Current view: Text account
Site description (2003 baseline):
Site location and context
Darién National Park is one of the largest wilderness areas remaining in Central America. It extends along most of the Colombian border, and includes several isolated mountain ranges. The eastern part of the Serranía de Darién, culminating in Cerro Tacarcuna (1,875 m), the highest peak in eastern Panama, runs along the Caribbean coast and forms the continental divide. The Serranía de Pirre (high point on Alturas de Nique, c. 1,500 m) and the associated lower ridges of Cerro Setetule and the Altos de Quía are near the center of the isth-mus. A complex of ranges extends along the Pacific coast, including the Serranía de Sapo (1,145 m), the Serranía de Jungurudó (c. 1,200 m), the Altos de Aspave (c. 800 m), and the Cordillera de Juradó. The Pacific coast of the park is steep and precipitous. The park includes the headwaters of the Tuira (with its tributaries the Chico, Yape, Capetí, Clarita, Pucuro, Tapalisa, Paya, and Paca), Balsas, Sambú, and Jaqué Rivers. The park is contiguous with the Punta Garachiné-Cerro Sapo IBA in the northwest. The small towns of El Real, on the Tuira River, and Jaqué, at the mouth of the Jaqué River, are adjacent to the park, and within the park there are small villages, mostly indigenous, on the major rivers. Most of the people living within the park are Emberá-Wounaan, with some Kuna, mostly on the upper Tuira, and afrocolonials (darienitas).
Darién National Park contains more threatened and endemic species than any other IBA in Panama except La Amistad International Park and the Palo Seco Protection Forest. These include the globally threatened Choco Tinamou, Tacarcuna Wood-Quail, Great Green Macaw, Saffron-headed Parrot, Speckled Antshrike, Tacarcuna Tapaculo, and Pirre Warbler, and the globally near-threatened Plumbeous Hawk, Crested and Harpy Eagles, Great Curassow, Russet-crowned Quail-Dove, Rufous-cheeked Hummingbird, Beautiful Treerunner, Black-billed Flycatcher, Green-naped Tanager, and Viridian Dacnis. The park also contains many nationally threatened species, being a stronghold for three other macaws besides Great Green, Crested Guan, and several raptors, among others. The park contains 14 of 15 species (93%) of the Darién Lowlands EBA, and 16 of 17 species (94%) of the Darién Highlands EBA. It includes most of the global ranges of Tacarcuna Wood-Quail, Rufous-cheeked Hummingbird, Beautiful Treerunner, Tacarcuna Tapaculo, Varied Solitaire, Pirre Warbler, Green-naped Tanager, and Pirre Bush-Tanager. Some of these species, such as the Tacarcuna Wood-Quail and Tacarcuna Tapaculo, are only known from the Tacarcuna range, while others such as Rufous-cheeked Hummingbird, Pirre Warbler, and Pirre Bush-Tanager are restricted to the Pirre, Sapo, and Jungurudó ranges. The area is also high in endemism at the subspecific level, with 27 endemic subspecies being found.
Non-bird biodiversity: Darién National Park is extremely rich in wildlife and shelters a host of endemic species. Mammals include Water Opossum, Central American Woolly Opossum, Highland Mouse Opossum, Slaty Mouse Opossum, Darien Small-eared Shrew, Bartica Bat, Spix’s Disc-winged Bat, Tacarcuna Bat, Geoffroy’s Tamarin, Western Night-Monkey, Brown-headed Spider Monkey, Central American Spider Monkey, Darien Pocket Gopher, Painted Bristly Mouse, Mount Pirre Climbing Mouse, Goldman’s Water Mouse, Panama Climbing Rat, Fulvous-bellied Climbing Rat, Darien Harvest Mouse, Mount Pirre Deer Mouse, Capybara, Bush Dog, Crab-eating Raccoon, Olingo, Neotropical River Otter, Ocelot, Margay, Puma, Jaguar, and Baird’s Tapir. Reptiles and amphibians include the frogs and toads Atelopus certus, A. glyphus, Rhamphophryne acrolopha, Agalychnis litodryas, Gastrotheca nicefori, Hyla subocularis, H. thysanota, Phyllomedusa lemur, P. venusta, Eleutherodactylus achatinus, and E. laticorpus, the salamanders Bolitoglossa biseriata, B. medemi, B. phalarosoma, and B. taylori, the lizards Diploglossus montisilvestris, Lepidoblepharis sanctamartae, Sphaerodactylus lineolatus, Bachia pallidiceps, Ptychoglossus festae, P. myersi, Anolis chloris, and A. latifrons, and the snakes Clelia equatoriana, Coniophanes joanae, Imantodes phantasma, Micrurus ancoralis, and Bothriopsis punctata.
The park contains semideciduous lowland, evergreen lowland, submontane and montane forest. Some areas of forest are seasonally flooded, especially along the Tuira.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
However, there are relatively few park guards for the vast area to be covered, and much of the park is unpatrolled. Construction of the Panamerican Highway as far as Yaviza on the Tuira River in the early 1970s brought a wave of colonization to western Darién, and increased pressure even in eastern Darién beyond the road’s terminus. Recent improvements to the road may increase these pressures. Plans continue to be promoted to complete the last stretch of the Panamerican Highway through the Darién Gap, even though the Panamanian and Colombian presidents signed a pact in 1995 that a road would not be permitted through Darién and Los Katios National Parks, the most feasible route. Completion of the highway would almost certainly create substantial degradation in both parks. Although most of the park is safe, there are severe security problems in some parts, particularly in the Serranía de Tacarcuna, the upper Tuira Valley, and the Jaqué Valley, which have suffered from incursions by Colombian guerillas and their paramilitary opponents, and from the activities of drug traffickers and other criminal elements. Gold was formerly mined within the park at Cana on the slopes of Cerro Pirre, and mining concessions exist in other parts of the park. However, the government of Panama decreed in 1996 that mining would no longer be permitted in the Park (Navarro 1998). Although the park has enormous potential for ecotourism, facilities are extremely limited and access is difficult. ANCON Expeditions operates a basic lodge at the former mining camp at Cana. Although wildlife viewing at the site is spectacular, it is only easily accessible by charter plane and thus expensive to visit. Access to most of the rest of the park is only on foot, by horse, or by motorized canoe.
Conservation responses/actions for key biodiversity
[To come]
Darién National Park was created in 1980, and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1981 and a Biosphere Reserve in 1983. It is adjacent to the Chepigana Forest Reserve (212,950 ha) and the Alto Darién Protection Forest (298,950 ha). It also borders Los Katios National Park (72,000 ha) in Colombia.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Darién National Park (Panama). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/darién-national-park-iba-panama on 22/11/2024.
