Climate refugees in a drowning Pacific
While the rest of the world continues to debate the implications of climate change, for people living on small Pacific islands the problem is startlingly real.
Villager in Navua, Fiji, at his ancestral burial ground, which is covered by the sea at high tide.
© Brent Stirton/Getty Images/WWF-UK
Loss of land, crops and freshwater supplies caused by rising sea levels threaten to diminish living conditions in many Pacific island states, and pose a serious risk to regional stability and security.
On Papua New Guinea's (PNG) Carteret Islands residents have already been relocated to nearby Bougainville as rising seas lap at their villages and threaten to swamp their homes.
For Penina Moce from the small Fiji island of Kabara climate change poses a serious threat to her future and that of her family.
"All four villages on my island are located on coastal flats, a metre or so above the high tide mark," she says.
"The constant erosion of our beaches and frequent events of storm surges threatens not only our homes but the land we grow our crops on. In one village, Naikeleyaga, the beach has eroded 10 metres back [so] that it now threatens the school for the children.
"If we are constantly forced back inland by the sea, in time it is unlikely for us to relocate as all four villages are surrounded by high limestone cliffs. The only option then would be to abandon our island, but I hope that day never comes."
Communities on drowning islands throughout the Pacific are faced with a looming homeless crisis due to rising sea levels caused by global warming.
Sea levels are predicted to rise between 14cm and 32cm by 2050 as a result of rising atmospheric temperatures melting ice sheets and glaciers, while a number of smaller low-lying Pacific islands could be rendered uninhabitable within a decade.
"Despite the fact that Pacific Island countries are low emitters of climate changing gases, they are in fact among the most vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change," says Diane McFadzien, WWF South Pacific's Regional Climate Change Coordinator.
In addition to Fiji's Kabara and the Carterets in PNG, other Pacific islands at risk of drowning include those in Vanuatu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and Tuvalu, which sit a few metres above sea level.
"Communities all over the Pacific are alarmed at coastal erosion and the advancing sea levels. We are already seeing signs of whole villages having to relocate - as in Vanuatu - or important cultural sites such as burial grounds in Fiji being eroded," Diane says.
But the problem is not just one for small Pacific islands. Countries throughout the region and the world, including Australia, are being pressured to take a more proactive role in tackling some of the consequences of climate change.
New Zealand has agreed to accept migrants from Tuvalu, which experts believe will be completely submerged by the middle of next century, and Canada is funding the relocation of residents of parts of Vanuatu affected by global warming.
WWF is working to fight the causes of climate change and to promote the plight of villagers affected by rising sea levels in the Pacific. For more information visit WWF-South Pacific.
