Panama: Kuna Yala's Climate Change Refugees - Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources

2.2.11

Panama: Kuna Yala's Climate Change Refugees - Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources: "Panama’s Kuna do not need a television to hear about global warming. It has already come to their front door and to adapt, they'll have to pack up and move. The Kuna's floating paradise — a belt of palm tree-peppered white-sand islands that dot the pristine aquamarine sea north of Panama — is under threat. Rising water levels may force the thousands of Kuna who inhabit the San Blas archipelago to flee to the coast, a move that will change their traditional way of life and cultural backbone.
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“Everything is flooded, up to your ankle,” said Helen P�rez, the director of the school on Carti Mulatupu, a Kuna island of some 500 people. He refers to the strong winds that hit the island in January, causing water to rush to the community, briefly flooding the labyrinth of sandy lanes that divide the wooden and palm huts where the Kuna live.
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