Darién National Park

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT WORLD HERITAGE SITES IN CENTRAL AMERICA

Countries
Panama

Zones
South

Themes
Nature, World Heritage

The Darién National Park, created in 1980, has an approximate area of 560,000 hectares, which represents 33.6% of the total territory of the Darién province. The park borders the Republic of Colombia, and is the largest of all the National Parks of Panamá, and the largest protected area in Central America and the Caribbean. This part of the country features premontane and montane forests, cloud forests and dwarf forests, as well as large mangroves. The Darién is a very humid and rainy area. The reserve houses a wide variety of ecosystems and biodiversity. Its prodigious nature includes mountain ranges of more than 2,500 meters of elevation, and extensive navigable rivers such as Tuira or Chucunaque. Its forests are home to plant species unique in the world, and animals of extraordinary beauty such as the harpy eagle and the jaguar.

Due to its extraordinary biological diversity and its high genetic value, in addition to the groups that guard and practice ancestral traditions, the Darién National Park was declared in 1981 a World Heritage Site, by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and a Reserve of the Biosphere in 1983.

The Darién National Park is a magical jungle environment that can be accessed in more than one way to appreciate stunning landscapes of virgin forest. From Panamá City, you can fly to El Real, the closest community to the park. If you like adventure, you can travel by road to the community of Yaviza, and then continue to El Real by boat.

The Park is a place of adventure and experience. The contact with the jungle and the indigenous groups are an extraordinary mixture of beauty and mystery. In the forest, it is possible to observe birds, walk along their rivers, or simply walk, and appreciate the dances and customs of the natives.