Captivated was the Spanish delegation that joined the international president of the Castilla del Oro Foundation, Duke of Veragua, Cristobal Colon de Carvajal, during the cultural and folkloric acts given in their honor by the local and municipal authorities of the Parita District.
This tour was organized by the Castilla del Oro Foundation who, under the vision of entrepreneur Richard Fifer Carles, boosts tourism projects in the central region of the country, taking advantage of the income from the mining activity of the company Petaquilla Gold SA.
During the cultural act organized by the Parita Municipality were present, the president of the Castilla del Oro Foundation in Panama, Pascual Montanes Duato; Jaime Ruiz Pena, general director of the public enterprises of the Autonomous Region of Extremadura, Spain; Beatriz Flores, Luis Miguel Montanes, Gabriel Bellomusto, and Juan Rivero.
The tour is part of the efforts to promote the development of rural tourism in Panama through the Castilla del Oro Foundation in Spain and Panama, project conceived by Panamanian entrepreneur Richard Fifer
The Nazareno community is under constant growth, like all the other communities neighboring the Molejon Mining Project, led by Panamanian entrepreneur Richard Fifer-Carles, and this growth comes with changes and among them, needs that have to be supplied progressively. The Petaquilla Foundation, with the mission of accomplishing sustainable development in the region, independently from the mining project, collaborates with training the little ones. In Nazareno (Donoso district) are located the Kindergartens, an institution that works towards the progress of the children in the area. Petaquilla foundation has collaborated with this institution throughout 2011 and will continue next year.
Olga Ortega is the teacher in charge and she stated, “the support of the Foundation is very important for the daily work with our children. Materials and tools are very welcomed. We are very thankful”.
Health actions in benefit of the people
The mining company Petaquilla Gold S.A. led by engineer Richard Fifer-Carles has organized activities directed to coordinate efforts with state institutions in benefit of the residents of Castilla el Oro. They prioritized both preventative and curative health actions among which are highlighted: medical tours, maintenance of health posts with donations of medicine and cleaning supplies, care to people with disabilities, helicopter transportation for accident patients in areas with difficult access, first aid kit donations to schools, family planning conferences, and prevention of family violence and abuse.
Another priority axis of the Petaquilla foundation is Education. With this purpose the Petaquilla Foundation has built school buildings like the Coclesito Senior High School and the Teacher’s shelter. Additionally, it has provided logistics support to the schools around the Mining Project.
Thanks to the upturn that tourism has registered in the beach areas of the province of Cocle, that according to official figures there are already 10 thousand rooms that during the peak season of summer can accommodate 20 thousand tourists, the Castilla del Oro Foundation, under the vision of the engineer Richard Fifer-Carles, hopes that a huge amount of these visitors tour the surrounding communities, and leave in their town the benefits that are created by this activity.
This is how it was raised by the executive director of the foundation, Jorge Isaac Obon, who noted that today the ones that benefit of this growth as the hotels and not the people. “So that’s our real objective, create a touristic development in this five provinces and make all that money from tourism permeate in the rural areas”, said Obon.
To achieve this objective, Castilla del Oro Foundation, through its international president, the duke of Veragua, Cristobal Colon de Carvajal has built a bridge between Spain and Panama, in order to exchange experiences to replicate the Spanish example in rural communities of Panama.
The citizens should not give up on their supervisory role, but they must exercise them free of deceits and distortions of reality, were the mining companies comply by vocation with respect to the public interest and the collective rights, the rules of mining developments, because now a days we have a new opportunity to discuss and approve the new law that would satisfy the general aspirations of the stakeholders in this field.
The Petaquilla Gold Company, led by the businessman Richard Fifer-carles in his newsletter “Guacamaya Verde” of July-august gives us to understand that we have a good opportunity to achieve a document that guarantees the substantial benefits in a short, medium and long term for all the Panamanians, but for that we must remove the attitudes which in no way benefit the collective and that all joined voluntarily can reached a consensus on a commitments to the truth and respect to one another.
The Spanish and Panamanian Castilla del Oro Foundation and the Bureau of Public Enterprises of the Extremadura Autonomous Region will provide support and advice for the recovery of facilities and the colonial fortress of St. Laurence, of which a feasibility study will be done to see whether it can be adapted as a host site.
Colón’s governor, Pedro Rios, was satisfied with the gentleman’s agreement reached with the Spanish authorities in the region of Extremadura, which has a wealth of experience on rural tourism in the Iberian country, noting that after the signing of this agreement there will be a new Colón in which the authorities will walk hand in hand with private enterprise to foster its development, especially in the tourism sector.
The agreement was sealed at the legendary Fort St. Laurence, located on the banks of the Chagres River, which flows into the Caribbean coast, a true witness of the battles between the Spanish and English pirates for the riches conquered by the Spanish crown from the New World in colonial times.
The destiny made by the general Director of the Public Companies of Extremadura in Spain, Jaime Ruiz Pena, met the directors of the Foundation Castilla del Oro, as when they saw the development model Extremadura, they expressed their interest to replicate in the rural communities in the central area of the country in order to boost the rural tourism.
Due to this encounter, Ruiz Pena asked them to learn about the model in Extremadura deeper, and for this reasons the directors of the Foundation led by the engineer Richard Fifer – Carles, organized a trip of a group of mayors and governors of Panama so they can visit the Region of Extremadura.
The main goal was that the Panamanian mayors and governors learned in the field how it was possible that a region of Spain with no coasts and that over 25 years without developments, have had such a huge boost. in everything that has to do with development, specifically in rural tourism.
With the vision of engineer Richard Fifer Carles, the Castilla del Oro Foundation, advances the preliminary studies to finish the rehabilitation works of the tower of the San Francisco de la Montana Church, for which they have hired a restoration architect whose thesis was about this work.
It is about one of the most important works driven by the Foundation in the interior of the country, especially because this temple is considered a baroque art jewel, characterized by hundreds of hand crafted pieces made in precious wood extracted from places nearby this town
This is a historic monument declared National Patrimony in 1939, and currently, studies are being conducted to ask the UNESCO to declare it Cultural Patrimony of Humanity; the Castilla del Oro Foundation will invest 200 thousand dollars in its restoration.
Madrid, September 2011
La Castilla del Oro Foundation led by Richard Fifer – Carles and presided by Cristobal Colon in Spain will develop a very important social and environmental labor in the area of Cerro del Andevalo –Huelva-. Along these lines, the concern about environment topics is born; in this case, we will touch upon the energy efficiency
EFFICIENT ENERGY USE IN AGRCULTURE
The Economy, Innovation and Science Counsel, through the Andalusian Energy Agency, has done 81 training courses this year, in techniques of efficient energy use in agriculture, by which 1.786 ranchers, farmers, businessmen and professionals of the agricultural field have been prepared, just as agricultural technicians and agrarian organizations.
In total, since they started these courses in year 2006, 11.562 farmers and ranchers have been trained.
In these four-hour courses, taught in all Andalusian provinces by 33 technicians of the Technical Agricultural Engineers Association of Western Andalusia, the farmers have learned that with an adequate maintenance of the tractor or avoiding agricultural operations in unfavorable soil conditions (for example, the humid soil demands more power) which can save up to 25% of fuel.
The air-conditioning, water tightness, lighting – substituting the incandescent lamps for fluorescent ones- and the maintenance of the equipment for extraction, are some of the elements that can be considered to save energy in the livestock facilities.
St. Laurence fort, with all its historical legacy, its mysticism and legend, marked by attacks from pirates and the battles for its possession, is a tourism product that has an incredible force waiting to be exploited, said general manager of public enterprises in the Autonomous Region of Extremadura in Spain, Jaime Ruiz Peña.
He said that during a visit to Extremadura, Colón governor, Jaime Rios, invited him to visit Panama to observe the ruins of St. Laurence fort with the intention to implement tourism projects, similar to those existing ??in Spain.
Ruiz Peña, who arrived to the country accompanied by Castilla del Oro Foundation’s international president, the Duke of Veragua, Cristobal Colon de Carvajal, said that once Colón’s governor took him to St. Laurence fort he became fascinated with these structures and “I discovered the incredible power that tourism product has.”
This tour, which included a visit to the provinces of Colon, Panama, Cocle, Herrera and Veraguas, was organized by Castilla del Oro Foundation which, under engineer Richard Fifer – Carles’s vision, promotes tourism development projects in rural areas of the country’s central region.
