Latin Americas first climate change exodus

Disappearing island

 
2,451Views 12Comments Posted 12/04/2018

Some 1,450 Gunas from the San Blas island Cartí Sugdup, will become the first indigenous community in Latin America to be relocated because of climate change, according to the NGO  Displacement Solutions.

The Panamanian state resumed the relocation project in 2017, which began in 2010 reports La Prensa

The  Gunas will leave their traditional dwellings of walls of white cane and roof of pencas, on one of the largest islands in the Guna Yala Archipelago by 2019 to about 300 homes of 41 square meters and two bedrooms, with buildings s for cultural meetings of the tribe. The total cost will reach $10 million, according to the government.

the exodus is the first of the 40  inhabited islands in the regions 365 with a total indigenous population of  33,109 inhabitants, distributed in coastal lands and islets.

The accelerated increase in sea level caused by melting polar icecaps has already disappeared some white sand islands in what is seen as a paradisiacal archipelago.

The debate continues in other island communities, but in spite of climate change skeptics, the waters keep rising.



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