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Draft:Stanley Heckadon Moreno

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Stanley Philip Heckadon-Moreno (9 October, 1943) is a Panamanian-American anthropologist, conservationist, writer and educator. He is an active advocate of preserving the tropical forests in Central America.[1] His work has contributed to the creation of many of Panama's protected areas, particularly in the Panama Canal Watershed, and also to the legislation creating the comarcas indígenas or indigenous territories.[1]

Since 1983, he has been associated with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). From 2000 to 2020 he was their director of the Galeta Point Marine Laboratory. With the help of volunteers he is digitizing all the fieldwork data he has gathered over these decades, while still researching peasants, indigenous and fishing communities in Central America.[2]

Stanley Philip Heckadon-Moreno
Born (1943-10-09) October 9, 1943 (age 81)
Puerto Armuelles, Panama, North America
EducationBA in Anthropology, University of Los Andes, Colombia

MA in Sociology, University of Essex, UK

PhD in Sociology, University of Essex, UK
Occupation(s)Anthropologist, conservationist, writer, educator
Years active1979-present
SpouseSonia Martinelli Tono (1976–present)
Children2

Early life

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Stanley Heckadon-Moreno was born on 9 October 1943 in Puerto Armuelles, Panama, as an only child to American Mennonite farmer Philip Stanley Heckadon and Panamanian Manuela ´Nenga´ Moreno Caballero. His father emigrated to Panama during the Great Depression (before Heckadon-Moreno was born) to work on the banana plantations of the Chiqiruí Land Company. His mother was a rural school teacher at the first public school in Puerto Armuelles, the Tómas Armuelles School. She was an early female rights activist and in 1940 helped to enable women to vote for the first time.[3]

Heckadon Moreno grew up on the remote farm of his maternal grandparents Aurelio Moreno and Josefa Caballero de Moreno, who had migrated to these forests in the wake of the Thousand Days' War. From an early age Heckadon Moreno learned to do all sorts of (heavy) farm work and fishing in the rivers and the sea. In his childhood he contracted malaria three times, the last time being almost fatal. Upon his parents' divorce his mother decided to move to Panama City, Panama, where her son could receive better healthcare and a good education.[1]

Education

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Childhood

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Stanley Heckadon-Moreno attended the Colegio Javier in San Felipe (now Casco Viejo), Panama City from 1950 to 1958. He graduated from the San Vicente de Paúl School in David, Panama in 1960.[1]

Undergraduate education

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In 1964, Heckadon Moreno obtained his Associate of Art degree from Orange Coast Junior College in Costa Mesa, California. At nights and in weekends, he was working in a gas station. However, soon he discovered his calling was anthropology. His good academic performance awarded him a place at the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

In 1968, a few weeks before the final exam of his senior year, he received a draft notice for the army on account of the intensification of the Vietnam War. Due to moral reasons, he decided not to join and left the USA, driving from California to Panama.

On recommendation of his former professor, Ralph Beals, Heckadon Moreno applied to the Department of Anthropology at the University of Los Andes, Bogotá in Columbia. Dr. Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff accepted him into the program. He was allowed to validate his subjects, and with a loan from the Institute for the Training and Use of Human Resources (IFARHU) graduated with a BA in 1970.[1] His field work and thesis were centered on the economic system of a fishing community in the San Bernardo Islands in Colombia's Caribbean Coast.[4]

Postgraduate education

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Heckadon Moreno was the first Panamanian to receive a scholarship in Social Sciences from the British Overseas Council, that allowed him to obtain his MA in Sociology in 1973 at the University of Essex, UK. He returned to the University of Essex in 1977 with a scholarship from the Ford Foundation, obtaining his PhD in Sociology. His thesis "Panama's expanding cattle front: The Santeno Campesinos and the Colonizaton of the Forests" in 1983 centered on the impact of extensive cattle ranging and slash-and-burn agriculture on tropical forests.[1]

Career

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Throughout his life, Stanley Heckadon Moreno studied the environmental impact of the production systems of peasant and indigenous communities in Panama and Central America. He became an expert on environmental policies that helped in the creation and conservation of protected areas and indigenous territories across Central America.[2][5]

General Directorate for Community Development (Dirección General para el Desarrollo de la Comunidad - DIGEDECOM)

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In 1970 upon returning to Panama, Heckadon Moreno was selected as the Director of the recently founded section of Indigenous Affairs of the DIGEDECOM. He was hired as an anthropologist to study and improve the living conditions of the indigenous communities of Panama and to develop small community development projects. For the next two years, he travelled across Panama by foot, horse, canoe, helicopters and small airplanes. He was appalled by the poverty, isolation, lack of formal education and the expropriation of the lands of the indigenous people by cattle men. His recommendations to change national policies regarding the land rights for the indigenous communities were not well received. He lost his job after publishing a series of articles in the daily La Estrella de Panamá.

Ministry of Planning and Political Economy (Ministerio de Planificación y Politica Económica - MPPE)

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From 1972 to 1980, at MPPE, Heckadon Moreno worked as a senior social scientist responsible for studies of policies towards indigenous people and the demarcation of their territories and the introduction in the National Constitution of 1972 of the rights of the indigenous people of Panama. He was also involved in the study of rural poverty among peasants in Panama and evaluation of rural cooperatives and the agrarian reform process. [2]

National parks

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During these years, he began to play an increasingly important role in the establishment of many national parks across Panama, particularly in the Panama Canal Watershed:[1] [5]

Chagres River basin

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The El Niño in 1982 to 1983 was internationally devastating, and in Panama caused severe droughts. Heckadon Moreno led the Task Force on the Panama Watershed, to evaluate the Panama Canal Watershed. A group of 175 experts from various state and academic institutions, as well as business leaders and environmental organizations were tasked with determining the relationship between national development and the Chagres River basin. The government wanted to replace the native jungles with pastures. Heckadon Moreno theorized that this action would undermine and destroy the natural diversity and endanger the quality of the land through soil degradation, sedimentation of rivers and monopolization of land. According to Heckadon Moreno, this would result in more poverty and a great loss of potential revenue through tourism.[1]

The formal recommendation of the workgroup was to protect over 200,000 acres of jungle surrounding the Chagres, Pequeni and Boquerón rivers.[2]

Tropical Argonomic Center for Research and Teaching (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza - CATIE), Costa Rica

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In 1986, Heckadon Moreno became a senior social scientist at CATIE in Costa Rica. His research was focused on the evaluation of social forestry projects among hillside farmers in Central America and the Caribbean. It included the evaluation of the success and failure of rapid growth tree species among hillside farmers in Central America to provide wood for construction, firewood and charcoal.[2]

Heckadon Moreno led the task force set by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Central America. This project was focused on determining the most updated condition of the environment of Central America at that time. His findings were presented in the 1988 XVII General Assembly of the IUCN in Costa Rica, an event attended by more than thousand international delegates. The idea of the Paseo Pantera (Mesoamerican Biological Corridor) was created here, in order to safeguards the rainforests in the Caribbean from Belize to Panama.[1]

Panama's National Institute of Renewable Resources (Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales Renovables - INRENARE)

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From 1990 to 1990 Heckadon Moreno was the director general of INRENARE and was responsible for Panama's national protected areas, national forests, soil conservation, hydrological resources and environmental education.[6] He was successful in finding national and international donors to support these activities in a country that had undergone serious political turmoil.

International consultancy projects

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Between 1991 and 1994 Heckadon Moreno worked for and with many institutions amongst others Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Summit of Americas and Social Emergency Fund of Panama (Fondo de Emergencía Social - FES) on projects on environmental profiles, research projects, scholarships and demarcation of protected areas. He has helped to establish several international centers amongst others the Center for Tropical Forestry Research (CIFOR) in Bogor, Indonesia and the Center for Water Research in Humid Tropics of Latin America (Centro de Agua del Trópico Húmedo de América Latina y el Caribe - CATHALAC) in Panama. [2]

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Panama

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In 1983 Heckadon Moreno became a research associate with the STRI. Since 1995, he began to reserach and write for the general public on the history of natural history in Panama and Central America. He has written about various notable individuals, mainly naturalists, who lived and worked in Central America in the 18th and 19th century:[2][7][8][9]

  • Tadeo Ahaenke (a.k.a. Thaddäus Haenke) (1761-1816), a Czech botanist.
  • Paul H. Allen (1911–1963), an American botanist.
  • Enrique Arcé, a Guatemalan naturalist who studied birds in Central America. His work was vital for the publication of the Biologia Centrali-Americana by naturalist Osbert Salvin and zoologist Frederick DuCane Goldman.[7]
  • Thomas Barbour (1884-1946), an American herpetologist.
  • Charles M. Breder (1897-1983), an American zoologist who studied fish, amphibians and reptiles in the 1924 rubber expedition led by explorer Richard Marsh. The expedition through the Panamanian jungle started in Darién and ended in Guna Yala (formerly San Blas).[7]
  • Wilmot Brown Jr., an American naturalist who collected birds and mammals in Panama from 1900 to 1904 during the War of a Thousand Days. Brown´s daughter married Heckadon Moreno´s uncle, making them related by marriage.[8]
  • George C. Champion (1851-1927), a British entomologist who studied primarily beetles in Panama and Guatemala.
  • Frank Chapman (1864-1945), an American ornithologist.
  • George Proctor Cooper (1896-1962), an expert in tropical forests who led the Yale Forestry School Expedition 1926-28 through Bocas del Toro and Chiriqui.[8]
  • Eugene Eisenmann (1906-1981), a Panamanian-American ornithologist.
  • Enrico Festa (1868-1939), an Italian zoologist.
  • Edward Goldman (1873-1946), an American zoologist.
  • Ludlow Griscom (1890-1959), an American ornithologist.
  • John H. Hart (1847-1911), a British botanist.
  • Samuel Hildebrand (1883-1946), an American ichthyologist.
  • Seth Meek (1859-1914), an American ichthyologist.
  • Henri Francoise Pittier (1857-1950), a Swiss botanist who performed research from 1887 to 1916 throughout Central America, specifically Costa Rica and Panama.[8]
  • C.W. Powell (1854-1927), an American orchidologist.
  • George H. Pring (1885-1974), an American orchid collector.
  • Sebastián López Ruiz (1741-1832), a Panamanian physician and naturalist.
  • Berthold Carl Seemann (1825-1871), a German botanist who published the first book on Panamanian flora. He explored the Pacific Coast of Central America from 1846 to 1851, mostly aboard the British Navy vessel the HMS Herald.[8]
  • Paul Standley (1884-1963), an American botanist.
  • Julian Steyermark (1909-1988), a Venezuelan American botanist.
  • Joseph von Warscewicz (a.k.a. Józef Warszewicz) (1812-1866), a Polish botanist who explored the Isthmus of Panama from 1948 to 1951. He was a collector of tropical plants (particularly orchids), hummingbirds, amphibians and reptiles.[8]
  • Alexander Wetmore (1886-1978), an American ornithologist. [9]
  • Jenny C. White del Bal (1835-1876), a New York born upper class woman who moved to Santiago, Panama with her husband in 1863. The country was in the midst of a Civil War at this time. Jenny wrote letters to her family containing valuable information about how life was lived at that time. She performed great deeds of humanitarian and social work, leaving behind a lasting legacy when she died of yellow fever. She is remembered as "the Angel of Santiago" and her life was lauded in The New York Times under the title "Death of a Noble Woman".[10]
  • R.S. Williams (1859-1945), an American botanist.
  • Robert Woodson (1904-1963), an American botanist.
  • James Zetek (1886-1959), an American entomologist.

Station Director of Galeta Point Marine Laboratory, Colón

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Since 2000 to 2020, Heckadon Moreno led the Galeta Point Marine Laboratory on Galeta Island in Colón, Panama as staff scientist and station director.[2] Galeta Point was formerly a military communications station during the Cold War for the USA Navy. It became the STRI Caribbean marine lab in 1964. Galeta Point serves as a research center for marine and coastal ecosystems, as well as a dynamic educational center with a focus on teaching and preserving the local marine environment.[11]

Personal life

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Stanley Heckadon Moreno married Sonia Martinelli Tono in 1976. Together they have two children.[2]

Bibliography

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Publications

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Stanley Heckadon Moreno has published extensively. Most writings are originally in Spanish or English and some have been digitized and are free to access. [1][2]

  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (1973). Los Asentamientos Campesinos: Una Experienca Panameña en Reforma Agraria. Ministerio de Planificatión y Política Económica.
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley, & McKay, A. (1982). Colonización y destrucción de bosques en Panamá: ensayos sobre un grave problema ecológico. Asociación Panameña de Antropología.
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (1983). Cuando se acaban los montes : los campesinos santeños y la colonización de Tonosi. Editorial Universitaria Panamá. Panama´s expanding cattle front: The Santeno Campesinos and the Colonization of the Forests. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Essex
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (1984).
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley, Espinosa González, J. (1985). Agonía de la naturaleza: ensayos sobre el costo ambiental del desarrollo panameño.. Panamá: Instituto de Investigación Agropecuaria de Panamá
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (1986). La Cuenca del Canal de Panamá. Actas de los Seminarios Talleres. Panamá: Impretex
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (1990). Madera y Leña de Las Milpas: Los Viveros Comunales: Una Alternativa para el Desarrollo Forestal en el Salvador. Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza.
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (1993). Agenda Ecologica y Social Para Bocas del Toro. Paseo Pantera and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (1994). Panamá en sus usos y costumbres. Editorial Universitaria Panamá.
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley, Ibáñez D., Roberto and Condit, Richard S. (1999). La Cuenca Del Canal: Deforestación, Urbanización y Contaminación. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (1997). Spanish rule, independence, and the modern colonization frontiers. In: Coates, Anthony G., Central America: A Natural and Cultural History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 177-214.
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (1998). Naturalistas Del Istmo De Panamá : Un Siglo De Historia Natural Sobre El Puente Biológico De Las Américas. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Fundación Santillana para Iberoamérica.
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (2001). Panamá : puente biológico : las Charlas Smithsonian del Mes, 1996-1999. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (2004). Naturalists of the Isthmus of Panama. A Hundred Years of Natural History on the Biological Bridge of the Americas. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (2006), Selvas Entre Dos Mares . Expediciones Cientificas al Istmo de Panama, siglos XVIII-XX. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (2007). Cuando se acaban los montes. Panamá: Editorial Universitaria.
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (2009). De Selvas a Potreros: La Colonización Santeña en Panamá: 1850-1980. Exedra Books, Panamá.
  • Heckadon Moreno, Stanley. (2011). A Creole from Bocas del Toro: The story of Carlos Reid. Panama: ExedraBooks.
  • Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley. (2012). El último río del último pueblo. In: Chen Barría, José, Ser Chiricano. David, Panamá: Impresos Modernos, S.A, pp.103-120.

Articles

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EPOCAS publications

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In 1995, Heckadon Moreno began writing for EPOCAS, a historical and cultural publication by the Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. His series of monthly articles are on the topic of natural history in Panama.[1]

Panamá América publications

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Heckadon-Moreno has published articles for the newspaper Panamá América since 2014 (in Spanish).

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (24 October 2016). "Stanley Heckadon-Moreno". Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j https://pbcpanama.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/updated-short-CVSTANLEYHECKADON-6.pdf
  3. ^ Schneider, Keith (2 March 2015). "Stanley Heckadon-Moreno's Gift to Panama Is Clean Rivers, Magnificent Tropical Forests". Circle of Blue. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  4. ^ Heckadon Moreno, Stanley (1970). "El Islote: estudio sobre el sistema económico de una comunidad de pescadores, Islas de San Bernardo". Tesis/Trabajos de Grado.
  5. ^ a b "Meet Smithsonian Expert Dr. Stanley Heckadon-Moreno". worldstrides.com. Archived from the original on 23 December 2023. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  6. ^ Colindres, Octavio (13 October 2021). "Los diálogos por la cuenca: reflexiones de un protagonista". El Faro | Canal de Panamá (in Mexican Spanish). Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  7. ^ a b c Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley (2006). Selvas Entre Dos Mares . Expediciones Cientificas al Istmo de Panama, siglos XVIII-XX. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Heckadon-Moreno, Stanley (2004). Naturalists on the Isthmus of Panama: a Hundred Years of Natural History on the Biological Bridge of the Americas. Smithsonion Tropical Research Institute.
  9. ^ a b PerezJI (5 August 2020). "Expedition". Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  10. ^ "La guerra civil de Estados Unidos y Panamá". www.prensa.com (in Spanish). 19 February 2023. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
  11. ^ ceditor (27 October 2016). "Punta Galeta". Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
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