パナマ先住民１２００人、島から本土へ移転　海面上昇で立ち退き

【カルティ（バハマ）ＡＦＰ＝時事】中米パナマで２９日、気候変動に伴う海面上昇を受けカリブ海に浮かぶ小島を立ち退くことになった先住民約１２００人に対し、政府が用意した本土の住宅の引き渡しが行われた。パナマで気候変動の影響で住居移転を余儀なくされる住民として、初めての集団となった。（写真は、パナマのグナヤラ先住民保護区に造成された、先住民グナの人々が移転する住宅地）
　新居に移るのはカルティスグトゥプ島に住む先住民「グナ」の人々。同じ海域の他の島と同じく、土地の高さは海抜５０センチ～１メートルしかなく、家屋は定期的に浸水。専門家は、海面上昇が進めば住環境は一段と悪化すると警告していた。
　島の住民は漁業やキャッサバ・料理用バナナの栽培、伝統織物の生産、観光業などで生計を立てていたが、飲み水や下水施設、常時使用可能な電気はなかった。
　このため政府は、カリブ海に面するグナヤラ先住民保護区に「ヌエボカルティ（新カルティ）」と呼ばれる集落を１２２０万米ドル（約１９億円）かけて造成。
　この日、ヌエボカルティを訪れたラウレンティノ・コルティソ大統領は、最初の入居家族に新居の鍵を手渡した。
　ヌエボカルティは故郷の島からボートで約１５分の距離だが、グナの人々にとっては「大移動」となる。実際の入居は来週始まる予定。
　新居の前でビダルマ・ヤネスさん（５７）はＡＦＰに対し、「わくわくしている。家は小さいがきれいだし、とても居心地がいい」と話した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/05/30-16:51）

Some 1,200 members of a Panamanian Indigenous community, their island home threatened by rising sea levels, received new government-sponsored homes on the mainland Wednesday.
The soon-to-be former inhabitants of the island of Carti Sugtupu are the first people in Panama to be displaced by climate change.
Caught between nostalgia and hope for a better future, the Carti Sugtupu inhabitants are trading their ancestral home for the newly-built settlement of Nuevo Carti (New Carti) in the Guna Yala Indigenous region of Panama's Caribbean coast.
I am exited. The houses are beautiful. They are small, but very comfortable, Vidalma Yanez, 57, told AFP outside her new home.
On the island -- the size of five football fields -- the community lived in rudimentary dirt-floor houses crammed together, some jutting out into the sea on stilts.
They had no drinking water, sanitation or reliable electricity and lived off fishing, the harvesting of starchy crops like cassava and plantain, traditional textile production, and some tourism.
Their homes flooded on a regular basis, and experts warned that rising sea levels would soon make life even more uncomfortable.
Scientists say climate change is causing sea levels to rise, mainly due to meltwater from warming glaciers and ice sheets.
The climate crisis that the world is experiencing... has forced us here in Panama to move (the population) from the island to this urban development of about 300 homes, President Laurentino Cortizo said Wednesday as he presented house keys to a first beneficiary family.
- Planting flowers -
The big relocation -- about 15 minutes by boat -- will start next week.
I like the house, said 26-year-old Marialis Lopez who will be relocating with her three children and two brothers, and cannot wait to start bringing her furniture and to plant flowers.
I can change my life here, it's better than being there on the overcrowded island, she told AFP.
Carti Sugtupu, whose inhabitants are all of the Guna Indigenous group, is one of 49 inhabited islands in the area -- all between 50 centimeters (19 inches) and one meter (three feet) above sea level.
The new settlement, built by the government at a cost of $12.2 million and owned by the community, boasts houses that each have two bedrooms, a living and dining room, kitchen, bathroom and laundry -- all with water and electricity.
Each house is about 41 square meters (441 square feet) on a plot of 300 square meters (3,200 square feet).
There are also common cultural spaces and facilities for disabled people.