On a small island off the coast of Panama, about 300 families are packing their belongings in anticipation of drastic change. Generations of Gunas who grew up on Gardi Sugdub in a life dedicated to the sea and tourism will leave their island next week and settle on the mainland dry land.
The Gardi Sugdub Gunas are the first of 63 communities along Panama’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts that government officials and scientists expect will have to relocate due to rising sea levels in the coming decades.
“We are a little sad, because we are going to leave behind the homes that we have known all our lives, the relationship with the sea, where we fish, where we bathe and where the tourists come, but the sea is sinking the island little by little,” said Nadín Morales, 24, who is preparing to move with her mother, her boyfriend and her uncle.
An official with Panama’s Housing Ministry said some people had decided to stay on the island until it was no longer safe, without revealing a specific number. The authorities will not force them to leave, he added on condition of anonymity.
Gardi Sugdub is one of approximately 50 populated islands in the Guna Yala Territory archipelago. It is only about 400 meters long and 150 meters wide.
Every year, especially when strong winds whip up the sea in November and December, water fills the streets and enters homes. Climate change not only causes sea levels to rise, but it also warms the oceans and thus causes more violent storms.
The Gunas have tried to reinforce the edge of the island with rocks, stilts and coral, but the water continues to flow.
“Lately, I have noticed that climate change has had a major impact,” said Ms. Morales. Now the tide has reached an all-time high and the heat is unbearable. »
The Guna Autonomous Government decided 20 years ago that they should consider leaving the island, but at the time it was because it was becoming too populated. The effects of climate change have accelerated that thinking, according to Evelio López, a 61-year-old teacher who plans to move with relatives to the new site on the mainland that the government developed at a cost of $12 million. The concrete houses sit on a grid of cobblestone streets carved out of the lush tropical jungle just over two kilometers from the port, where an eight-minute boat ride takes them to Gardi Sugdub.
A recent study carried out by the Ministry of Environment of Panama, with the support of universities in the country and in Spain, estimates that by 2050, Panama will lose approximately 2.01% of its coastal territory due to the rise in sea level.
Panama believes it will cost about $1.2 billion to relocate the roughly 38,000 residents who will struggle with rising sea levels in the short to medium term, said Ligia Castro, who oversees the climate change file at the Ministry of the Environment.