Indigenous Community Facing Rising Seas Left in Limbo
An indigenous community on a tiny island off Panama is in a race against the clock to relocate as rising sea levels erode their land and threaten to wash away homes and livelihoods.
The Guna Indigenous people, who have lived on the small, flat, and overcrowded island of Gardi Sugdub for more than a century, began planning to relocate to the mainland in 2010. But no one has actually moved there yet. Long-promised support from Panama’s government to assist in relocation efforts has been delayed numerous times, leaving the community in limbo.
Uprooted Again
In the past, Gardi Sugdub was a refuge from the illnesses and colonial restrictions of Panama’s mainland. But there is no longer room to expand on the island, which is the size of just five soccer fields. Floods are also making life harder for the island’s residents, affecting housing, health, education, and culture. The inevitable rise in sea levels, in part due to climate change, has made relocation a necessary measure of last resort.
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But with the government’s latest end-of-February 2024 relocation deadline quickly approaching, there remain many concerns around how problems at the proposed relocation site could threaten residents’ rights. For instance, plans for water, sewage, and trash management at the site remain inadequate. The area experiences erosion during floods and lacks shade to protect people from the heat, and the proposed site for a small health center had not yet been constructed. A Global Lesson Gardi Sugdub is not alone: Thirty-eight other coastal Indigenous communities in Panama may require relocation because of a combination of overcrowding and sea level rise. More than 400 communities globally have completed or are undertaking relocation because of natural hazards, including those expected to increase in frequency and intensity because of climate change. Planned relocation is a measure of last resort with serious risks, and affected communities should be part of the process. But residents of Gardi Sugdub – who have repeatedly asked for transparency around the government’s plans – have been kept in the dark. “I might not even see this relocation happen in my lifetime,” one elder in the community said. “All other leaders who started the project have died [since this process began].” It’s not too late for the government to create a blueprint that coastal communities in Panama and globally can turn to as they confront the climate crisis. |
23-2-24, HRW
