Coiba (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkojβa]) is the largest island in Central America, with an area of 503 km2 (194 sq mi), off the Pacific coast of the Panamanian province of Veraguas.

In 1919, a penal colony was built on the island and during the years that Panama was under the dictatorships of Omar Torrijos and Manuel Noriega, the prison on Coiba was a feared place with a reputation for brutal conditions, extreme torture, executions and political murders.

In 1992, Panama created Coiba National Park, encompassing over 1,042 square miles of islands, forests, beaches, mangroves and coral reefs, and in July 2005, Unesco declared it a World Heritage Site.

[4] The park has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports significant populations of brown-backed doves, Coiba spinetails and three-wattled bellbirds.

[5] Due to the Gulf of Chiriquí's capacity to buffer against the effects of El Niño temperature swings, the marine ecosystems within Coiba National Park harbor a high degree of biodiversity.