Four years ago, Panama’s Coiba National Park stood at a crossroads. Prisoners at a penal colony who had roamed the park’s main island were being removed, leaving the park free of murderers and thieves—but also vulnerable to loggers and tourism developers eager to exploit the safer conditions. Encouraged by double-digit tourism growth, then-President Mireya Moscoso and some of her ministers initially favored the development of hotel resorts on the park’s main island. But U.S. and Panamanian scientists seeking new medicines in Panama’s ecosystems sent a different message. They portrayed the park as a bioprospector’s dream, saying its 38 islands represent some of the Central American Pacific coast’s last tropical moist forest, and the adjacent ocean encompasses among the world’s greatest marine endemism... [Log in to read more]