Evaluating the impact of Navarro’s environmental agenda and his efforts before and after assuming his current positions requires holding two realities at once. On one hand the policy and initiative record is substantive: protected area coverage has expanded to 54% of the marine share of Panama, over 116.000 people have directly benefited from the PAGIRH-aligned watershed interventions, and the Nature Pledge has already moved from announcement to implementation within eighteen months of its formal launch. On the other hand, the three initiatives analysed here are all, to a certain extent, works in progress. CONACLABIT, the governance body the Pledge was designed to create, has not yet been formally established. Panama’s IWRM score stood at only 40% on the SDG 6.5.1 indicator as of 2023, meaning that efforts are expected to achieve better water governance. The policies should therefore be read not as finished projects set in stone, but rather as a layered and long-term strategy. The impact assessed in this section is necessarily one of trajectory as the direction is credible with solid foundations, but the most consequential test is to know whether this agenda will endure, and this lies ahead.
Pacto de Panamá con la Naturaleza (Nature Pledge)
The Nature Pledge is in progress. The policy launched in 2025 as a 10 year plan targeting three essential pillars (CDN, ENBSAP, NDT), with a critical institutional innovation, the CONACLABIT, not yet formally established. Some targets are already met, nevertheless, this masks gaps in marine coverage as this number only reached 54% as of 2023. On the water and land degradation side, progress is real but indirect: the NDT pillar’s goals are being partially advanced through pre-existing mechanisms like PAGIRH and the Adaptation Fund’s watershed projects, which were not originally designed within the Pacto’s integrated framework. This can eventually lead to a misunderstanding on the Pledge’s true impact as some elements may not be a consequence of the Pledge. Nevertheless, if these outcomes are at least preserved or strengthened through the implementation of the Pledge, it can be considered as a successful initiative.
The political effects of the Nature Pledge are visible in how it links technology, transparency and international cooperation. The O.N.E Amazon Partnership MiAMBIENTE achieved in the Darién is explicitly framed as aligned with Panama’s Nature Pledge. It focuses on using the Internet of Forests (IoF) system, LiDAR and ground-sensor networks to generate real-time ecological information. It shows Navarro’s ministry’s commitment to engage in a science-based, traceable framework to strengthen environmental governance and transparency. Elements like these give Panama’s authorities efficient tools to detect environmental damage, assess compliance and support law enforcement operations.
On an international level, the Pledge has already been used as an example of integrated governance as the NBSAP Accelerator describes it as a unified and well owned government-endorsed framework capable of aligning biodiversity, climate, land, ocean and plastics commitments to accelerate action and strengthen coordination between several ministries. It also gave the country some leverage to host and shape major multilateral processes as the 27th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity took place in Panama City, highlighting the Pledge as a model for aligning commitments under the three Rio Conventions. Additionally, the 23rd session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention, which is a core subsidiary body of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), was also held in Panama few months later, and focused on policy coherence regarding land degradation, with Panama presenting its own approaches to integrated drought and land governance. These elements and developments show how much Juan Carlos Navarro’s policy has done for the international standing of Panama on environmental governance, with it being treated as a leading example of cross-convention alignment and cross-institution cooperation. This also means Panama will be under more scrutiny regarding the implementation of the Nature Pledge, as a failure to achieve the objectives it has set would most likely negatively impact the country’s credibility on the global stage.
IWRM Action Plan 2022-2026
The IWRM Action Plan is in progress but still only partially implemented. The official document presents it as a framework for 2022-2026, but the evidence shows that much of the work remains, especially in terms of coordination, prioritisation, and pilot implementation rather than full national rollout. There are some concrete steps already underway. Navarro’s impact on PAGIRH begins with how he has framed water security and basin management as central pillars of his work as minister. In his 2024 report to the National Assembly’s Population, Environment and Development Commission, he listed the “sustainable management of basins” as well as the “adaptation towards a new climatic reality” among his five strategic axes of work. This communication signals how important river-basin governance is for Navarro’s work. The same report highlights the reactivation of field teams, the inauguration of a national water-quality laboratory and the strengthening of enforcement tools such as complaints centres. All these efforts are in line with PAGIRH’s IWRM approach. Navarro has also invested in the technical skills MiAMBIENTE needs to implement a more demanding water‑governance agenda. In 2024, the ministry’s Water Security Directorate organised specialised training for regional staff in Panamá Oeste on identifying and managing water sources, evaluating hydrological studies, analysing permits for works in riverbeds and assessing concessions for water use, with the explicit aim of improving environmental impact assessments and hydrological evaluations. Such capabilities are key to making sure that the practical foundation needed to apply PAGIRH’s instruments and achieve its goals are solid. During that same year, right at the start of Navarro’s term as minister, he targeted the Parque Nacional Soberanía as a critical ecological zone responsible for feeding the Panama Canal’s water system and he ensured that field teams prioritised its enforcement. He has also been a fierce advocate for the Rio Indio reservoir project managed alongside the Panama Canal Authority (ACP). He explicitly leveraged PAGIRH principles to sound alarms about national water depletion, fast-tracking the political and logistical frameworks needed to ensure long-term freshwater availability for both human consumption and global maritime trade.
Although PAGIRH was approved before Juan Carlos Navarro became Minister of Environment in July of 2024, he has inherited it as a central framework for water policy and has begun to use it as an operative tool. An example showing how Navarro has been implementing PAGIRH is the regulatory enforcement of its provisions. In 2025, the government launched a series of inspections and sanctions in the La Villa and Estibana basin in the Azuero Peninsula. They identified more than twenty contamination points linked to poorly managed pig farms and waste sites. Their response was clear with fines going up to $10.000, orders of temporary closures and corrective measures for those facilities discharging untreated water. In parallel, the ministry’s water security directorate has installed twenty biodigesters on small pig farms in the upper and middle La Villa basin to capture manure, generate biogas and produce fertiliser which helps reduce the organic load entering the river and support more sustainable rural practices. This intervention has been successful as Navarro declared in a Cabinet meeting in La Villa that the conditions of the water sources of the Azuero region have been the best in decades. The intervention embodies PAGIRH’s territorial and regulatory priorities as it combines basin-scale diagnosis, pollution control, technological support for rural communities and regulatory enforcement in the form of fines and sanctions for those not respecting the law.
Economically, the main effect of the PAGIRH is trying to reduce the risks associated with water scarcity and this phenomenon damaging Panama’s agriculture, energy system, and canal operations, as the plan explicitly says water stress affects all these elements and that improving efficiency in Panama Canal Watershed use is a priority because the country is reaching a point of saturation in available freshwater. It also suggests that water savings could help support the Canal and generate additional resources for future GIRH programmes. The benefits of the plan are still expected rather than fully realised.
Finally, Navarro’s biggest strategic pivot since late 2024 was effectively embedding the goals of PAGIRH into his broader Nature Pledge. Instead of treating water resources as a standalone bureaucracy, the creation of the CONACLABIT committee forces the unified management of land degradation, biodiversity loss, and water resources under a single governing pipeline.
ANCON
ANCON increased the credibility of conservation policies and extended public support, but most importantly created a path for the government to show progress through partnerships. It is one of the most influential environmental NGOs in Panama. Before its foundation in 1985, environmental protection did not have public visibility or credibility. This matters for Navarro, a co-founder, because ANCON’s image strengthens his credibility as an environmental leader.
ANCON puts its conservation work into practice through its own projects, although some of the larger goals are still ongoing. Through the Sustainable Darién project, ANCON has helped develop over 160 farm plans and $70.000 have been allocated to promote the empowerment of rural women in the area. For over 5 years, it introduced sustainable landscape management in cattle ranches and rural areas of the Filo del Tallo-Canglon Hydrological Reserve. The Sustainable Darién project helped move traditional livestock production toward silvopastoral systems on 73 farms and 5.000 hectares, bringing environmental and socio-economic benefits, while also conserving biodiversity, restoring forests, reducing deforestation, and improving livelihoods. It also supported 168 participatory plans; placed over 9.000 hectares under farm planning; avoided 45.968 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions; created 36 eco gardens; produced more than 14.000 kg of healthy food that contributes to the well-being of communities, trained 700 people; and, reached more than 5.900 children through environmental education. However, some of the bigger initiatives on a larger scale are still in development and dependent on funding and institutional support.
ANCON’s collaborations with MiAMBIENTE take the form of several different projects rather than a single framework, and each one functions with different goals and implementation needs. Alianza por el Millon has already produced measurable results in Panama. Since the programme began, 391.95 hectares have been reforested, including 41.95 hectares of new reforestation to be carried out through contracts with companies that provide reforestation and silvicultural maintenance services – methods used to control establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests and woodlands – in different parts of the country.
In January 2026 ANCON, MiAMBIENTE and Fundacion Natura held 5 regional workshops in the cities of David (Chriqui), Santiago (Veraguas), Panama City, Darién and Chitre (Herrera) which aimed to build the Plan de Conservacion y Desarrollo Comunitario (PCDC). The workshops gathered more than 350 people including citizens from local communities, civil society organisations, public institutions, and academia. These sessions aimed to present the Panama Natural Fund and the PCDC, gather local inputs, map stakeholders and opportunities for collaboration at a local level.
Recicla por tu Futuro is already in full implementation. In 2024 the programme installed 31 recycling stations (14 in Bethania, 7 in Chilibre and 10 in Panama East). It has already managed to collect more than 430 tonnes of recyclable materials, raised awareness among more than 100.000 people, and created new full and part time jobs.
The Revolucion azul initiative has managed to recover around 2.5 tonnes of post-consumer plastic in Panama and Colon, of which 79% was PET, 15.5% HDPE, 4.8% PP, 0.3% LDPE and 0.4% PS, and also raised awareness among around 3.000 people who participated at the closing event and delivered their recyclable materials.
Overall, ANCON’s impact in Panama goes beyond single projects because it has become a lasting conservation institution. Navarro helped set ANCON’s initial direction, and it later grew into a broad NGO with its own capacity to act. Its projects have clear environmental results, while also linking conservation to climate resilience, watershed protection and local development.
IE x RAIA Summer Research Programme:
This article is an excerpt from a report on Juan Carlos Navarro produced as part of a RAIA research programme on climate leaders. For a full picture of Navarro’s climate leadership, including the sources, read the full report. This project was fully financed by IE University’s School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs and School of Science and Technology.
Authors: Giulia-Elena Curt, Lucia María Sven Piederiet & Yassine Abada
Editor: Clarisa Gorrín
Project Lead: Dario Hasenstab
