A new DS report – available in English and soon Spanish – applies the 2013 Peninsula Principles on Climate Displacement Within States for the first time to a specific case of climate displacement along the Gunayala coastline of Panama. DS sent a two-person mission comprised of Colombian human rights lawyer Carlos Arenas and renowned Dutch photo-journalist Kadir van Lohuizen to Panama in April to work with the Gunayala indigenous community which is already experiencing large-scale displacement because of climate change. The mission travelled extensively throughout Gunayala territory along the Caribbean coast, and found considerable interest in the Peninsula Principles within affected communities. More than 30,000 Gunayala indigenous people are likely to be involuntarily relocated because of coastal inundation and rising sea levels affecting the viability of their island communities. Please read the DS report here in English. It will be available here in Spanish soon.
DS is planning similar Peninsula Principles missions to a range of other communities threatened with climate displacement in the coming year, including missions to the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Bangladesh and the US state of Alaska.
