A Panaman community that escaped his island of drowning

“If the island sinks, I’ll sink with him,” says Delfino Davies, and his smile doesn’t fade for a second.

There is silence, except that he has hit his broom across the floor of a small museum, on which he runs by documenting the life of his community in Panama, Guna.

“You could hear the kids shout before … music everywhere, neighbors argue,” he says, “but now all the sounds have passed.”

His community, which lives on the tiny island of Garda Sugdub, is the first in Panama to be moved due to climate change.

The government said they face a “immediate risk” of the rise in sea level, which scientists say will make the island uninhabited by 2050.

In June last year, most of the inhabitants left this set of wooden and tin homes for the ranks of neat prefabricated houses on the mainland.

Some have been praised as a model of other groups around the world whose homes are threatened, but even so, shared the community.

“My father, my brother, my sisters and my friends have no,” Delphino says. “Sometimes the children whose families remained crying, wondering where their friends went, he says.

The house after the house is sheltered. Olo remained about 1,000 people, while about 100 were left – some because there was not enough room in the new settlement. Others, like Dolphins, are not fully convinced that climate change is a threat or simply did not want to leave.

He says he wants to stay near Ocean, where he can hunt hunt. “People who lose tradition lose their souls. The essence of our culture is on the islands,” he adds.

Guna lived on the Guard Sugdub since the 19th century, and even longer on other islands in this archipelago near the northern coast of Panama. They escaped from the mainland to avoid Spanish conquistadors and, later, epidemics and conflicts with other indigenous groups.

They are known for their clothing called “Molas”, decorated with colorful design.

Guna is currently inhabiting more than 40 other islands. Steve Paton, a Smithsonian tropical scientist in Panama, says that “almost security” is that most, if not all, the islands will be submerged before the end of the century.

As climate change cause the soil to heat, the sea level increases as the glaciers and ice leaves melt and seawater spreads as it is heated.

Scientists warn that hundreds of millions of people living in coastal areas around the world can be at risk by the end of the century.

On the Guards Sugdub, Waves entered the houses during the rainy season, breaking under the hanging networks where families sleep.

Mr. Paton says, “It is very unlikely that the island will be immigrated by 2050, based on the current and projected rates of the sea level.”

However, the first discussions about moving began, more than a decade ago, due to the population growth, not climate change.

The island is only 400 me 150 m long. Some residents see overcrowding such as a burning problem. But others, like Magdalene Martínez, are afraid of the growing sea:

“We saw the tide greater every year,” she says. “We couldn’t cook on our stoves and it was always flooded … so we said,” We have to get out of here. “

Magdalena was among those who were drawn into motor boats and wooden henna last June and mounted for new homes.

“I only brought my clothes and some kitchen accessories,” she says. “You feel like you leave pieces of your life on the island.”

The new community, Isberyal, allows the weather – only 15 minutes by boat, followed by a five -minute drive, from Garda Sugdub. But it feels like another world.

Identical white and yellow homes of the road line.

Magdalen’s eyes bright as he shows a “little house” in which he lives with his 14-year-old grandson Bianca and his dog.

Each house has a small area of ​​the country behind it – a luxury that is not available on the island. “I want to plant Yuccu, tomato, bananas, mango and pineapple,” she delights.

“It’s pretty sad to leave the place you have been in for so long. You miss your friends, the streets you lived in, were so close to the sea,” she says.

Isberyala was built with $ 15 million (£ 12m) from the Panama Government and additional means of inter -American development bank.

In his new meeting house, which is covered with branches and leaves in traditional style, Tito López, Sayla – or the community leader awaits.

“My identity and my culture will not change, only houses have changed,” he says.

It lies in a hanging net and explains that as long as the hanging net holds its place in the culture of Guna, “the heart of the Guna people will be alive.”

When Guna dies, they lie one day in their hanging area for family and friends. He was then buried next to them.

In a top new school, students aged 12 to 13 rehearse Guna music and dances. The boys in light shirts play pan pipes, while girls carrying molas shake maracas.

The skilled school on the island has now closed, and the students whose families stayed there every day to the new building with their computers, sports fields and library.

Magdalena says the conditions in Isberyali are better than on the island, where they say they had only four hours of electricity a day and had to drink water with a boat from Rijeka on land.

In Isberyali, the power supply is constantly, but the water – pumped from the well nearby – is switched on for only a few hours a day. The system sometimes broke down for days.

Also, there is no health care yet. Another resident, Yanisel Vallarino, says that one night her young daughter was gone and she had to arrange transportation back to the island late into the night to see a doctor.

Panama authorities said the BBC that the construction of the Isberyali hospital stopped about ten years ago due to lack of financing. But they said they hoped to revive the plan this year and to evaluate how to create space for the remaining residents to move from the island.

Yanisela is delighted to be able to attend evening classes in a new school now, but still returns to the island.

“I’m not used to it yet. And I miss the house,” she says.

Communities around the world will be “inspired” by the way the residents of the Guard Suugdub have faced their situation, says Eric Bower, a researcher of climate shifts on Human Rights Watch.

“We have to learn from these early cases to realize what success looks like,” she says.

When it arrives in the afternoon, school activities give a place to shout and volleyball football, basketball and volleyball.

“I prefer this place on the island because we have more room for playing,” says eight -year -old Jerson, before he dived for football.

Magdalena sits with her grandson, teaching her to sew the molasses.

“It’s hard for her, but I know she’ll learn. Our unique ways can’t get lost,” Magdalena says.

When asked what she missed on the island, she replies, “I wish we were all here.”