Climate change threatens Kuna island dwellers

INDIGENOUS INHABITANTS of an island in the Kuna Yala region of Panama represent the first documented case in Latin America of a community forced to move by the rising sea level.

This is indicated by a study of the NGO Displacement Solutions which shows the vulnerability of the islands of the Kuna Yala region, considered the most likely to suffer the effects of the rising sea waters reports La Prensa.
The report highlights the situation of 28,000 indigenous gunas forced to leave their home in Gardi Sugdup to move to the mainland. Their transfer will be made in the coming decades.
Aware of the environmental situation, the people of Gardi Sugdub through a District Commission partnership organized in 2010 a plan to coordinate the relocation of 300 families. But there has been little or no progress four years later.
According to spokesmen for the Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Land Management (Miviot) they were told that the $2.4 million funds allocated by the Martinelli administration for the project, are not available.
Thw Deputy Minister of Territorial Land Use (Miviot), Juan Manuel Vasquez under the new administration said that the issue will be taken up.