Ronan Kelly
Retired 2020
Solomon Islanders relocate to flee effects of climate change
By Courtney Brooks
20 July 2011 [MediaGlobal]: People living in the low-lying areas of the Solomon Islands are migrating inland in an effort to escape the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels, coastal erosion,
droughts, cyclones, storm surges, and water contamination.
The government is also beginning a three-year climate change action program, funded by the European Commission, which will resettle people from two of the most vulnerable areas to land with minimal climate change impacts and disaster risks.
Colin D. Beck, Solomons? current permanent representative to the United Nations, told MediaGlobal News that resettlement poses risks to communities? health and harmony, however. The possibility of ethnic conflict resulting from the relocation of those affected by climate change onto other people?s territory is a major concern, as is the rise of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes among the resettled
?The fact that we are relocating population means that we have not been able to cope with the challenges of climate change,? Beck said. ?On some of the islands they have relocated people from the settlements to where they grow food, which is going to impact the food industry because they?re taking the land used to grow food to now settle them.?
The country is a chain of some 1,000 islands stretching 1,800 kilometers. Beck said that people are moving from the low-lying islands to high-rise volcanic islands. Polynesians and some Melanesians are moving to higher ground as the ?King Tide washes up.?
Beck said that the tension over land ownership is exacerbated when farmland becomes infertile and the migrants have to continue moving further inland.
Hudson Kauhiona of the Climate Change Division within the Ministry of Environment,
Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology told MediaGlobal News that 95 percent of land in Solomon Islands is traditionally owned, while only 5 percent belongs to the government. The lack of formal ownership complicates the resettlement process both for the government and for citizens who migrate on their own, as they have done for years.
?If you want to move into a customary land, you have to negotiate with the customary owners and not the government. This could be quite complex, as most customary landowners don?t easily allow their land [to be settled on],? Kauhiona said.
?Hence, if you are thinking of resettling a group of atoll dwellers to one of the bigger
islands in Solomon Islands, the process could be quite long, complex, and very
expensive.?
Kauhiona said that the government?s planned ?model community? could include housing, water supply and sanitation, schools, renewable energy supplies, and emergency plans in case of a natural disaster.
Kauhiona said that the move, which would affect two communities of atoll or small
island dwellers, would be a best-case scenario in that it would be carefully worked out so as to not encroach upon others? land. But for those who are accustomed to living very closely to the ocean and depend on marine resources it would still be a ?challenging? venture.
Years of voluntary migration have already resulted in health problems for those who
resettle in urban areas and have to rely on imported food rather than farming or fishing. Diabetes and other non-communicable disease are now ?mushrooming? as a result, according to Beck.
For Lawrence Makili, a regional director at California-based NGO the Earth Island
Institute, the problems hit very close to home. A native of Ontong Java, the biggest atoll in the Northern part of the Solomon Islands, Makili is campaigning for funds to assist families from the low-lying Walande and Fanalei communities in resettling to the main island of Malaita.
Makili said that Walande has already essentially washed away, with only three families living on what remains of the island. About 30 families have vacated Fanalei, but the majority of the people still living there need government assistance to resettle.
?Being an atoll, in swamps where people used to grow food there is now salt
concentration. You can?t grow local food any more in Ontong Java,? said Makili. ?My
people from Ontong now depend on imported food for living. Ontong Java is one of the communities with high rate of diet diseases; one is diabetes.?
For now, the Solomon Islands? hopes are pinned on the international community taking a strong stance on lowering emissions at the Durban Climate Change Conference in South Africa later this year. Beck said it is ?unthinkable? that the Solomon Islands would become uninhabitable, with its people left as environmental refugees.
?We are just on the frontline. The situation for other parts of the world, especially on the continent of Africa, and also Europe ? it will impact everybody,? he said. ?We should not now start to condemn who should leave and who should survive. Otherwise we are really questioning humanity.?
http://mediaglobal.org/article/2011...rs_relocate_to_flee_effects_of_climate_change
By Courtney Brooks
20 July 2011 [MediaGlobal]: People living in the low-lying areas of the Solomon Islands are migrating inland in an effort to escape the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels, coastal erosion,
droughts, cyclones, storm surges, and water contamination.
The government is also beginning a three-year climate change action program, funded by the European Commission, which will resettle people from two of the most vulnerable areas to land with minimal climate change impacts and disaster risks.
Colin D. Beck, Solomons? current permanent representative to the United Nations, told MediaGlobal News that resettlement poses risks to communities? health and harmony, however. The possibility of ethnic conflict resulting from the relocation of those affected by climate change onto other people?s territory is a major concern, as is the rise of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes among the resettled
?The fact that we are relocating population means that we have not been able to cope with the challenges of climate change,? Beck said. ?On some of the islands they have relocated people from the settlements to where they grow food, which is going to impact the food industry because they?re taking the land used to grow food to now settle them.?
The country is a chain of some 1,000 islands stretching 1,800 kilometers. Beck said that people are moving from the low-lying islands to high-rise volcanic islands. Polynesians and some Melanesians are moving to higher ground as the ?King Tide washes up.?
Beck said that the tension over land ownership is exacerbated when farmland becomes infertile and the migrants have to continue moving further inland.
Hudson Kauhiona of the Climate Change Division within the Ministry of Environment,
Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology told MediaGlobal News that 95 percent of land in Solomon Islands is traditionally owned, while only 5 percent belongs to the government. The lack of formal ownership complicates the resettlement process both for the government and for citizens who migrate on their own, as they have done for years.
?If you want to move into a customary land, you have to negotiate with the customary owners and not the government. This could be quite complex, as most customary landowners don?t easily allow their land [to be settled on],? Kauhiona said.
?Hence, if you are thinking of resettling a group of atoll dwellers to one of the bigger
islands in Solomon Islands, the process could be quite long, complex, and very
expensive.?
Kauhiona said that the government?s planned ?model community? could include housing, water supply and sanitation, schools, renewable energy supplies, and emergency plans in case of a natural disaster.
Kauhiona said that the move, which would affect two communities of atoll or small
island dwellers, would be a best-case scenario in that it would be carefully worked out so as to not encroach upon others? land. But for those who are accustomed to living very closely to the ocean and depend on marine resources it would still be a ?challenging? venture.
Years of voluntary migration have already resulted in health problems for those who
resettle in urban areas and have to rely on imported food rather than farming or fishing. Diabetes and other non-communicable disease are now ?mushrooming? as a result, according to Beck.
For Lawrence Makili, a regional director at California-based NGO the Earth Island
Institute, the problems hit very close to home. A native of Ontong Java, the biggest atoll in the Northern part of the Solomon Islands, Makili is campaigning for funds to assist families from the low-lying Walande and Fanalei communities in resettling to the main island of Malaita.
Makili said that Walande has already essentially washed away, with only three families living on what remains of the island. About 30 families have vacated Fanalei, but the majority of the people still living there need government assistance to resettle.
?Being an atoll, in swamps where people used to grow food there is now salt
concentration. You can?t grow local food any more in Ontong Java,? said Makili. ?My
people from Ontong now depend on imported food for living. Ontong Java is one of the communities with high rate of diet diseases; one is diabetes.?
For now, the Solomon Islands? hopes are pinned on the international community taking a strong stance on lowering emissions at the Durban Climate Change Conference in South Africa later this year. Beck said it is ?unthinkable? that the Solomon Islands would become uninhabitable, with its people left as environmental refugees.
?We are just on the frontline. The situation for other parts of the world, especially on the continent of Africa, and also Europe ? it will impact everybody,? he said. ?We should not now start to condemn who should leave and who should survive. Otherwise we are really questioning humanity.?
http://mediaglobal.org/article/2011...rs_relocate_to_flee_effects_of_climate_change