Gardi Sugdub. The sinking island

Gardi Sugdub is one of the islands of the San Blas archipelago, inhabited by the Kuna Yala indigenous people. In a few decades the rise in sea level caused by climate change will make this island disappear, like many others in this region of the Caribbean, but the inhabitants of Gardi Sugdub are the first case in Latin America that has already planned their relocation to the mainland and their new municipality is already under construction.

Nadin Morales is a young Kuna girl from Gardi Sugdub. Unlike many islanders she is eager to move to the community’s new location on the mainland and start a new life away from the island. Her dream is to establish a sustainable tourism business and promote the Kuna Yala culture. Second image: drone photograph of submerged land in the Gardi archipelago. Clemencio, a young fisherman from Gardi Sugdub picks up a cambombia (pink snail) while searching for lobsters, his main objective in the underwater fishing trip. For centuries the Kuna Yala have survived by fishing and agriculture.

Clemencio, a young fisherman from Gardi Sugdub picks up a cambombia (pink snail) while searching for lobsters, his main objective in the day’s spearfishing. For centuries the Kuna Yala have survived by fishing and agriculture.

Interior of one of the classrooms of the Gardi Sugdub public school. One of the most exciting changes of the move to the mainland for this community is that it includes the construction of a new school with improved facilities.

Getzarelis Herrera is one of the students at Gardi Sugdub Public School. Many of the school’s decorations and handicrafts make reference to the ocean. Although the ancestral origin of the Kuna Yala is today’s mainland Colombia, the culture of this community is deeply linked to the sea. Second image: drone photograph of submerged lands in the Gardi archipelago.

Iker Preciado, a 5-year-old boy from Gardi Sugdub, watches cartoons on a smartphone from a hammock in his house. Unlike many other islands in the Kuna Yala archipelago, this community has good internet access and that makes its inhabitants very connected to the rest of the world. Many young people want to study and even go to live in Panama City.

Fisherman Clemencio dives into the waters of the Caribbean Sea during his spearfishing session. Many Kuna Yala leaders do not accept climate change, but the reality is that the environment of this archipelago is already being affected. In addition to rising sea levels, rain cycles are changing and many marine species are being affected, especially corals.

Saila José Davis is the top leader of the Kuna Yala community of Gardi Sugdub. He was one of the people responsible for making the decision to leave the current island and, after 300 years living here, move his community to the mainland. Second image: drone photograph of almost submerged land in the Gardi archipelago.

Clemencio finishes his fishing day after catching a lobster, a pink conch and some fish. Even with the arrival of tourism, the Kuna Yala have made an effort to maintain their traditional way of subsistence, something that has been key in times of crisis such as the 2020 pandemic.

The Gardi archipelago is only a small part of the Guna Yala islands of Panama. There are more than 70 islands inhabited by this indigenous community in this region of the Caribbean and all of them are threatened to disappear before the rise of the sea level that accompanies climate change.

The island of Gardi Sugdub is doomed to disappear under water. The rise in sea level caused by climate change will devour this Panamanian Caribbean island in a few years. Its more than a thousand inhabitants, indigenous people of the Kuna ethnic group, are waiting to be transferred to a new population on the mainland, thus becoming climate refugees.

They are the first to flee, but the entire region faces the same future. The Kuna Yala arrived on these islands 300 years ago fleeing the violence of the Spanish conquistadors. Today, their almost 80 settlements are threatened by the same sea that once served as their refuge.

A work by Berta Vicente Salas and Edu Ponces / RUIDO Photo