The United Nations gave its support this week to plans to reforest environmentally damaged areas along the 50-mile (80 km) Panama Canal, a top canal official said. Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, told Panama Canal officials on the final day of the Johannesburg Earth Summit he endorsed plans for a multimillion dollar watershed management center in Panama to be set up over the next three to five years. The endorsement will mean significant U.N funding for the center in Panama, enabling Panama to reforest some 680,000 acres (275,000 hectares) of deforested land in the canal's watershed, Juan Hector Diaz, director of security and environment at the canal told Reuters by telephone from the Johannesburg summit.