News, Notes, and Dispatches From Wherever Coconuts Grow

August 04, 2003

Hunting The Coconut Palm Killer in Panama

A husband-and-wife team of researchers spend years in Panama trying to stop the spread of Porroca, a disease that kills coconut palm trees.

From the article:

The Kuna Yala region of Panama is a 400-kilometer stretch of beaches and nearby islands. Since the 1600s, Kuna Yala has been home to the Kuna people, an indigenous group whose lifestyle and livelihood depends on the health and bounty of the native coconut palms. In 1994, an outbreak of Porroca--a disease that spread west from Colombia--began killing the coconut palms on which the Kuna depend.

Posted by brian at August 4, 2003 10:07 AM

Comments

What an interesting blog you have here! I live in the Interior of Alaska, and boy! come this winter when the mercury falls out of the bottom of the thermometer I will coming back to visit, to warm up by the hot sun and waving trees in warm sea breezes, trying to remember what warmth felt like.

Posted by: Kate S. at August 4, 2003 12:05 PM

Hi, thanks for the nice comments about the blog. Alaska, wow, that's pretty far away from where the coconuts grow! :-)

Posted by: brian at August 4, 2003 03:28 PM