On the brink: Climate migrations in Honduras and Colombia

Occurring just two weeks apart, Hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020 devastated Central America and the Caribbean region with  Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and parts of Colombia hit hardest. Hurricane Iota affected more than 7 million people alone.¹ Rushing flood waters and mudslides destroyed concrete and wooden houses in Honduras – more than 366,000 people were directly affected by Hurricane Iota. It caused 10 deaths, along with 8 persons missing in Colombia. On the Island of Providencia y Santa Catalina (a Colombian territory), four people died and another 6000 were affected by Hurricane Iota. Around 98% of the infrastructure was destroyed. Families were separated, some took shelter in Saint Andres.

Double blow: People battling Hurricane Iota amidst climate crisis in Colombia and Honduras

Both Providencia and Saint Andres, the Colombian archipelagoes, were already experiencing some loss and damage induced by climate change. In Saint Andres, sea level rise and hurricanes have been causing displacement, people are in fear of losing their territories to the sea. Compounding impacts of long droughts, flooding and hurricanes have negatively impacted food production in these places – communities have smaller yields now. Mangroves are exhausted and aren’t able to function properly in many areas – the livelihoods of the Providencia’s fishing community are also threatened. Neither fishing nor agriculture is providing as it used to before, forcing people to migrate.

In Cedeño, Honduras, places and properties have already been swallowed by the ocean and the seawalls have led to the coastline moving inland. Francis Azucena Cruz said, ‘I had ten rooms, I had a gazebo there, I had a house, as I said, and there was a dance floor. Now it is at the bottom of the sea.’ The suffering and misery of people got worse when Hurricane Iota struck.

Diana Marcela Green, belonging to the Raizal ethnic community known for carrying out artisanal finishing for centuries in Colombia, said, ‘The effects of climate change were more evident with the issue of Hurricane Iota, but we have been experiencing droughts and floods in previous years. The agricultural calendars are totally out of sync…’

Dagoberto Majano from Cedeño directly links the reduction of fish to climate change, saying ‘Within the climatic situation, there has been a shortage of fish because the sea has warmed a lot, the waters warm, and the species try to go to the depths further away.’

These experiences are captured by a joint empirical research project undertaken by Christian Aid (CAID), Climalab, and Centro de Desarrollo Humano (CDH) to gain the perspectives of the climate impacted population in Latin America and the Caribbean. The resultant report, “On the brink: Climate migrations in Colombia and Honduras” presents the findings of this research with a focus on the intersections between human rights, climate change and gender in relation to the issue of migration in Honduras and Colombia. Below are some examples of the lived experiences of women and men who had been impacted by Hurricane Iota in 2020.

Women experiencing non-economic wellbeing loss in post Iota phase

Women played traditional roles of homemakers and caregivers after Hurricane Iota with little and sometimes no support. Pre-existing gender inequalities often amplify disaster impacts – the case of Hurricane Iota was no exception.

Arelys Tatiana Fonseca, a resident from Providencia y Santa Catalina Island, shared her experience of taking care of her daughters. She said, ‘…..In my case, I had to get my daughters up at 3.30am to be able to bathe with dignity because the rest of the day there was absolutely nowhere, not even to bathe. It is not the same for men and for women. For example, when you're on your period, what do you do? It's pretty hard. Imagine having to try to change a sanitary pad in a tent designed for two people and where there are three of you.’

In addition, women’s different circumstances were not recognised and their voices weren’t heard during the post Iota reconstruction phase. Recalling her challenges Diana said, ‘We were all treated equally, although we [women] were the ones who took care of getting everything running again. That is, we were the ones who collected the clothes, we had to wash them again, look for where to hang them, we had to collect water. We had to cook, even when there was no gas, no stove, we had to organise.’

Both Diana and Arelys felt  pressure from their government on issues like installing non-native housing models, unavailability of basic services, i.e., water in their community. However, both continued to raise their voice individually and collectively.

Aileen Ortiz from Colombia said on her differentiated experiences, ‘Personally, I think that for women and children it was a little difficult after the hurricane. Women need a minimum level of hygiene, a minimum level of personal care. So, I think that the Government needed to have a little empathy in terms of gender.’

Migration: an adaptation strategy or a form of maladaptation?

Women whose husbands were forced to look for jobs in a different country suffered to a greater extent. Delvis Velázquez Cardenas from Honduras recalled the moment when her husband migrated to the US. She expressed that: ‘It is sad because you have to be father and mother to your children. You hope that when he leaves the children will be able to have a better life. But it just so happened that he was deported. That was sad for me, because I was waiting for him and suffering and looking after the children and then to know that it was all for nothing.’

She added, ‘For 16 months, I didn't speak with him or see him at all. [...] I became very thin: [thinking] could it be that they killed him?’

For Delvis and her husband, a drier climate made agriculture costlier for them. Once productive corn and maize fields now require more fertilizer, worsening their economic situation. It turned out that Delvis' husband barely managed to cover the cost of the trip and sent very little in remittances. In the end, forced migration may have led to deteriorated wellbeing and loss of traditional livelihoods for their family as a whole.

These lived experiences resonate an important note –even if migration can lead to fewer losses and damages, there still can be non-economic losses and damages, including worse mental well-being, and loss of cultural heritage and traditional livelihoods.² After losing her properties to the sea, Francis sells food to tourists now. Like many others, her children left Honduras too. Families are separated.

It was difficult for her to experience it as a parent, she said, ‘Everything is terrible: I have lived here in Cedeño for 40 years because I got married here and every day, I see that the situation is more difficult.’ She added, ‘That is why here the young people and children have all gone to the US, some with a loan, others mortgaged their house.’

Raizal: A community ‘Swimming against the tide’

Because of a deep concern about the climate change impacts on traditional livelihoods, artisanal fishing is at risk of eradication. However, amidst loss of territory, livelihoods, identity and cultural practices, the stories of Raizal women show the strength of character and dignity of the Raizal people, an observation noted throughout the research.

To adapt to the high cost of living, Raizal families are changing their ways of working. Instead of focusing on one activity, i.e., farming, fishing, and catching and processing crab meat, people have to learn to do a little bit of everything, so there are also those who do all three, as well as fishermen-farmers and farmer-fishermen. Her closest family also decided not to migrate and are determined to get themselves back up again. Similarly, Aileen speaks about the Raizal culture, and their connection to the sea: ‘the sea and the people here in the archipelago are one’. She also wishes to stay with her community.

Such lived experiences or the negative impacts of climate change often remain neglected and unquantified. In addition to documenting these, the CAID and CDH report made recommendations aimed at policy actors, research community and international community to ensure climate support reaching such communities in Colombia and Honduras. These communities need both financial and technical support in a timely manner to address their losses and damages. Policy and development actors are recommended to ensure just climate finance that meets the needs and respects the rights of climate impacted communities in the LAC region. This highlights the importance of community access to and ownership of Loss and Damage finance. As the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) is preparing for its first disbursement, communities should be ensure to that they can directly receive funding from the Fund.  With a special emphasis on non-economic loss and damage (NELD), integrating loss and damage in their respective national action plan or nationally determined contributions (NDC) can create a way or track to channel down these resources where it is needed the most. NDCs are a crucial tool to combat climate change globally. Countries wishing to be included in the annual NDC synthesis report need to submit their plans by September 2025.³

Read the full report ‘On the brink: Climate migrations in Colombia and Honduras’ and watch videos of these personal stories here.