Environment & Climate
On the front line of climate change: how sea level affects these islands in Panama
Rising sea levels are forcing some residents of the autonomous indigenous community of Guna Yala, off Panama's Atlantic coast, to relocate to the mainland. Their fate is an important test case as more coastal communities face the prospect of becoming "climate refugees." (Ver/leer en español)
A aerial image of Gardi Sugdub, home to 1,500 people in the autonomous, indigenous community of Guna Yala. Panama's government plans to relocate families due to climate change.
Michael AdamsA drone image of Gardi Sugdub, which is about 1,312 feet long and 492 feet wide, with the highest point at one meter above sea level.
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A drone image of another of the islands of the autonomous and indigenous community of Guna Yala. Experts predict that the islands will eventually have to be evacuated due to the rising water levels they have been experiencing.
Michael Adams
Children playing on Gardi Sugdub, one of the islands of Guna Yala, which are threatened by rising sea levels off Panama's Atlantic coast.
Michael Adams
A hospital for the inhabitants of Guna Yala is also unoccupied, as part of an unfinished government plan to relocate families due to rising sea levels.
David AdamsA Guna woman showing examples of her colorful designs of traditional clothing, known as 'molas'. The history of the Guna people goes back some 500 years to their beginnings along the Darien River in a very remote region of Panama. They migrated to the islands about 150 years ago because of malaria and other tropical diseases, as well as the impact of colonization by the descendants of Spanish explorers who arrived in the 15th century.
Michael Adams
A school was built by the government of Panama for relocated children from the islands in Guna Yala is overloaded and unoccupied, part of an unfinished government plan to relocate families due to rising sea levels. (Photo taken in November 2018).
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One of the 365 islands of Guna Yala, Panama. Islanders like to say there is an island for every day of the year, although not all of them are inhabited. According to Dr. Matthew Larsen, former director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center in Panama, as a result of climate change and rising sea levels, "eventually these islands will have to be abandoned altogether."
Gardi Sugdub is the most inhabited island in the Guna Yala region. The name means "crab island" and is located one kilometer off the coast. Between 1,500 and 2,000 people live there, according to the 'saila' (community leader) Ernesto Pérez.
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A Guna woman wearing traditional dress. In the last decade, Guna Yala has experienced a series of natural disasters and climate-related events that have increased community awareness of the issues of sea level rise and climate change. This has sparked a debate about the relocation of some islanders to the mainland.
Michael Adams
A Guna woman in traditional clothing walking along the narrow sandy street on Gardi Sugdub, one of the islands of Guna Yala, Panama. The island is a maze of muddy paths and there are no vehicles, only an elementary school, a police station, a medical clinic, and a few stores with basic supplies and a gas station for the numerous small boats. The rest of the island is filled with housing, some made of palm fronds and others simple, one- or two-story concrete block structures with aluminum roofs and solar panels.
Michael Adams
The entrance to the indigenous autonomous territory of Guna Yala, near the Atlantic coast of Panama, is guarded by the Panamanian border police with SENAFRONT.
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