Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Carbon credits · Panama · 2014

Barro Blanco hydro dam (Panama)

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
What the record lacks: 2 insufficient · 1 not measured See the gaps

A 28.8 MW hydroelectric dam in Panama was registered under the UN Clean Development Mechanism and financed with USD 50 million in loans from FMO and DEG. An independent complaints panel found that the two banks had breached their own policies, and Panama withdrew the UN registration in November 2016.

USD 50 millionLoans from FMO and DEG to the project
USD 25 million from each lender. The 28.8 MW dam was registered under the UN Clean Development Mechanism; Panama withdrew the registration in November 2016.

Status As of the latest record: the dam stands, the UN CDM registration was withdrawn in 2016, the lenders published a management response in 2022, and a reported 2025 agreement is unverified.

What?
A 28.8 MW CDM-registered hydroelectric dam in Panama flooded the homes, a school and cultural sites of the Ngäbe people in 2016. An independent panel found that the dam's two lenders had breached their own policies, and Panama withdrew the project's CDM registration.
Where?
Panama.
When?
Flooding in 2016; CDM registration withdrawn in November 2016; financiers' management response in 2022. Carbon Market Watch
Who?
Gained
None on record
Lost
None on record
Harmed
  • Ngäbe people — Homes, a school and cultural sites flooded in 2016
Why?
Not stated in the sources reviewed for this project. The dam was a hydroelectric project registered under the CDM, the UN system that gives carbon credits to projects in developing countries.
How?
The dam was financed with USD 25 million loans from each of FMO and DEG. The loan was examined by an independent complaints panel, which found policy breaches, and Panama later withdrew the CDM registration.
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

Barro Blanco is a 28.8 MW hydroelectric dam in Panama, described in the record as GENISA's dam. FMO, the Dutch development bank, and DEG, a German lender, each lent USD 25 million, USD 50 million in total. The project was registered under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the UN system that gives carbon credits to projects in developing countries.

According to the research record, the dam flooded the homes, a school and cultural sites of the Ngäbe people in 2016. An independent complaints panel that examined the FMO and DEG loan found that the banks had breached their own policies.

In November 2016 Panama withdrew the project's UN CDM registration. Carbon Market Watch published a statement on the decision on 10 November 2016, and the research record describes it as the first such withdrawal by a host country. The dam remains in place. In 2022 the financiers published a management response to a third monitoring report on the project (Spanish-language version).

  1. 2016The CDM-registered dam floods Ngäbe homes, a school and cultural sites (as recorded). Panama withdraws the project's UN CDM registration (November); Carbon Market Watch issues a statement (10 November).
  2. 2022FMO and DEG publish a management response to the third monitoring report on Barro Blanco.

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

  • A 28.8 MW hydroelectric dam registered under the UN Clean Development Mechanism.
    UN CDM registration, as reported in the sources reviewed

Recorded

  • FMO and DEG each lent USD 25 million to the project.
  • An independent complaints panel found that the lenders had breached their own policies.
  • In 2016 the dam flooded the homes, a school and cultural sites of the Ngäbe people.
  • Panama withdrew the project's UN CDM registration in November 2016; Carbon Market Watch published a statement on the decision on 10 November 2016.
    Carbon Market Watch
  • The financiers published a management response to the third monitoring report on Barro Blanco in 2022 (Spanish-language version).
    DEG

Who gained

Money that reached nature, beside money that stayed elsewhere.

Reached nature or the ground

Not published
No figure published.

Gained elsewhere

Not totalled
Currency: USD · Window: . All figures cover the same period. * Estimate built from cited figures.

Responses on record

  • FMO and DEG (2022): Published a management response to the third monitoring report on Barro Blanco (Spanish-language version). · DEG

In court and with insurers

Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

Lawsuits and rulings

  1. Claimant won
    Independent complaints panel review of the FMO and DEG loan to Barro Blanco
    Independent complaints panel of the lenders · Administrative · Complainants (not named) → FMO and DEG

    The panel found that the lenders had breached their own policies.

Insurers

No insurer decision on record.

What nature saw

Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.

Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.

Lender loans
USD 50 million
USD 25 million each from FMO and DEG
Installed capacity
28.8 MW
CDM-registered hydroelectric dam
UN CDM registration
Withdrawn
By Panama, November 2016; reported as the first host-country withdrawal

What we don't know

Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
Deaths alleged, not verified

Nature

  • Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.

Record

  • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: deaths during protests by the Ngäbe in 2012.
  • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: an agreement covering part of the redress was signed in 2025.

Did the harm stop?

The dam remains in place. Panama withdrew its UN CDM registration in November 2016.

Who paid?

The record shows that homes, a school and cultural sites of the Ngäbe people were flooded. An agreement covering part of the redress is reported for 2025 but is not independently verified.

Sources

Voices on record: ✓ Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts— Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society— Researchers

Company or project

Communities and civil society

Connected cases

Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
Terms used on this page

Carbon and conservation finance

Carbon credit
A certificate representing one tonne of carbon dioxide (or equivalent) that a project says it reduced, avoided or removed. Buyers use credits to balance their own emissions in climate claims.
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