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PRO ECO AZUERO

Since 2010, Pro Eco Azuero has been dedicated to reforestation, habitat restoration, sustainable land management, and environmental education with the mission to restore thriving tropical dry forest ecosystems in Panama’s Azuero Peninsula by working alongside rural communities to lead conservation, expand local opportunities, and build resilience.

We reconnect fragmented ecosystems while strengthening the knowledge, livelihoods, leadership, and local capacity that allow communities to steward their landscapes in the long term. By integrating ecological restoration, environmental education, sustainable land use, community livelihoods, and science, we seek to demonstrate that healthy ecosystems and human prosperity are not competing goals, but mutually reinforcing foundations of a resilient future.

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The Azuero Spider Monkey is our guiding symbol because it is one of the rarest subspecies of primates in Central and South America, yet vital to our ecosystems. The few that remain on the planet live only on the Azuero.

Our Theory of Change

Pro Eco Azuero's theory of change begins with a simple conviction: ecological restoration lasts when the people who live closest to a landscape have the knowledge, opportunities, and agency to steward it.

In the Azuero Peninsula, ecological degradation and rural well-being are deeply interconnected. Forest loss affects biodiversity, soils, water, and productive landscapes, while limited economic opportunities can make long-term conservation difficult to sustain. Lasting restoration therefore requires addressing ecological and human needs together.

PEA approaches restoration not as an isolated conservation activity, but as a territorial development strategy. We believe that when restoration responds to both ecological evidence and locally identified priorities—and when communities can participate in, shape, and benefit from that process—it creates the conditions for stronger and more durable stewardship.

This creates a reinforcing cycle: restoration generates local opportunities; local benefits strengthen participation and stewardship; stronger stewardship improves ecological outcomes; and healthier landscapes create greater resilience and opportunity for communities.

Over time, this cycle can transform not only land cover, but the relationship between people and the landscape—creating the social, economic, and ecological conditions for restoration to endure across generations.

What We Do

Conservation

Restoring the tropical dry forest ecosystem and supporting sustainable land use practices in Azuero to save the critically endangered Azuero Spider Monkey.

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Education and Outreach

Collaborating with local schools to educate the next generation of environmental protectors about ecosystems, biodiversity, reforestation, and climate change.

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Collaboration

Knitting together a network ranging from grassroots actors to international institutions to create positive environmental change in Azuero.

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Pro Eco Azuero has developed a community-oriented approach to conservation that includes working alongside farmers to replant trees, working with local teachers to create lesson plans around conservation and sustainability, and partnering with local supporters to foster a culture of conservation and land stewardship.”

- The New York Times

Latest News

2026 Reforestation Season Update

"Reforestation Junta" with volunteers from everywhere! Our 2026 reforestation season officially began on June 1. We put on our new gear, laced up our boots, and headed into the field excited and ready for what we knew would be a long season ahead. But we also started with a lot of uncertainty. I want to be very open with you: this has been a difficult year. We began 2026 with a very clear plan. We expected to restore approximately 35 hectares in Los Santos and another 100 hec

3 days ago7 min read

My experience interning at Pro Eco Azuero

By Isaac Barsoum Before June 16, 2026, I had never planted a tree. On that day, I joined Pro Eco Azuero’s Equipo Mono (Monkey Team), and thus began my time working on critical reforestation work in Panamá. Throughout the course of the reforestation season, Pro Eco Azuero would plant thousands of trees in more than a dozen reforestation sites across the Azuero, empowering communities, protecting water resources, and restoring critically endangered habitats. At the same time, w

Aug 186 min read

Preparing for Reforestation: Research, Community Engagement, and Cultivation During Dry Season

By Benjamin Yatt Edited by Yadariselt Romano Traveling through Panama’s Azuero peninsula, it is impossible not to be struck by the heat, dustiness, lack of shade, and sparseness of greenery, created by decades of unsustainable cattle ranching, agricultural practices and tourist development. Pro Eco Azuero is working to reverse this damage through reforestation efforts. Reforestation requires much more than planting trees. This dry season, which started in December and lasts

Mar 314 min read

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DONATE

Your donations help us work with communities in Azuero to reforest the vulnerable ecosystem of the dry tropical forest. Our vision is of a renovated Azuero peninsula, with a protected dry forest, supported by a loving population. Your donations make a profound difference towards achieving our goals.

Your contributions are tax deductible under DGI Resolution No. 201-4940 of September 2, 2019.

Donations can be made through our savings account:
Banco General, Fundación Pro Eco Azuero
Savings Account: 04-40-98-014975-0