In June 2024, around 300 families were relocated off the island of Gardi Sugdub in Panama’s Guna Yala province due to concerns over rising sea levels.
The families were moved to a newly built housing development called Nuevo Cartí, on the mainland in Guna Yala.
Gardi Sugdub is home to nearly 1,300 members of the Guna community.
Panama is situated in the Caribbean, where sea level rise currently averages around 3 to 4 millimetres per year.
Many of the small island developing states (SIDS) — located in the Caribbean, the Pacific, and the Atlantic, Indian Ocean and South China Sea — are facing existential threats due to rising oceans.
SIDS such as Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands, and Kiribati are experiencing some of the most dramatic effects of rising sea levels. These islands, along with losing their land, are also facing existential threats to their culture and economies.
