journeymarvel.com – Surrounded by the blue sea and rolling waves, this place is a habitat filled with threats yet masked by beauty. Although it appears enchanting, the small landmass is actually in dire straits. Like standing on a ticking time bomb that could explode anytime, the people living here are truly under the shadow of catastrophe. And this is Gardi Sugdub, a settlement on a small island whose existence is increasingly threatened by rising seawater.
Gardi Sugdub, also known as Crab Island, is a small island in the northern Caribbean archipelago off the coast of Panama and has been home to the Guna people for over 200 years. Gardi Sugdub Island resembles a container shipyard, with brightly colored small dwellings tightly packed together. This island is one of the 365 islands in the San Blas archipelago off the northern coast of Panama, most of which are uninhabited. There are actually 4 other islands near Gardi Sugdub, but Gardi Sugdub is the largest and most densely populated island among its nearby counterparts. Although relatively larger compared to other islands, Gardi Sugdub is merely a 400-meter-long and 150-meter-wide island.
According to historical records, the land on Gardi Sugdub has been inhabited by humans for a long time. The first people to inhabit this island were members of the Guna tribe. The indigenous Guna community has occupied the island since around the mid-1800s when they left the coastal forest areas near the Panama-Colombia border to establish better trade and avoid disease-carrying pests. Initially, this island provided protection for the Guna tribe from diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and venomous snakes on the mainland and the Colombian border. Over time, life on the island continued to evolve.
And now, Gardi Sugdub has nearly 1,300 people living on an island that is only about the size of 4 soccer fields. The swelling population has led to no room left to expand houses and only leaving little space for children to play. It can be said that this is truly a cramped life on land surrounded by seawater.
There are no land vehicles here; boats are the only means of transportation commonly used by the residents. This island with few trees has some facilities such as an elementary school, a small Baptist church, and two very basic guesthouses. And the entire island is filled with multigenerational houses that are relatively simple.
Most houses are just clusters of wooden walls and bamboo with roofs made of a combination of zinc, tarpaulin, and palm leaves. Some houses built of concrete blocks even raise suspicions about the possibility of their occupants’ involvement in the rapidly growing drug smuggling trade in the Caribbean islands, which have more than three hundred islands.
As a source of electricity, the local community has self-sufficient solar power sources installed on the roofs of houses. Toilets are scattered along the edges of Gardi Sugdub, floating several meters above the sea level and coral. Food wrappers and plastic bottles bob and form a thick circle around the island.
The Guna people on this island are supported by biodiversity. The sea, mangroves, and forests around the land provide food, medicines, and building materials. Men hunt and fish to provide seafood, which they sell to the finest restaurants in Panama City.
In recent decades, the Guna tribe has moved towards an economy based on tourism and providing services to outsiders. They earn additional income by providing food, souvenirs, and cultural artifacts to tourists, but only allowing visitors to the islands with prior approval from the sailors. Outsiders are not allowed to own property or conduct business here.
The Guna community has chosen traditional authorities known as Salas (“tribal chiefs” in the Guna language) and Argars (“spokespersons for tribal chiefs”), and they hold regular meetings to address community issues.
But now the lives of the inhabitants of this small island are beginning to be threatened by rising sea levels, and researchers predict that in the future, this place will be swept away by the sea. Even floods and storms that have occurred before have made life on this island increasingly difficult, affecting housing, water, health, and education. Extreme weather like this is expected to occur more frequently as the climate crisis accelerates. The volume of rising sea levels continues to occur and threatens the lives of the inhabitants. Although urgent government action can still mitigate the worst-case climate change scenarios, scientists also believe in global sea-level rise, which will undermine the habitability of the densely populated island residence. Even in 2008, this place was hit by a severe flood. The overflowing seawater entered and flooded their homes.
Since 2010, the community has been unwilling to accept what they see as the only real and sustainable solution, which is relocation to safer locations on the mainland. Although their homes are threatened with flooding, the community has no plans to leave Gardi Sugdub. In fact, some of them hope to get more space for their families if their neighbors move to the relocation sites provided by the government.
After years of advocacy led by the community and NGOs, in 2017, the Panamanian Ministry of Housing committed to building 300 new houses on mainland locations. But this good plan has once again been delayed. After the postponement of the implementation of this commitment, the President of Panama has repeatedly promised that the new location will be ready on September 25, 2023. However, until now, the relocation has not yet materialized, and the schedule has been postponed again to February 29, 2024.
In short, Gardi Sugdub is a small island with big and complex problems. Along with worsening climate change, the rise in sea levels continues to erode this place and threaten life on it. It is not unlikely that in the future, the sea will completely take over Gardi Sugdub, leaving only floating memories forever.
