Impacts of Climate and Migration on Health in the Darien Gap (2025-2026)

Background

The Darien Gap – a densely forested geographic region that stretches across Panama and Colombia from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea – is experiencing unprecedented international migration, increasing from 9,000 transitory migrants in 2018 to over 520,000 in 2023. Concurrently, Panama is facing a resurgence in malaria with over 85% of cases occurring in the Darien and Guna Yala regions.

Communities in the Darien Gap are characterized by a large, rural, almost entirely Indigenous populations with poor access to health care and at high risk of climate change impacts. The prevalence of international migrants has altered local economies with many individuals moving from agriculture to providing goods and services to migrants such as transportation, overnight stays and selling food and products. The profits made from this transition have led to rapid local development and transitioned resource access in communities traditionally reliant on farming, hunting and fishing.

With the rapid changes to these communities, efforts must be made to characterize human health in Indigenous Emberá-Wounaan communities in the Darien Gap and explore the nature and impact of local and international migration and climate change in the regions and its people.

Project Description

The project team will examine human health and climate change along international migration routes in the Darien Gap.

Leveraging research partnerships in Panama, team members will break into subteams to investigate malaria ecology and epidemiology, nutrition and energy expenditure impacts, and migration impacts on immobile communities.

• The Malaria Ecology and Epidemiology subteam will explore whether malaria risk is exacerbated by international migration and climate by characterizing vector ecology and human behavior. Team members will develop a foundational understanding of malaria epidemiology and conduct survey design and data analysis. Surveys will aim to assess malaria risk in local communities as related to migrant interactions and measure basic sociodemographic information, malaria history, travel history and economically driven interactions with migrants. Team members will further learn about vector ecology and will be trained in vector collection to explore vector habitat expansion as related to human mobility and climate change.
• The Nutrition and Energy Expenditure subteam will investigate human health by examining available food resources in the environment and their observable, measurable effects on nutrition. First, the subteam will be trained to assess diet through surveys and analysis of tissue chemistry. Then, students will learn to measure energy expenditure, heart health and metabolic health of study participants. Throughout the process, subteam members will learn how available food resources influence energy expenditure and how to determine if individuals are achieving a balanced nutrient intake.
• The Migration subteam will explore how exposure to migration routes and climate change stressors shapes migration aspirations, constraints, and intentions within these immobile communities. The subteam will examine how rapid economic shifts, climate change and migration impact nonmigrating populations along transit routes to understand if these changes motivate new migration or deepen immobility. Subteam members will conduct literature reviews on migration, climate, mobility and resilience to inform survey design. Surveys will measure community perceptions of climate change, food security and the spread of disease vectors and will measure community perceptions of climate change and disease risks.

Anticipated Outputs

Peer-reviewed manuscripts, reports and journal publications; climate and migration survey data and analysis; biologic sample nutritional data and analysis; vector data and analysis

Student Opportunities

Ideally, this team will include 4 graduate students and 5 undergraduate students interested in epidemiology, biostatistics, migration and policy, and evolutionary anthropology. Students who are interested in the fieldwork component of this work should have at least an intermediate Spanish proficiency.

Team members will contribute to timely, highly impactful research about health outcomes and socioeconomic change as related to migration and climate. Students will receive training in a variety of fields including epidemiology and biostatistics, vector ecology, migration policy, evolutionary anthropology, and climate as related to vector-borne disease, migration and energy expenditure.

Students will develop a variety of technical skills including survey design, literature review, fieldwork and laboratory techniques, policy development, and data management and analysis in R. Graduate students will have extensive mentorship opportunities and undergraduate students are encouraged to develop honors thesis projects, present results at conferences and will have the opportunity to improve their scientific writing by contributing to peer-reviewed manuscripts.

In Fall 2025, the team will meet on Fridays from 9-10 a.m., subject to study team availability.

This project includes an optional summer component in late July to early August 2025. Students will spend 2-4 weeks conducting fieldwork in the Darien Province of Panama. Team members will travel to Panama during winter or spring break for an additional round of field data collection. 

Timing

Summer 2025 – Spring 2026

• Summer 2025 (optional): Complete preliminary round of data collection including mosquito collections, malaria genotype surveys and case-control surveys.
• Fall 2025: Complete preliminary data process; begin epidemiological analyses; begin preliminary nutrition and migration analyses; prepare for additional fieldwork
• Spring 2026: Complete epidemiological analysis; additional data collection and fieldwork; processing and analysis for migration and nutrition aims

Crediting

Academic credit available for fall and spring semesters; field travel funding available