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PHOTO ESSAY: Panama's sinking islands

New Internationalist

03 Dec 2024 • 3 min read

Houses pictured at the water’s edge on the island of Playón Chico. EUAN WALLACE

Under a new finance goal adopted at the COP29 climate summit last week, wealthy nations have agreed to channel at least $300 billion a year to accelerating climate action in developing countries by 2035.

UN climate chief Simon Stiell described the new finance goal as 'an insurance policy for humanity'. Poor countries called it a 'slap in the face'.

The new goal, which kicks in from 2026, replaces the existing annual target of $100bn – a figure which was met two years late in 2022, and is widely seen as insufficient to help poorer countries make the shift to clean energy and adapt to extreme weather and rising seas.

In January of this year residents of Gardi Sugdub, a small island in Guna Yala, Panama, made headlines when rising sea levels forced them to become the Americas' first climate refugees. Now, with the region on the frontlines of worsening climate change, many of their island neighbours could face the same fate.

'If we stay here, the consequences will be terrible,' says Ovidio Guillen a resident of the island. 'We have tried to move the community inland, but we don’t have the money.'

Unlike residents of Gardi Sugdub who were relocated to the mainland in May, Playón Chico is receiving no government support to facilitate such a move. Their situation is not an isolated one — the ministry of environment has identified 63 more coastal communities that are at risk.

As rising sea levels creep further towards their homes, Panama's island residents must not be forgotten.

— Euan Wallace (@euan_wallace)

Luis Layans, 70, a resident of Playón Chico, pictured on the island. 'We are still fighting to defend Mother Earth,' he says. EUAN WALLACE

Young boys dodge the water as they play basketball on a flooded street in Playón Chico. EUAN WALLACE

Water creeps onto land in Gardi Sugdub - the already evacuated island three hours from Playón Chico. EUAN WALLACE

A young boy sits in a wooden boat moored at a makeshift pier behind the house where he lives with his family in Playón Chico. EUAN WALLACE

Elena Gonzalez, 77, has lived on Playón Chico her whole life. Sometimes, she says, she cries for the world that her grandchildren have been born into. EUAN WALLACE

Action & Info

📰 Read more about coral bleaching in the Guna Yala islands and why this signals a major problem with rising ocean temperatures

👉 Share: UNHCR's Climate Resilience Fund to support climate refugees globally

✅ Follow: Congresso General Guna, a group that represents the Guna people’s interests in Panamanian government. They organize various cultural activities and administer all islands in Guna Yala.

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