'Slow-motion disaster': Panama's Indigenous leave home as sea levels rise

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Rising ocean levels caused by global warming and decades of coral reef destruction have combined with seasonal rains and more severe storms to submerge the island for days on end.

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When they do relocate, they would be the first Indigenous people in Panama to leave their island homes, according to the Guna, as part of a project funded by the Panamanian government.

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Rising sea levels threaten about a tenth of the world's population, in particular people living in low-lying coastal areas and small island nations in the Caribbean, Maldives and Asia-Pacific, according to climate scientists.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, sea levels in the region continue to rise at a faster rate than globally, at an average rate of 3.52 millimetres per year from 1993 to 2021, according to a 2022 report by the World Meteorological Organization.

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"Our leaders have told us we need to go. We're used to the flooding but it has got worse so it's a good idea we're moving because it's better to be prepared as the island will probably be eaten by the sea in about 50 years' time," said Montalla.

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