{"id":8664,"date":"2024-06-06T08:06:54","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T12:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8664"},"modified":"2024-06-10T08:11:34","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T12:11:34","slug":"panama-community-pushed-from-caribbean-island-by-rising-sea-levels-moves-into-new-houses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8664","title":{"rendered":"Panama Community Pushed from Caribbean Island by Rising Sea Levels Moves into New Houses"},"content":{"rendered":"
Residents from the island of Gardi Sugdub walk to their new homes on the mainland in Nuevo Carti on Panama\u2019s Caribbean coast, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. About 300 families are moving to the mainland as government officials and scientists expect communities along Panama\u2019s Caribbean and Pacific coasts to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hammocks began appearing this week in the doorways of 300 new houses built in what was previously a yucca field along Panama\u2019s Caribbean coast for families from the country\u2019s first low-lying island evacuated due to rising sea levels<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

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 new community of Isberyala.<\/p>\n

They quickly saw some differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere it\u2019s cooler,\u201d said 73-year-old Augusto Walter, hanging his hammock on Wednesday in the tidy two-bedroom house with a backyard. \u201cThere (on the island) at this time of day, it\u2019s an oven.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Civil protection officials move residents\u2019 belongings on a boat to the mainland from Gardi Sugdub Island, top, off Panama\u2019s Caribbean coast, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most of Gardi Sugdub\u2019s families had moved or were in the process of moving, but Isberyala\u2019s freshly paved and painted streets named after historic Guna leaders were still largely empty.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

However, that doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Among those staying was Augencio Arango a 49-year-old boat motor mechanic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI prefer to be here (on the island), it\u2019s more relaxing,\u201d Arango said. His mother, brother and grandmother moved to Isberyala.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t know why the people want to live there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like living in the city, locked up and you can\u2019t leave and the houses are small.\u201d<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t think climate change<\/a><\/span> was responsible for the move, but rather decisions made by people. \u201cMan is who harms nature,\u201d Arango said. \u201cNow they want to cut down all the trees to build houses on solid ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buildings cover Gardi Sugdub Island, part of San Blas archipelago off Panama\u2019s Caribbean coast, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tiny Gardi Sugdub is one of about 50 populated islands in the archipelago of the Guna Yala territory.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t only leading to a rise in sea levels, but it\u2019s also warming oceans and thereby powering stronger storms.<\/p>\n

The Gunas of Gardi Sugdub are only the first of 63 communities along Panama\u2019s Caribbean and Pacific coasts that government officials and scientists expect to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades.<\/p>\n

Ernesto L\u00f3pez, 69, moved Tuesday with his wife Digna. Two more relatives were expected soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel like we\u2019re more comfortable here, there\u2019s more space,\u201d L\u00f3pez said, sitting on his own hammock Wednesday. \u201cOn Gardi Sugdub we were really squeezed in houses with a lot people. We didn\u2019t fit anymore and the sea was coming in every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like most of the families who had moved in, L\u00f3pez, a Guna leader, and his wife still didn\u2019t have electricity or water. The government said electricity was available in the community but families had to set up their own accounts. They made do their first night with a battery-powered lantern and the gas burners they brought from the island.<\/p>\n

Mangos, unripened bananas and sugar cane that L\u00f3pez had brought that morning from his farm plot some two hours away lay in a pile on the house\u2019s floor. Like most families, they didn\u2019t plan to completely abandon the island where generations had spent their entire lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce in a while we are going to cross to the island,\u201d L\u00f3pez said.<\/p>\n

Late in the day, many of Isberyala\u2019s new residents did just that because their new homes didn\u2019t yet have electricity.<\/p>\n

New homes stand in Nuevo Carti on Panama\u2019s Caribbean coast, Monday, May 27, 2024. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Betsaira Brenes waits to move containers of water to her new home, behind, on the mainland in Nuevo Carti, after moving from the island of Gardi Sugdub off Panama\u2019s Caribbean coast, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Betsaira Brenes, 19, moved with her mother, grandmother and an aunt Wednesday. Carrying two gallons of water into the house that they brought from the island, she said it would be enough space for their family after living on the crowded island.<\/p>\n

They planned to continue straddling between mainland and island too, she said. \u201cThe good thing in all of this is that now we have a new house and the other one where the other aunts stayed.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Juan Zamorano, AP News<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hammocks began appearing this week in the doorways of 300 new houses built in what was previously a yucca field along Panama\u2019s Caribbean coast for families from the country\u2019s 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":8666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/96c86fd\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4657x3106+1+0\/resize\/2720x1814!\/format\/webp\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F2e%2F54%2F72a7498111e3b9b48439187601d3%2F19cb3fd686f04ed8bdd052707c532803","fifu_image_alt":"Panama Community Pushed from Caribbean Island by Rising Sea Levels Moves into New Houses","footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8667,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8664\/revisions\/8667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}