Panama’s ranchers use trees to cope with drought
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Ismael “Jim” Solis, a rancher on Panama’s Azuero Peninsula, worries that a strengthening El Niño weather pattern will dry up the stream that waters his cattle.
The Azuero Peninsula is experiencing extreme drought, reducing water availability for ranchers. Some ranchers are adopting silvopasture, a system integrating trees into cattle farming, to help preserve water and maintain grass yields.
Edwin Carrasco in Herrera province now relies on a well because his stream dried up, while Cecibet Peralta in Los Santos province expanded her reservoir but still had to move cattle due to water shortages. Manuel Cedeño, a silvopastoral rancher, reports having more abundant and higher quality water due to this system, alongside better forage and biodiversity.
Yale’s Environmental Training and Leadership Initiative has worked with ranchers since 2009, helping them transition to silvopasture on thousands of hectares of land previously cleared for grazing. Tropical forester Jake Slusser explains that trees offer shade, forage, and can even improve the nutritional content of grass for cattle. Though silvopasture requires initial investment and doesn’t eliminate all environmental impacts of ranching, it offers a way to conserve water and improve farm resilience during droughts.
Ranchers who haven’t yet adopted silvopasture, like Solis, are now considering it as a way to safeguard their water supply in the face of increasingly intense dry seasons and stronger El Niño events.
