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Indigenous Pacific Approaches to Climate Change pp 33–57Cite as

Adaptation to Climate Change in the Pacific Islands: Theory, Dreams, Practice and Reality

Part of the Palgrave Studies in Disaster Anthropology book series (PSDA)

Abstract

In this chapter cases are presented on how people respond to climate change. The modern artificial island response of donors is presented, but with the reminder that Pacific Islanders have themselves long known about reclaiming and building up land in order to mitigate against climate change. The ways that people respond to extreme weather such as in cyclones are also illustrated with examples of traditional methods of preparedness such as storage and planting and recognizing signs of nature. Relocation, long practised by Pacific peoples, is also discussed, along with some of the pitfalls of moving into other countries and communities.

Keywords

  • Adaptation
  • Artificial islands
  • Relocation
  • Land purchases

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Fig. 3.1
Fig. 3.2
Fig. 3.3

Notes

  1. 1.

    Climate change and disaster risk reduction (DRR) given the cost of aid could be better integrated with community practice (see Bettencourt et al. 2006).

  2. 2.

    Garnaut (2008).

  3. 3.

    Morrison (2017).

  4. 4.

    Bryant-Tokalau (2008).

  5. 5.

    Donor competition has been particularly rife in the Pacific Islands with countries essentially competing for projects, and ultimately having little long-term impact on the lives of the people concerned. Commentary on the implementation, philosophy and success or otherwise of such projects has been widely made, for example, Barnett and Campbell (2010), Bryant-Tokalau (2008), M. Van Veldhuizen (2014).

  6. 6.

    A gyre describes the circular movement of the ocean currents. In the North Pacific the circulation of water is clockwise (Nunn 1999: 43). Chapter ‘Geomorphology’ in Rapoport 1999).

  7. 7.

    Bryant-Tokalau (2011).

  8. 8.

    See http://www.pina.com.fj.

  9. 9.

    Ilan Kelman, I. 9 August 2010 to SICRIGoogleGroups.com.

  10. 10.

    It is fully understood that islands do move due to their positions on tectonic plates: they are subject to rising, subsidence and outright disappearance, due to geological and climatic events, and are prone to human modification and disturbance. Such change can be both gradual and catastrophic and over hundreds of years coastal areas constantly recede and replenish (Nunn 1999: 51–53). In earlier geologic times such as in the Little Climatic Optimum of AD 750–1300, Nunn and Britton remind us of rising sea levels that will have influenced settlement patterns into nucleated groupings due to the loss of flat land (Nunn and Britton 2001).

  11. 11.

    Löfgren (2007).

  12. 12.

    Nunn (1994), p. 342.

  13. 13.

    D’Arcy (2006: 128). There was also, in the 1840s, a total eclipse of the sun, earthquakes and hurricanes in the Pacific region, all of which must have lead to significant community responses.

  14. 14.

    http:/webecoist.com/2009/04/27/12-fantastic-floating-cities-and-artificial-islands/.

  15. 15.

    There are cases of mangroves being reclaimed for tourism in other parts of the Pacific such as Kosrae (FSM) and Samoa but not to the extent of Fiji .

  16. 16.

    Interestingly there has been very little evaluation of the risk, especially of flooding that resort areas such as Denarau pose both to surrounding populations, and to the tourists and workers on the island. Bernard and Cook (2014) have commented on the risk of flooding , the cost and losses this means for tourism (the major industry) and warn of the implications across the Pacific for such a key industry.

  17. 17.

    http://shimz.co.jp/English/theme/dream/greenfloat.html.

  18. 18.

    http://lfort.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/climate-change-has-Pacific-considering-artificial-islands.

  19. 19.

    See Kelman (2010), Bryant-Tokalau (2011).

  20. 20.

    http://www.isciencetimes.com/articles/6066/20130916/pacific-island-floating-country-kiribati-global-warming.htm.

  21. 21.

    An artist’s impression can be seen on http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/09/15/faced-with-rising-sea-levels-pacific-state-looks-to-become-worlds-first-floating-nation/.

  22. 22.

    http://www.isciencetimes.com/articles/6066/20130916/pacific-island-floating-country-kiribati-global-warming.htm.

  23. 23.

    http://www.un.org/en/ga/69/meetings/gadebate/pdf/KI_en.pdf.

  24. 24.

    Bryant-Tokalau (2015). ‘Indigenous responses to environmental challenges: artificial islands and the challenges of relocation’. Paper presented to Pacific History Association conference, Taipei, Taiwan. November.

  25. 25.

    The fact that these islands could not be considered permanent raises several points in law as if not historically assimilated they do not qualify as territory, Kardol R. (1999).

  26. 26.

    See http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38647174.

  27. 27.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/world/australia/climate-change-floating-islands.html.

  28. 28.

    Ivens (1930).

  29. 29.

    Nunn, P.D., et al. (2016b).

  30. 30.

    Nunn (2009a).

  31. 31.

    Webb and Kench (2010).

  32. 32.

    Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) 2012–SOPAC (2009) Relationship between natural disasters and poverty: a Fiji case study. SOPAC Miscellaneous Report 678. Prepared for UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat’s 2009 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Reduction.

  33. 33.

    Ayres (1983).

  34. 34.

    Bryant-Tokalau (2011).

  35. 35.

    Bryant-Tokalau (2015).

  36. 36.

    D’Arcy (2006: 128–132).

  37. 37.

    Ibid.: 133.

  38. 38.

    Nunn (1999). Geomorphology pp. 43–55 in Rapoport (1999).

  39. 39.

    Hviding (1998).

  40. 40.

    Ivens (1930).

  41. 41.

    Parsonson (1966).

  42. 42.

    Guo Pei-Yi (2001).

  43. 43.

    Parsonson (1966: 5).

  44. 44.

    Solwara and bus people refers to those who build out over the water (sol wara) or in the bush (bus).

  45. 45.

    Guo (2001).

  46. 46.

    Hviding (1998: 259).

  47. 47.

    Irene Hundleby (2014: pers. comm.).

  48. 48.

    Parsonson (1966: 18).

  49. 49.

    Parsonson (1966: 18–20).

  50. 50.

    Walter and Hamilton are discussing as context, community-based conservation (2014: 1–10).

  51. 51.

    Walter and Hamilton (2014: 2).

  52. 52.

    See, for example, Tabe (2016), Hau’ofa (1994).

  53. 53.

    Bryant-Tokalau (2014b).

  54. 54.

    19 March 2015. Devpolicy devpolicy@anu.edu.au.

  55. 55.

    MacLellan (2015b).

  56. 56.

    Tomlinson referred to this conflict as ‘power encounters’ where missionaries challenged local expectations of spiritual efficacy, by denying local sites’ (such as volcanoes) original potential to evoke wonder.

  57. 57.

    The power and aftermath of Cyclone Winston which struck Fiji in early 2016, while still being assessed, was so devastating that it is not yet time to assess the long-term impact.

  58. 58.

    Campbell and Bedford (2014).

  59. 59.

    Campbell (2014).

  60. 60.

    Connell (2010).

  61. 61.

    Connell (2012).

  62. 62.

    Connell (2013).

  63. 63.

    Smith (2013).

  64. 64.

    Campbell (2014: 1).

  65. 65.

    Campbell (2014: 12).

  66. 66.

    Rakova (2017).

  67. 67.

    Banaba was largely ruined by phosphate mining for New Zealand and Australian farms. The Japanese occupied it during World War Two and either murdered or enslaved much of the population on Chuuk (then Truk) in Micronesia . After the war, the British who were the colonial administrator refused to return the survivors to Banaba , instead relocating them on Rabi Island which they purchased for them in Fiji . Today there are around 5000 Banabans living on Rabi with around 300 on Banaba itself. See Teaiwa, K.M. (2015).

  68. 68.

    Secretariat of the Pacific Community (2015). Pocket Statistical Summary.

  69. 69.

    Australian Bureau of Meteorology & CSIRO (2011: 99) Climate Change in the Pacific: Scientific Assessment and New Research. Volume 2: Country Reports.

  70. 70.

    Australian Bureau of Meteorology & CSIRO (2011: 100).

  71. 71.

    The Phoenix group of eight islands is found in the central Pacific to the east of Tarawa.

  72. 72.

    Tabe (2014).

  73. 73.

    In 1992 when I was working in Kiribati I encountered hospital syringes (needles) on a sandbar in the lagoon some kilometres from Tarawa.

  74. 74.

    Nunn (2009b).

  75. 75.

    Caritas (2014: 23).

  76. 76.

    Donner (2015), p. 53.

  77. 77.

    Webb and Kench (2010: 8).

  78. 78.

    Webb and Kench (2010).

  79. 79.

    Biribo and Woodroffe (2013) Dr Biribo in 2011 became a recipient of the 2011 Prime Minister of Australia’s Pacific-Australia Award, an initiative designed to promote knowledge, education links and enduring ties with countries in the Pacific, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.

  80. 80.

    Options, according to Kench, would be to move to islands such as Aranuka, or to North Tarawa which is much wider and has good protection against the waves.

  81. 81.

    Tong (2016: 23).

  82. 82.

    Taberannang Korauaba (2012). Media and the politics of climate change in Kiribati: a case study on journalism in a ‘disappearing nation’ Master of Communication dissertation. Auckland University of Technology. Abstract.

  83. 83.

    Government of Kiribati (2013). Second Communication under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Environment & Conservation Division, with assistance of Climate Change Study Team Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agricultural Development.

  84. 84.

    GOK (2013: 164 ff.)—see especially, section on adaptation .

  85. 85.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/22/kiribati-president-buying-land_n_5860064.html.

  86. 86.

    Christopher Pala (2014). The Nation that bought a back-up property. The Atlantic, August 21.

  87. 87.

    Pala (2014).

  88. 88.

    Hermann, E., and Kempf, W. (2017). Climate Change and the Imagining of Migration: Emerging Discourses on Kiribati’s Land Purchase in Fiji.

  89. 89.

    Refer Bryant-Tokalau (2014b).

  90. 90.

    http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/06/kiribati-president-purchases-worthless-resettlement-land-as-precaution-against-rising-sea/.

  91. 91.

    http://aosis.org/reports-fiji-latest-country-to-relocate-climate-refugees/.

  92. 92.

    Pacific Climate Change Portal (2016), https://www.pacificclimatechange.net/news/ accessed 15 March 2017.

  93. 93.

    Adaptation strategies in Kiribati include a number of both soft and hard responses, coordinated by the National Adaptation Steering Committee (NASC), a Climate Change Study Team (CCST) and a number of government departments and organizations. Projects on water access, treatment and monitoring, engineered seawalls, coral reef monitoring, health strategies, environmental education and mangrove replanting supplement the many reports produced by the teams and committees (GOK 2013).

  94. 94.

    Donner (2015: 57).

  95. 95.

    Nunn (2009a).

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    Jenny Bryant-Tokalau

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Bryant-Tokalau, J. (2018). Adaptation to Climate Change in the Pacific Islands: Theory, Dreams, Practice and Reality. In: Indigenous Pacific Approaches to Climate Change. Palgrave Studies in Disaster Anthropology. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78399-4_3

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