Climate Sense

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Outmigration in the Pacific, therefore, is not a new

phenomenon related to climate change. Factors such

as the lack of development coupled with population

increase, pressure on resources and consequent degra-

dation of soil, land and vegetation has all contributed

to immigration. Alongside spontaneous internal and

international migration, government schemes have also

been working to resettle populations within countries.

Both the Maldive and Papua New Guinean governments

practise population resettlement, which has recently

been identified as ‘climate change migration’.

The Republic of Maldives government allocates

populated islands to tourist resorts, transferring respon-

sibility for infrastructure and service provision to

tourism companies. At the same time, action has been

taken to separate resorts from the indigenous popula-

tion with the aim of protecting culture. More recently,

What physical processes are taking place in low elevation

small island communities?

Low-lying reef islands are dynamic landforms that are especially

sensitive to the changes in wind, waves and water level that occur

normally from season to season and within the natural variability

of local climate conditions.

They are also sensitive to changes in

shoreline processes and sediment movement to and around their

shores. This includes islands associated with both traditional and

engineered shoreline protection or reclamation activities. The recent

experience of many island communities is one of marked shoreline

change, coastal erosion and loss of island area into the sea. The

impacts of these changes are often compounded by two factors.

First, is the breach of a higher natural berm that typically encircles

the lower central parts of many reef islands, allowing the sea to

flood into the island core during higher tides and storms. Second,

population growth on many islands means that settlements may

now occupy island areas long known to be vulnerable to periodic

flooding.

Whether recent erosion and inundation is driven by climate

change impacts is a moot point, although it is known that many

island communities fear that recent changes are the beginning of a

trajectory of decline and that submergence is, ultimately, inevitable.

Wave inundation associated with extreme high tides, elevated sea

levels associated with a strong La Niña, and two large storms in the

region affected broad areas of the western Pacific in December 2008,

eroding shorelines, washing away houses and infrastructure, flood-

ing food gardens and contaminating water supplies. This event can

be explained by the unlucky coincidence of three factors that may

be unrelated to climate change – although it may be argued that

they have become more intense and frequent as a consequence of it.

Indeed, washover events have been experienced before – one recent

occurrence has been associated with the Chilean tsunami. However,

this event appears to have been viewed differently by many island

communities – a prelude of what is to come – and clearly some-

thing that they do not want to face again.

Migration and resettlement schemes

Pacific and Indian Ocean island countries such as the Maldives,

Tuvalu and Kiribati are especially vulnerable to sea-level rise and

have already experienced its impacts. The media has, in the past,

made reference to climate change refugees and the disappearance

of these three nations as their limited land area is engulfed by

the sea. Equally vulnerable are small atoll communities that are

part of larger island states such as Papua New Guinea, Solomon

Islands and Fiji. While small nations like Tuvalu contemplate

not only the loss of their homeland, but their independence and

sovereignty if they are forced to relocate, the consequences are no

less dire for remote communities such as the Carteret, Mortlock

and Tasman islands in Papua New Guinea, whose populations

have maintained strong cultural autonomy in the absence of

much outside support.

In the face of increased erosion and inundation, individuals,

households and communities face the prospect of emigrating from

their homelands. Although, Pacific islanders have been migrating

to larger centres for decades to seek opportunities and services

that they are unable to access at home.

Many island governments

including Tuvalu have encouraged migration, as absentees remit

earnings to support their family at home and provide a cultural and

socioeconomic base for subsequent migrants.

Small atoll communities are particularly vulnerable to flooding

Image: Jeffrey Holdaway