Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report Monday critiquing the Panamanian government’s lax efforts to assist coastal indigenous peoples in the country with relocation as their ancestral homelands are destroyed by climate change. The report focuses on the island of Gardi Sugdub and the Guna people living on it.
The residents of Gardi Sugdub have been planning an evacuation from the island due to rising sea levels since 2017. However, HRW claims that the Panamanian government’s promised support for the evacuation has been slow to come. Their report alleges that little work has been done to the site residents are being relocated to, with the site lacking sewage, water, garbage removal and health services. The report goes on to say that there may not be enough water supply in wells on site to support Gardi Sugdub residents, even if water service is connected. The report states:
It is imperative that Panama get this case right to pave a smoother path for others in the future. Gardi Sugdub is not alone: in Panama, it is the first of many communities seeking relocation facing sea level rise; it is also one of an estimated 400 that has completed or is undertaking relocation because of hazards globally.
The report concludes that the Panamanian government should provide immediate support for the relocation; be more transparent in the process of providing both financial and technical support; ensure continued humanitarian services to those still on the island; coordinate more efficiently with the appropriate government ministries; conduct a thorough review of the relocation plan and the work done to date; ensure climate change adaptive policies are put into place to protect the relocation site; ensure sustainable work for those who move to the relocation site; and work more directly with the Guna people.
The report comes months after the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its sixth report compiling global climate change research. In the Summary for Policymakers released along with the sixth report, the IPCC states, “Human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming, with global surface temperature reaching 1.1°C above 1850–1900 in 2011–2020.”
Climate change has already affected Indigenous communities more than many other communities and is likely to continue to do so according to the UN. Some examples include indigenous Basarwa residents of the Kalahari Desert in Africa who have struggled to get permission from the Botswana government to drill boreholes to obtain drinking water as temperatures have risen leading to extended periods of drought. In the US, indigenous groups living on the Northern Great Plains have experienced shortages in traditional foods such as salmon, trout and mussels due to reduced streamflow and rising water temperature. And Saami indigenous groups in Finland, Norway and Sweden, who have traditionally depended on reindeer for meat and milk, have seen massive herd reductions due to rain and warmer weather in the winter affecting the growth and access of lichen, the reindeer’s primary food source.
