Veraguas Province
Veraguas spans both coasts with diversified economy (fishing, agriculture, tourism) but lacks industrial investment while sharing water-stressed watersheds.
Veraguas extends across Panama's spine, the only province spanning both Atlantic and Pacific coasts while containing portions of the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca within its territory. This geographic diversity creates economic variety—agriculture, fisheries, and nascent ecotourism—but absence of significant industrial investment constrains productivity gains that would reduce the income gap with Panama City.
The Santa María River watershed shared with Coclé and Herrera faces water stress that the 2023-2024 drought intensified, the same hydrological system affecting canal transits threatening agricultural provinces through different mechanisms. Degraded soils from extensive livestock farming compound water problems, the environmental challenges that sustainable farming initiatives attempt to address.
Coiba National Park provides the ecological assets that ecotourism could monetize, the former penal colony's island ecosystem now UNESCO World Heritage Site. Whether Veraguas can develop tourism around these assets—or whether peripheral status perpetuates lower incomes—depends on infrastructure investment that connects natural attractions to visitor markets.