Climate-induced rising sea levels are forcing residents of this tiny Panama island to leave

Image credit: AFP: Luis Acosta. Retrieved from abc.net.au

On a tiny island in the Caribbean sea, hundreds of people are preparing to move to escape rising sea levels that threaten homes.

Carti Sugtupu is only the size of five football fields but the island, off Panama’s northern coast, crams houses together with barely an inch to spare.

Some homes jut out to the sea on stilts.

The island’s Indigenous community of fewer than 2,000 people scrapes by without potable water or sanitation.

Most residents live off fishing, harvesting cassava and plantain crops and some tourism.

But now, climate change-induced sea level rises are threatening residents on the island.

Experts say the sea will engulf Carti Sugtupu and dozens of neighbouring islands in the Guna Yala region by the end of the century.

Forty-nine of the isles are populated and rest just a few feet above sea level.