Panama prepares to evacuate first island in face of rising sea level

The Gunas of Gardi Sugdub are the first of 63 communities along Panama’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts that government officials and scientists expect to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades. Generations of Gunas who have grown up on Gardi Sugdub in a life dedicated to the sea and tourism will trade that next week for the mainland’s solid ground. They will move to a new site built by the government of concrete houses on a grid of paved streets carved out of the lush tropical jungle just over a mile or 2 kilometers from the port.