Islanders flee rising sea levels

PANAMA

This article was written by Juan Zamorano and was published in the Toronto Star on June 9, 2024.

An Indigenous Guna woman waits to transfer from Carti Sugtupu island to the mainland in Panama.

Hammocks began appearing this week in the doorways of 300 new houses built in what was previously a yucca field along Panama’s Caribbean coast for families from the country’s first low-lying island evacuated due to rising sea levels.

Indigenous Guna families from the island of Gardi Sugdub ferried stoves, gas cylinders, mattresses and other belongings first in boats and then in trucks to the community of Isberyala. They quickly saw differences.

“Here it’s cooler,” said 73-year-old Augusto Walter, hanging his hammock on Wednesday in the tidy twobedroom house with a backyard. “There (on the island) at this time of day, it’s an oven.”

He was waiting for his wife who had stayed a bit longer on the island to prepare food. They will share the government-constructed house with three other family members.

Most of Gardi Sugdub’s families had moved or were in the process of moving, but Isberyala’s freshly paved and painted streets named after historic Guna leaders were still largely empty.

The Indigenous community surrounded by jungle is about a 30-minute walk from the port where a few more minutes aboard a boat brings them to their former homes. Government officials said they expected everyone to be moved in by Thursday.

However, that doesn’t mean everyone is leaving the island. Seven or eight families numbering about 200 people have chosen to stay for now. Workers were even building a two-story house on the island Wednesday.

Among those staying was Augencio Arango, a 49year-old boat motor mechanic.

“I prefer to be here (on the island), it’s more relaxing,” Arango said. His mother, brother and grandmother moved to Isberyala.

“Honestly, I don’t know why the people want to live there,” he said. “It’s like living in the city, locked up and you can’t leave and the houses are small.”

Tiny Gardi Sugdub is one of about 50 populated islands in the archipelago of the Guna Yala territory.

Every year, especially when the strong winds whip up the sea in November and December, water fills the streets and enters the homes. Climate change isn’t only leading to a rise in sea levels, but it’s also warming oceans and thereby powering stronger storms.

The Gunas of Gardi Sugdub are only the first of 63 communities along Panama’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts that government officials and scientists expect to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels.

Author: Ray Nakano

Ray is a retired, third generation Japanese Canadian born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He resides in Toronto where he worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years. Ray was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011 and practises in the Plum Village tradition, supporting sanghas in their mindfulness practice. Ray is very concerned about our climate crisis. He has been actively involved with the ClimateFast group (https://climatefast.ca) for the past 5 years. He works to bring awareness of our climate crisis to others and motivate them to take action. He has created the myclimatechange.home.blog website, for tracking climate-related news articles, reports, and organizations. He has created mobilizecanada.ca to focus on what you can do to address the climate crisis. He is always looking for opportunities to reach out to communities, politicians, and governments to communicate about our climate crisis and what we need to do. He says: “Our world is in dire straits. We have to bend the curve on our heat-trapping pollutants in the next few years if we hope to avoid the most serious impacts of human-caused global warming. Doing nothing is not an option. We must do everything we can to create a livable future for our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations.”