income for their families and improve their standard of living.

A Unique Opportunity

As the Art Lodge was the first and, thus far, is the only accommodation on the island, the team has a unique and ideal opportunity to work with the local communities and instill a real and sustainable sense of responsibility about their nascent tourism industry as it affects both the environment and the resident people and animals. Valerie and Yves are also always thinking of new ways to include tourists in daily life on the island to help forge bonds between the visitors and the area of Panama they love and now call home.

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To learn more about getting to Isla Gobernadora and supporting this noble project, contact Tucaya Panama, your whl.travel local connection in Panama City and take part in the Slow Travel in Gobernadora Island near Coiba National Park tour. For each of these packages sold, 50% of the revenue is donated to Art Lodge to promote the development of the handicraft enterprise. Tucaya Panama has also committed time and a projected budget of US$15,000 to further sustainable development ambitions for the island.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 4:10 pm and is filed under Central America, North America, Panama, adventure travel, beaches, handicrafts & shopping, islands, responsible travel, responsible travel news.