A "Little Panamanian Community": Science and Labor on Barro Colorado Island

Panama has not only been the site of massive ecological and social change in the twentieth century, it has also played a significant and under-appreciated role in the creation of knowledge about tropical ecosystems. More than any other single location, Barro Colorado Island (BCI), a 1500-hectare island created by the flooding of the Panama Canal, has shaped the emergence of the scientific discipline of tropical biology. Founded as a biological field station in 1923, it is today an international research hub for the study of tropical biodiversity. BCI has been touted as a “natural laboratory” by generations of American tropical biologists. The project of making BCI a destination for American scientists, however, significantly altered the natural and social space of the island. Making BCI a scientific site did not meant simply observing an “untouched” jungle. It entailed developing a network of trails, building facilities to shelter visiting researchers and house equipment, and even incorporating environmental monitoring devices into the landscape of the island itself. It also meant controlling flows of people. Not just wildlife, but scientists, tourists, and Panamanian laborers were intensely managed to maintain the island for scientific research. To access and observe tropical nature, biologists had to insinuate themselves into both the BCI’s diverse ecosystem and the complex racial and labor hierarchy of the Panama Canal Zone. As scientists grapple with the legacies of colonial science, a deeper understanding of the origins of tropical biology lends historical perspective to the North-South tensions inherent in international conservation today.