CLIMATE CHANGE in the South Pacific

Climate Change ranks among the greatest challenges facing small island developing states in the South Pacific. This has serious implications for the Millennium Development Goals, in particular food security and access to fresh water, in places such as Tarawa Atoll in Kiribati. The following two part video provides a brief overview as well as highlighting a pioneering initiative on Fiji's Coral Coast where coastal communities, environmentalists and the tourist industry have joined together to protect water resources and take steps toward saving their coral reefs.

Tarawa Atoll  &  Fiji  Islands

The first and second video in this section discuss how these islands are a specific risk to climate change in the South Pacific.  Critical issues include: rising sea levels, erosion, salt water contamination of fresh water supplies, more frequent storms and cyclones, coral degradation and the displacement of people as islands cease to be able to sustain communities. In Fiji they have started artifical wetlands to manage waste water, planting mangrove trees to protect the reef, and replanting coral in deeper water to bring back the natural fish and animals that the people can use to eat.