but panama has seen heavydeforestation in recent decades half of its forests havebeen lost and among those remain, some have bebeen damaged.when they built the inter-american highway, therewas an oil leak into the river, and that devastated all theclams we had here. it affected lots of smsmallanimals, crabs, andnd shs as well.when i was a kid, this area was full of clams and seashells.now they're gone." " we mustn't cut them down," shetells me, "and we mustn't pollute them."she and her school friends have formed a group called the youngmangrove defenders. twice a day, they collect waterfrom the lagoon at the bottom of silvia's garden and lug it upthis steep incline. the water isn't for theirfamilies or for themselves. it's for these mangroveseedlings in their schoolyard. they built the plant nursery intheir spare time, and have spent weeks tending to the delicateseedlings. back down in the swamp,technicians from the environment ministry are working on anotherof the key aspects, measuring how much greenhouse gas theswamp can absorb. studies show that mangroves arehighly effective, sto