Off Panama’s Caribbean coast lies the tiny island of Gardí Sugdub, one of the 50 islands home to the Indigenous Guna people for over 300 years. Now, due to climate change-driven rising sea levels, that home is in severe danger. In recent years, the tiny 1200-foot-long and 450-foot-wide island has experienced severe flooding that has destabilized everyday activities for the community. The ocean is central to the Guna people’s way of life and supports the island's main income streams: fishing and tourism. These have been significantly affected by worsening tidal floods, storms, and strong winds.  

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute reports that sea levels near Gardí Sugdub are rising at 3.4mm per year, more than double the rate recorded in the 1960s. The island is just 0.5m to 1m above water. Institute director Steve Paton concludes that all 50 Guna islands may need to be vacated by 2100.

Many locals remark that extreme weather conditions have exacerbated existing issues like overpopulation and a lack of space in recent years. Overcrowding has forced families to live in tight quarters, often in improvised wooden homes with sheet metal roofs. According to community leaders, the overcrowding has had profound effects on health, water access, and children’s education. All challenges are intensified by strong winds, storms, and rain, which, compounded by high tides, cause extreme flooding and destruction to the island's already struggling infrastructure. 

Fourteen years ago, as the tide turned for the worse, Guna community members sought support from the Panamanian government to help relocate the community to the mainland. In the years since this decision, the relocation process has sparked a critical reflection on the application of human rights provided to Indigenous Peoples, specifically the rights under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples safeguarding their self determination through applying free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) in matters that affect their territorial integrity. 

Adherence to the principles of FPIC would mean that the Panamanian government and any other actors involved would need to engage in genuine consultation and cooperation with Indigenous peoples, emphasizing their right to represent their institutions and provide consent before any legislative or administrative measures are adopted that may impact them. 

Reviews of the relocation scheme indicate that at least some critical principles of free, prior, and informed consent guided the process, perhaps even serving as a model for future relocations of Indigenous populations. In alignment with FPIC, the Panamanian government did not exercise undue power in the community's decision to relocate. Instead, the final decision was made after decades of consideration by the community alone. Even still, a significant portion of the community has opted not to relocate. Those who have chosen to relocate have done so voluntarily.

After the community’s decision, an internal neighborhood commission was created to help plan and organize the relocation. Any member of the community could join. Following months of requests from the commission, Panama’s Ministry of Housing and Territorial Legislation Planning agreed to construct new houses for the relocation. 

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) recently held community-led workshops to support better long-term challenges associated with relocating the Gardí Sugdub community. The topics of these workshops were wide-ranging and included transitioning from open-air defecation, learning about risks children may face playing in the grass, and how the Gardí Sugdub diaspora will be integrated into the new neighborhood.

Despite notable strides in inclusivity, the relocation process has also suffered many shortcomings. 

Conflict arose in 2015 when the Ministry of Housing proposed a design for the new community that many found to be inconsistent with traditional culture. This caused significant intra-community conflict, as many residents' fears of losing their culture seemed to materialize. In 2016 residents, 6 years after the start of relocation planning, residents reported that the government had yet to engage in participatory planning with the Gardí Sugdub community nor had they provided climate displacement relief. 

These failures in incorporating traditional and local knowledge into development plans were compounded by long delays that caused the new community’s development to lag for over a decade. As recently as 2023, Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo assured the Indigenous Guna residents that the new site would be ready by September 25, 2023. Unfortunately, when the date rolled around, the deadline was missed for the second time that year.

The transition has been challenging and marred by delays, but as of June 2024, 1,000 Guna people are finally receiving the keys to their new homes on the mainland in a planned community named Isber Yala.

The new town features over 300 two-bedroom homes, paved roads, streetlights, a school for 650 students, and notably many traditional communal spaces for Guna customs and practices including a Casa de Chica or Ceremony House. These facilities are a significant selling point for many from the island who see this as an opportunity to access enhanced living conditions, especially as there are reports that homes on the island sometimes house upwards of 17 people. 

Isber Yala’s inclusion of Guna cultural spaces is a hopeful development given previous concerns that residents had about community design in 2015. Despite this, loss of culture is still front of mind for many from the community. Evelio López, a 61-year-old teacher on the island noted that the new community’s mile-long distance from the sea presents a significant challenge. For over 200 years the Guna culture has been derived directly from the people’s proximity and dependence on the sea. Leaving it means disrupting not only economic activities but also a long-practiced way of life. 

On the other hand, some community members see their move to Isber Yala as an opportunity to safeguard cultural heritage, such as customs, language, and the Guna lifestyle. Before arriving in the Panamanian archipelago in the wake of Spanish colonialism, the Guna people were land-based and even inhabited forests. For residents like Herculano Lombarto, the move is a return to their roots. “The Guna comes from the land,” he says, emphasizing his anticipation of reconnecting with his ancestral origins. 

Community leader Blas Lopez, informed Human Rights Watch that most people in the Guna community are excited about relocating. However, they are hesitant to move until specific priority needs are addressed. Specifically, he mentioned trash disposal, access to water, and the school's readiness at Isber Yala as critical concerns.

Even now with facilities built, residents have expressed concerns about governmental planning and the feasibility of sustainable living in Isber Yala, primarily due to the need for economic activity in the area. Many are wondering how they can live in this new place without any streams of income, especially as the government has yet to figure out how the Guna people will pay for basic needs like electricity and water. 

This situation underscores a pattern of unfulfilled commitments and the need for comprehensive infrastructure development, issues that have impacted the development of the new Guna community from the very beginning. These details will need to be addressed in a clear and substantive way to ensure that the relocation goes beyond a simple movement of people from one location to another and instead allows the full integration of the Guna into better circumstances with full enjoyment of human rights. 

Going forward it is crucial that governments in charge of relocation exercise careful consideration when designing the development projects. Considerations must recognize and engage the affected community while respecting their autonomy and agency before and after relocation. As such governments and affiliated institutions must - in conjunction with communities - analyze not only if a relocation is appropriate but if it is sustainable over the long term, taking into account environmental, social, and economic factors. In doing so, they must be prepared to be part of the relocation process far after the change in location and invest time and resources in full community integration. In the case of the Gardí Sugdub relocation, IDB’s support - while praised by many - has come to an end, a worrying sign given that in many ways the process has only just begun.

Amidst these worries, the community's tone is hopeful, as Blas Lopez continues: “There are many challenges ahead, but this does not discourage us. We understand that relocation will be a process.”

Despite previous and current challenges, Gardí Sugdub's relocation project is undoubtedly a crucial milestone for Panama and other communities facing similar issues to learn from and improve upon. This marks Panama's first climate-driven relocation, and it stands as one of the pioneering community-led, government-supported projects in the Americas.

The Guna people's experiences reaffirm the need for global action on climate change. They also serve as a potent reminder that the most vulnerable communities, such as Indigenous groups, bear the brunt of the climate crisis despite contributing the least. In particular, communities facing relocation must be adequately supported to minimize harms such as loss of culture, a process that must last well beyond the initial move. 

The Guna people's move to Isber Yala is more than a physical relocation; it's an adaptation journey. They are not embarking on this journey alone; some 400 other communities worldwide are undertaking planned relocation due to climate and weather hazards. These communities' experiences, successes, and failures are invaluable as we navigate and adapt to our changing climate reality.