Climate change is pushing an Indigenous community in Panama off their island home

James PasleyJan 12, 2024, 21:27 IST

An aerial view of Carti Sugtupu in Panama.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

The Guna people living on an island in Panama called Carti Sugtupu will soon relocate to the mainland.
Rising sea levels have caused harsher storms and tougher living conditions on the island.

On a tiny island off the coast of Panama, about 1,200 Indigenous locals known as the Guna people are waiting to leave.

The island, which is called Carti Sugtupu, is over the size of four football fields and is only 3.2 feet above sea level. In recent years, its residents have increasingly felt the impacts of climate change, weathering brutal storms and flooding.

On the mainland, Panama's government has been building a 300-house village they can move to, but construction has been repeatedly delayed. They are hoping to move there early next year.

Here's what life is like for the Guna people of Carti Sugtupu.

Just off Panama's northern coastline is the San Blas archipelago, a group of about 365 mostly uninhabited islands.

An aerial view of islands in the San Blas archipelago.Frédéric Soltan/Corbis via Getty Images

Some of the islands are inhabited by an Indigenous community known as the Guna people.

Guna people in Panama.Frédéric Soltan/Corbis via Getty Images

The Guna people are culturally independent.

A Guna woman in a traditional dress stands in front of her home on the island of Carti Sugtupu.Nina Raingold/Getty Images

Recently, the fate of one tiny island, Carti Sugtupu, in the archipelago has been watched closely.

An aerial view of the island of Carti Sugtupu in Panama.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

The locals rely on fishing and harvesting crops on the mainland, as well as a little tourism.

Guna men talk as they sit among boats on the island of Carti Sugtupu.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

But they cook.

Magdalena Martinez, a local island resident, cooks at her house on Carti Sugtupu.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

And go to school.

Students talk before class on Carti Sugtupu.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

But life on the island has gotten harder in recent years.

A Guna man paddles toward the island of Carti Sugtupu.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

Carti Sugtupu is only 3.2 feet above sea level.

A Guna man transports his family on a boat with a sail near the island of Carti Sugtupu, not the island pictured in the distance.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

Now, every year, locals living on Carti Sugtupu have to deal with floods that can last as long as two weeks.

A house was destroyed by the sea on the island of Carti Sugtupu.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

Over the years, locals extended the island by filling in the surrounding coral with stones and trash, which may have expedited the impact of the rising sea levels.

An aerial view of the islands of Carti Sugtupu, Carti Yandup, and Carti Tupile.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

The Guna people never planned on leaving, but after brutal storms hit the island in 2008, the community decided they needed an alternative plan.

A Guna woman walks under the rain on the island of Carti Sugtupu.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

Carti Sugtupu's situation is not unique.

An aerial view of an island in Tuvalu in the South Pacific.Mario Tama/Getty Images

But unlike many island nations, the residents of Carti Sugtupu have a relocation plan in place.

A family in a boat paddling near Carti Sugtupu.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

While 50 houses weren't enough for 1,300 people, it was a start. But after the offer was made, nothing happened for years.

A group of Guna children sitting outside and leaning on houses on Carti Sugtupu.Arnulfo Franco/AP

Since then, construction on the new town called La Barriada, translating to "the neighborhood," has been underway.

An aerial view of the Isber Yala neighborhood being built on the Caribbean coast in mainland Panama.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

As of late last year, the town was 70% completed.

An aerial view of a row of houses in the Isber Yala neighborhood on the Caribbean coast in mainland Panama.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

But not everyone is going to leave the island.

Guna Indigenous community leaders known as Saglas lie on hammocks while attending people at the local congress on the island of Carti Sugtupu.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

Nonetheless, the island will become unlivable at some point.

A Guna Indigenous man paddles his canoe as he fishes near the island of Carti Sugtupu.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

The residents of Carti Sugtupu are not the only Guna people facing this issue.

An aerial view of Nurdub, a tourist island near Carti Sugtupu.Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

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