Translate page with Google

Story Publication logo June 1, 2012

El Salvador’s Vanishing Coast

Country:

Author:
SECTIONS

Few countries are as vulnerable to climate change as El Salvador. In the Americas, only Haiti has seen more widespread deforestation. El Salvador's ravaged watersheds are unable to cope with the extreme storms that increasingly batter Central America, leading to devastating floods downriver that now occur almost yearly. Meanwhile, rising seas are expected to swallow up between 10 percent and 28 percent of its coastal lands. That process has already started in the mangrove forests of the Bajo Lempa, which are slowly being overtaken by the Pacific's crashing waves, potentially turning local people who eke out a living collecting crabs in the mangroves into climate refugees.

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED TOPICS

yellow halftone illustration of an elephant

Topic

Environment and Climate Change

Environment and Climate Change
navy halftone illustration of a boy carrying two heavy buckets

Topic

Water and Sanitation

Water and Sanitation

Support our work

Your support ensures great journalism and education on underreported and systemic global issues