At first I thought the headline and story (below), "Boquete in the world view" was about the New York Times story I posted yesterday, but it is the headline from the local press about Boquetes growth and the need to gauge, control, and maybe stop it. The writer speaks about the $350,000 study that is being done by Intracorp to help Boquete set up "norms and zoning procedures and assess where it is now and where it is going etc..All of this is due to the "explosive growth" taking place, according to the writer. Although I agree that planning is needed and the people of Intracorp are good at what they do, I seriously question the expenditure of so much money to make the determination and the premis for which these decisions are made. All they had to do was ask me and I would have told everything they needed to know over lunch, if they pick up the tab. Since they did not ask me, I will share my thoughts with you in the next paragraph or two on the matter.
The most disconcerting part of the story was the last quote by the President of the Association for the Conservation, a local fellow by the name of Ezequiel Miranda, who says " a moratorium should be in place for projects so they don't damage the forests and rivers."
Keep in mind that all projects must comply with environmental impact studies and a number of other permits in order to move forward.
But first, let's get real with the facts and the numbers. In reality there has been only 225-275 homes built in the Boquete area for the foreign market over the last few years. I know because I built 150 of of them and I know most of the builders in the area who built the others. Although there seems to be this explosion of growth with all the new commercial construction and businesses opening, much of it is being done in anticipation of what MAY happen in the future. We are NOT talking thousands, as I read in the New York Times this morning. The person who provided the information for the story did not check his facts very carefully. People can't live here without homes and we are not building them that fast. At our current construction pace it will be another 4 years before we reach a thousand homes in the Boquete area. It is important to note that half of those homes are only occupied a few months a year!
Why does everyone think there are such problems because a few dozen projects have begun and a hundred foreigners have moved in? Certainly the economic impact that these people have on the region will grow over the next 5-10 years if it keeps up it's current pace, but to invest time and money into expensive studies because people have jumped to the wrong conclusions is a waste in my humble opinion. They worry about the loss of agriculture and the high price of land as if Panama does not have enough of it. The fact is that less than .0001% of the land in the area has been used for development and most of it was cow pastures which produce one cow per hectare per year. Now, is the loss of maybe 500 hectares of cow grazing land worth the many millions of dollars and jobs created by a few hundred foreigners? With cows selling for about $600 a head after two years of grazing, you do the math. Knowing full well how things grind in Panama, the thought of placing a moratorium on growth until things are decided would be suicide, although I would personally welcome the reduction in competition as would the other developers that are underway.
Read the story below.
Boquete on the world sight
Jaime Saldaña/Panama America
Citizens and authorities of the district of Boquete have woke up to a great amount of constructions due to the arrival of thousands of foreigners, who decided to settle down in this beautiful valley to live the rest on their lives. Many affirm that the real estate boom that has put Boquete under the magnifying glass in the world map, has brought with it a decrease in the productive sector, negative effects to ecological areas and the increase of cost of living.
An "ordering plan" already began in its first stage from the month of June of this year by the national company, Intracorp, that gained the right to make the consultancy against 25 similar companies, even of foreign origin. This plan must be preceded by a study that gives lights on the reality of the sector of farming. Boquete as far as existing production, amount of national residents and foreigners, existing constructions and which they are made, among other things that will help to regulate things in the sector.
Melisa Vallarino, executive director of INTRACORP and technical coordinator of the plan of ordering for Boquete, indicated that in these first months has been carried out diagnosis, where the consultants have left to the community to successfully obtain technical information in the different aspects.
WORKSHOPS IN the COMMUNITY
After this, a series of workshops with the community has begun, in which the participants, who are representing institutions of the government, local, environmentalist authorities and residents in general, define if they are agree with the data or if they prefer that the consulting equipment deepens in some additional subjects.
"Initially one defines the vision and mission of Boquete in subsequent workshops; strategic subjects for each sector are defined and at the end of September we are going to be presenting the complete diagnosis to all the community in an opene workshop ", she said. According to the president of the Association for the Conservation of the Biósfera, boqueteño Ezequiel Miranda, the plan has gone very well, but he has made a request to the Housing Ministry that while the studies are being considered, a moratorium should be in place for projects so they don't damage the forests and rivers.
COSTS
The Mayor of the district of Boquete, Manolo Ruiz, informed that the study for the plan into territorial ordering worth $350 thousand dollars that come from the National Council of Sustainable Development (CONADES). He assured that on the ordering plan it will count on a true order in the district, with the investments that are made, but must fulfill the regulations.
