Chagres National Park is a nature park and protected area created in 1986 located in the Panamá and Colón provinces, in the Eastern sector of the Panama Canal with a total surface area of .
The park extends across the Chagres Highlands, a group of low mountains drained by the headwaters of the Chagres River. The southern portion of the highlands is known as the Serranía Piedras-Pacora, and forms a portion of the Continental Divide of the Americas.Charles W. Myers, Roberto Ibáñez D., Taran Grant, César A. Jaramillo "Discovery of the Frog Genus Anomaloglossus in Panama, with Descriptions of Two New Species from the Chagres Highlands (Dendrobatoidea: Aromobatidae)", American Museum Novitates, 2012(3763), 1-19, (21 November 2012)
The park adjoins Portobelo National Park on the northwest, and Narganá Wilderness Area on the east.
Environment The park contains tropical rain forests and a set of rivers which provide sufficient water to guarantee the operation of the Gatun Lake, main lake of the Panama Canal: the Chagres River and the Gatun River. The highest point of the park is Cerro Jefe, at 1,007 m above sea level. It is considered a Key Biodiversity Area of international significance. It has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International.
The frog Ectopoglossus isthminus is nearly endemic to the national park.
Panama Canal Watershed The park was created in 1985,Ecotourismpanama.com with the aim of preserving the natural forest that composes it to produce water in amount and quality sufficient to guarantee the normal operation of the Panama CanalThe Status of the Panama Canal Watershed and Its Biodiversity at the Beginning of the 21st Century: Long-term ecological studies reveal a diverse flora and fauna near the Panama Canal, harbored within a corridor of forest stretching from the Caribbean to the Pacific, but deforestation, land degradation, erosion, and overhunting remain threats Wadsworth FH. 1978. Deforestation: Death to the Panama Canal. Pages 22–24 in Proceedings of the US Strategy Conference on Tropical Deforestation. Washington (DC): US Department of State and US Agency for International Development. to supply potable water for the cities of Panama, Colon and la Chorrera, and the generation of electricity for the cities of Panama and Colon.
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