Algae offers Indigenous fishers new prospects in Panama
The Indigenous women learned how to sundry the algae and extract agar, a jelly-like substance, from its walls to make soaps and cosmetics. ©FAO/Vanessa Olarte Maria says she’s already thrilled with the new skills she has learned.
The Indigenous women learned how to sundry the algae and extract agar, a jelly-like substance, from its walls to make soaps and cosmetics. ©FAO/Vanessa Olarte
On the edge of the Caribbean Sea is an autonomous, Indigenous Peoples’ territory in Panama which has been inhabited by the Guna people for centuries. It winds its way around the gulf of the same name and includes an archipelago of around 300 islands. Within this territory is Naranjo Grande, a coastal town where the sea represents food, work and life itself.
This is where Luisa Lopez Hurtado has lived all her life. A member of the Guna Indigenous People, she has fished with her family off of Panama’s eastern coast for as long as she can remember.
“I grew up by the sea,” says Luisa, a mother of four sons. “When I was young, I accompanied my father on his fishing trips.”
For generations the Guna people have relied on marine and coastal resources for their lives and livelihoods. But Luisa, who heads the Naranjo Grande women’s association, says it’s becoming harder for fishers to make a living as local stocks of fish and lobster have been impacted by overfishing and climate change.
“Fish production is different from when I was a child. There is not as much fish as there used to be, and it is increasingly difficult to find lobsters, which were plentiful in the past,” she says.
Maria Dickson, a 24-year-old member of Luisa’s women’s group, confirms this. “Production has decreased drastically,” Maria says. “Sometimes I think they catch them too small and that is why they can’t reproduce.”
Women play a significant role in the Guna community with many engaged in cleaning and processing fish, as well as working in agriculture, tourism and handicraft production. But they are often dependent on men for their income.
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