The Climate Crisis and the First Planned Relocation of an Indigenous Community in Latin America

Gardi Sugdub island, Gunayala, Panama. AP Photo/Matias Delacroix.

Almost every day the climate crisis reminds us that the adverse effects of climate change are not something that will happen in the future—they are already happening everywhere. On May 28th, 2024, the Guna indigenous community of Gardi Sugdub (Island of the Crab), in the semi-autonomous region of Gunayala, Panama, was finally able to relocate from their tiny island to Isberyala, a newly built community in the mainland, after working tirelessly toward that outcome for fourteen years. It was an historical event at several levels, including that it was the first climate related planned relocation of an indigenous community in Latin America.

New community of Isberyala, Gunayala, Panama

Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) policy arena, planned relocation was mentioned for the first time in 2010, during COP 16, when the Cancun Adaptation Framework introduced the concept of climate mobility. Specifically, paragraph 14 (f) urged the parties to take “measures to enhance understanding, coordination and cooperation with regard to climate change induced displacement, migration and planned relocation, where appropriate at the national, regional and international levels.”[1]

Until recently, out of the three main forms of human mobility mentioned under the UNFCCC, planned relocation was the least understood and studied. However, during the last few years the amount of literature focusing on planned relocation has boomed, as planned relocation experiences, like the one of Gardi Sugdub, are becoming more common worldwide. The Pacific, and to a lesser extent, Latin America, are the regions of the world that have been leading the practices and case studies on planned relocation.

As a form of human mobility, planned relocation has some specific characteristics that make it unique and worthwhile to be studied. First, it is intended to be permanent, as opposed to temporary. Second, it involves an entire community, or most of its members, as opposed to only individuals. Third, the community to be relocated has a shared destination site, as opposed to scattered destinations in multiple places. Finally, it has an external supporting actor, typically at the state level, but some planned relocations have been funded by international development agencies or international NGOs. Planned relocations have a higher possibility of success if the relocated community is leading the process. If planned relocation is done well, it can avoid forced displacement and migration in the first place. It also can be a permanent solution for people already being displaced.

Thirty-eight out of forty-nine Guna indigenous communities on the coasts of Gunayala live in small islands located in front of river mouths. The remaining ones live on the coast near a river mouth. Virtually all the Guna people who live in the islands are facing the challenge of relocating due to demographic density, social vulnerability, rising sea levels, storm surges, and flooding. In 2010, faced with these threats, the community on Gardi Sugdub reluctantly decided that they had to relocate to agricultural lands they owned on the mainland. Appeals for support to the Government of Panama eventually produced the offer of a housing project to build 300 houses, setting in motion an essentially unplanned relocation to resettle their community. However, realizing the complexity of the problems they were facing, the Guna of Gardi Sugdub requested support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) for guidance in developing a resettlement plan. In this way, the IADB gets involved with some of the technical assistance needed in support of the community, who overall has led the relocation effort.

Population growth over several decades has led to serious overcrowding on the islands and is a contributing factor to the need for relocation. Over the last fifteen years, however, a series of weather-related events and disasters have highlighted the issues of rising sea levels and climate change, making the relocation of communities from the islands to the mainland an increasing priority. It is estimated that approximately 28,000 people will eventually have to relocate from the Gunayala islands to the mainland because of rising sea levels and climate-related events in the years to come. In addition, a further 12,000 people originally from the Gunayala islands who for several reasons have moved to Panama City are expected to join the relocation back to their home province, bringing the total number to some 40,000 people.[2]

As most indigenous people, the Guna people have always been “ecologically mobile, capable of moving across ecological systems for sustenance.”[3] The people of Gardi Sugdub, as most of the people from Gunayala, learned to master their knowledge about marine life and resources over the last 150 years, when they moved from the mainland to live permanently in the islands, escaping mosquito-borne diseases. In fact, anthropologist Monica Martínez-Mauri has shown that people of Gardi Sugdub were able to identify 208 out of 258 species of fish documented by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.[4] Interestingly, Martinez-Mauri also found that the Guna do not have a name for coral, as they use the generic name akkua (rock). As a result, it is not surprising that the Guna have been using dead coral for decades to protect and expand the size of their islands, making themselves more vulnerable to storm surges, as coral is a natural barrier against it.

Many of the Gunayala communities struggle with the idea of relocation. Even in Gardi Sugdub not everyone is convinced about the need to relocate, resulting in a small minority which has decided to stay put on the island. Recognizing the importance of Gardi Sugdub’s relocation, dozens of Panamanian and international reporters attended the formal inauguration of Isberyala last June, in which the outgoing Panamanian president Cortizo symbolically handled the keys of a new house to a Guna family. However, the news coverage in Panama about the relocation was overwhelming and many Guna people were not happy with the way the media portrayed them: as climate displaced people and as victims of the climate crisis. Many Gunas pushed back: “Our move is not about climate change, it is about lack of space,” said Guna leader Nadia Erhman. It is about both, and none of them is less real or important than the other one. The community of Gardi Sugdub has shown us for fourteen years their amazing sense of agency by leading the entire, and so far, successful relocation process. Perhaps one of the lessons of this relocation process is that it is time to stop portraying communities facing the challenges of climate change impacts as passive victims. There is no valid reason for us to take away their agency.

[1] United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. FCCC/CP/2010/7/Add.1. Decision 1/CP.16. The Cancun Agreements: Outcome of the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention. Paragraph 14.

[2] Displacement Solutions. The Peninsula Principles in Action: Climate Change and Displacement in the Autonomous Region of Gunayala, Panama. Mission Report (Displacement Solutions, 2014).

[3] Cullen, Miriam and Witjes, Nivikka L. “Losing home without going anywhere. Reconceptualising climate-related displacement in international law and policy in ways relevant to Inuit in Greenland,” in Nordic Approaches to Climate-Related Human Mobility, Ed. Miriam Cullen and Matthew Scott (Routledge, 2024), 89.

[4] Martinez-Mauri, Mónica. Kuna Yala, tierra de mar. Ecología y territorio indígena en Panamá (Ediciones Abya Yala, 2011), 92-93.

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