Panama: The Sea Devours a Village

An indigenous community on the island of Gardi Sugdub, in the Caribbean of Panama, faces a reality that forces them to move to the mainland. Due to the effects of climate change, which is accelerating sea levels, they are abandoning the land they have occupied their entire lives.

About 300 families were relocated last month, with the support of the Panamanian government, to the Nuevo Cartí urbanization. According to the Congress, the archipelago has 365 islands, most of which are uninhabited.

This is the first of more than 60 villages on Panama's Caribbean and Pacific coasts to move to safer areas due to the rising sea levels associated with global warming.

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The island of Gardi Sugdub, the closest to the mainland, is less than five minutes away by boat. One of its residents, Claudiano López, explained to CNN that when the tide rises, it affects the houses, especially those on the island's edge, like his own.

Climate change is raising sea levels and warming the oceans, thereby fueling stronger storms. The Guna people have tried to reinforce the island's edges with rocks, pilings, and coral, but the saltwater continues to seep in.

In 2023, UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that one in ten people worldwide will be at greater risk due to the rising sea levels in their area.

According to the U.S.-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, rising sea levels due to the melting of continental ice sheets threaten to drown islands already at lower elevations, such as the Maldives, the Marshall Islands, and many others worldwide.

The secretary of the island of Gardi Sugdub and the mainland community of Isberyala, Agusto Walter, reported that 300 families moved, but 32 stayed because no more houses were available or they did not want to leave.

The idea of relocating to the mainland arose several years ago, not because of flooding but because of the island's overpopulation problem, as the Guna General Congress explained to CNN.

Walter explained that before the relocation, the island of Gardi Sugdub had 1,300 inhabitants, and in some homes, up to four generations lived under the same roof.

Despite the risks, some people who moved to the Nuevo Cartí urbanization returned to their usual lives in Gardi Sugdub because they did not feel comfortable.