Scope of Resolution DM-0510-2024<\/strong> Authorized Activities<\/strong>: It primarily mandates the felling and pruning of trees and the removal of fallen timber (fallen wood) for “environmental remediation” purposes.<\/p>\n River Maintenance: While it mentions the “cleaning of riverbeds” (limpieza de cauces), this is explicitly tied to the disposal and final use of fallen trees that may be obstructing the water flow due to disasters.<\/p>\n Exemptions<\/strong>: It allows certain projects to bypass standard Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) under Articles 71 and 74 of Executive Decree 123 of 2009, but only if they are “necessary projects and actions for the mitigation of the environmental disaster”.<\/p>\n Environmental Safeguards<\/strong>: The resolution clearly states that any provisional measures adopted cannot cause a greater risk of environmental damage in the affected zones.<\/p>\n Justification of Rock and Gravel Extraction<\/strong> Resource Type<\/strong>: The resolution repeatedly emphasizes forestry resources (wood, trees, timber) and requires specific forestry transport permits and oversight by the Ministry of Public Security. It does not list mineral or aggregate extraction as a primary goal.<\/p>\n Purpose of Work<\/strong>: Environmentalists’ claims often hinge on the fact that removing tons of river material for road repairs is a construction activity, not an “environmental remediation” or “disaster mitigation” activity as defined by the emergency decree.<\/p>\n Regulatory Oversight<\/strong>: MiAMBIENTE regional offices are required to supervise these activities to ensure they do not cause permanent harm. If the extraction is causing “permanent harm,” as local advocates claim, it would likely violate the resolution’s own clause against creating “greater risk of environmental damage”.<\/p>\n In summary, while the resolution allows for “cleaning riverbeds” to manage debris and fallen wood, it is not a general permit for mining river aggregates. Such activities typically require separate concessions or specific emergency authorizations from the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) that must still comply with overarching environmental protections.<\/p>\n My two cents: It is true that workers went upriver and removed a huge tree that had collapsed over the water. But I’ll bet that Resolution DM-0510-2024 from MiAMBIENTE is not the only resolution or letter that the government is using to justify its dredging operation.<\/p>\n A Spanish-language translation by Google Translate is below:<\/p>\n Esto es lo que Gemini, la herramienta de IA de Google, dice sobre el letrero colocado fuera del sitio de extracci\u00f3n de rocas y grava en Paso Ancho:<\/p>\n La Resoluci\u00f3n DM-0510-2024<\/a> de MiAMBIENTE no autoriza expl\u00edcitamente la extracci\u00f3n comercial o industrial de rocas y grava para la reparaci\u00f3n de carreteras. Con base en su texto oficial y alcance, la resoluci\u00f3n es un conjunto de medidas provisionales dise\u00f1adas espec\u00edficamente para abordar un estado de emergencia nacional, enfoc\u00e1ndose en la gesti\u00f3n forestal y la mitigaci\u00f3n inmediata de desastres.<\/p>\n Alcance de la Resoluci\u00f3n DM-0510-2024<\/strong> Actividades autorizadas<\/strong>: Principalmente, ordena la tala y poda de \u00e1rboles y la remoci\u00f3n de madera ca\u00edda para fines de “remediaci\u00f3n ambiental”.<\/p>\n Mantenimiento de r\u00edos<\/strong>: Si bien menciona la “limpieza de cauces”, esto est\u00e1 expl\u00edcitamente vinculado a la disposici\u00f3n y el uso final de \u00e1rboles ca\u00eddos que puedan estar obstruyendo el flujo de agua debido a desastres.<\/p>\n Exenciones<\/strong>: Permite que ciertos proyectos eludan las Evaluaciones de Impacto Ambiental (EIA) est\u00e1ndar, seg\u00fan los art\u00edculos 71 y 74 del Decreto Ejecutivo 123 de 2009, pero solo si se trata de “proyectos y acciones necesarios para la mitigaci\u00f3n del desastre ambiental”.<\/p>\n Salvaguardias ambientales<\/strong>: La resoluci\u00f3n establece claramente que las medidas provisionales adoptadas no pueden aumentar el riesgo de da\u00f1os ambientales en las zonas afectadas.<\/p>\n Justificaci\u00f3n de la extracci\u00f3n de roca y grava: El uso de esta resoluci\u00f3n para justificar la extracci\u00f3n a gran escala de agregados (roca\/grava) es jur\u00eddicamente controvertido por varias razones:<\/p>\n Tipo de recurso<\/strong>: La resoluci\u00f3n enfatiza repetidamente los recursos forestales (madera, \u00e1rboles, madera en bruto) y exige permisos espec\u00edficos para el transporte forestal y la supervisi\u00f3n del Ministerio de Seguridad P\u00fablica. No incluye la extracci\u00f3n de minerales o agregados como objetivo principal.<\/p>\n Prop\u00f3sito de la obra<\/strong>: Las demandas de los ambientalistas a menudo se basan en el hecho de que la remoci\u00f3n de toneladas de material fluvial para la reparaci\u00f3n de carreteras es una actividad de construcci\u00f3n, no una actividad de “remediaci\u00f3n ambiental” o “mitigaci\u00f3n de desastres” seg\u00fan lo define el decreto de emergencia. Supervisi\u00f3n regulatoria: Las oficinas regionales de MiAMBIENTE deben supervisar estas actividades para garantizar que no causen da\u00f1os permanentes. Si la extracci\u00f3n causa “da\u00f1os permanentes”, como afirman activistas locales, probablemente violar\u00eda la cl\u00e1usula de la resoluci\u00f3n que proh\u00edbe crear “un mayor riesgo de da\u00f1o ambiental”.<\/p>\n En resumen, si bien la resoluci\u00f3n permite la “limpieza de cauces fluviales” para gestionar escombros y madera ca\u00edda, no constituye un permiso general para la extracci\u00f3n de \u00e1ridos fluviales. Dichas actividades generalmente requieren concesiones separadas o autorizaciones de emergencia espec\u00edficas del Ministerio de Obras P\u00fablicas (MOP), las cuales deben cumplir con las protecciones ambientales generales.<\/p>\n Mi humilde opini\u00f3n: Es cierto que los trabajadores remontaron el r\u00edo y retiraron un \u00e1rbol enorme que se hab\u00eda desplomado sobre el agua. Pero apuesto a que la Resoluci\u00f3n DM-0510-2024 de MiAMBIENTE no es la \u00fanica resoluci\u00f3n o carta que el gobierno est\u00e1 utilizando para justificar su operaci\u00f3n de dragado.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here\u2019s what Gemini, Google\u2019s AI tool, says about the sign placed outside the rock and gravel extraction site in Paso Ancho: The MiAMBIENTE Resolution DM-0510-2024 does not explicitly authorize the commercial or industrial extraction of rocks and gravel for road repairs. Based on its official text and scope, the resolution is a set of provisional … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[130,306],"tags":[321,309,318,307,308],"class_list":["post-5516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-panama","tag-chiriqui-viejo-river","tag-dredging","tag-miambiente","tag-panama","tag-rio-chiriqui-viejo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5516"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5548,"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5516\/revisions\/5548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/6-1024x768.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThe resolution focuses on specific emergency actions to prevent further environmental impact from natural disasters:<\/p>\n
\nThe use of this resolution to justify large-scale aggregate (rock\/gravel) extraction is legally contentious for several reasons:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2-3-616x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nEn Espa\u00f1ol<\/h2>\n
\nLa resoluci\u00f3n se enfoca en acciones de emergencia espec\u00edficas para prevenir un mayor impacto ambiental de desastres naturales:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/traceyeaton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3-1-1024x768.jpg\")
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