Guna Yala
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Medill's Nefertari Bilal reports: The rise of tourism in Guna Yala promises profit, but locals face challenges posed by both globalization that tourism brings and the threat of the industry's collapse, posed by climate change.
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Abelardo “Tito” Nuñez Davies first came to Pelican Island 15 years ago. It was much larger then. The small hut he and his mother share started out in the middle of this tiny oasis of sand. Now, the ocean laps at their doorstep.
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The indigenous Guna people of Panama prepare to leave the islands they call home due to rising sea levels, while entrepreneur Jimmy Stice builds a sustainable town in the jungle of Panama. Elizabeth Guthrie of Medill reports.
The bustling island of Cartí Sugtupu serves as a hub for the Gunas living in the Comarca. Cartí Sugtupu includes a solar-powered school, as well as a hostel and supermarket, among its amenities. (Abigail Foerstner/Medill)
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As Panama's indigenous Guna islands begin sinking into the surrounding waters, local entrepreneurs with successful eco-friendly businesses could prove the revolutionary power of small-scale innovation, Medill's Molly Glick reports.
Traveling on boats is the main mode of transportation between islands of Guna Yala, and most are operated by local Guna people. (Luodan Rojas/Medill)
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Separated by miles of ocean and a 2-hour drive, or a 50-mile hike, through the jungle, Guna Yala and Kalu Yala are two of Panama’s most sustainable communities, but they also are starkly different. Medill's Luodan Rojas reports.
The starting point of the hiking trip was at Kalu Yala - a sustainable community in the
Panamanian jungle. (Grace Wade/Medill)
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Fifty miles over four days. Seven hikers left Kalu Yala, a sustainable eco-town in the Panamanian jungle, to trek to the Caribbean Sea and quickly discovered an untested trail and faced other challenges head-on. Medill's Nadine Daher reports.
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Speckled just north of the vivacious Panamanian coastline is a chain of islands facing the threat of disappearing. The islands' daunting fate is not determined by the doing of their inhabitants, but rather by the world around them.
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The father and son pair, Aresio Valiente López and Diwigdi Valiente, pose for a portrait in the university where López teaches, la Universidad de Panamá. The two share a dynamic bond, a call and response relationship of bouncing ideas off of each other, always out of a sense of mutual pride. (Colin Boyle/Medill)
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Medill's Laura Zornosa reports from Panama: Sustainability means preserving the culture of San Blas’ sinking islands for this environmental advocate.