The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute was founded with the purpose of increasing and sharing knowledge about the past, present and future of tropical ecosystems and their relevance to human welfare. This work began in Panama in 1910, when the Smithsonian led one of the world’s first major environmental impact studies, which surveyed and catalogued the flora and fauna of the lowland tropical forests that would be flooded with the creation of the Panama Canal. A century later, the Smithsonian in Panama is a standard-setting global platform for groundbreaking research on tropical forests and marine ecosystems and their astounding biodiversity.
The Design Foundation designed and developed a few 5 to 7 minute long movies detailing the history of the Institute at Barro Colorado, the biodiversity that exists there, and the hub of research it provides for Smithsonian teams, as well as international students and scientists.
