Small islands. Big impact.

Tropical white sandy beaches. Crystal blue waters. A way of life steeped in culture and community. The Pacific Small Island Developing States might seem like a paradise on earth, but rising sea levels and extreme weather events mean their future could be very different. Now, they’re determined to show the rest of the world how to be truly ambitious when it comes to meeting the challenges of climate change.

“There’s this big discourse about the Pacific islands that looks at them as victims of climate change,” says Johanna Nalau, Associate Professor at Griffith University and a climate adaptation scientist who has been closely involved with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, specifically around small island nations. “But when you are in the Pacific and you talk to its people, they have so many ideas. They are super-active. You can see that in the climate negotiations, and you can see that they are looking at their future, especially young people.”

Working with nature

Griffith University Masters student Shannon Langton, who is from Samoa, is particularly interested in how the Pacific Island nations are taking a very local approach to this global problem. “I wanted to explore what is actually working in providing benefits to these communities, in helping them to adapt to climate change, and how can we build off what’s already working,” says Langton.

She’s examining ecosystem-based adaptations – restoring or boosting the benefits which nature already provides. That could mean restoring mangroves, increasing local managed marine areas, or protecting coral reef habitats.

“These kinds of adaptations are usually aimed at food security or coastal protection, but they also provide these co-benefits to the communities, to help them adapt and make them more resilient to the impacts of climate change,” Langton says.

This kind of project is particularly important for the Pacific Island nations. Without access to the resources that wealthier nations enjoy, it’s harder to implement large, expensive adaptations like big infrastructure. They have to think outside the square on every aspect of climate change adaptation. They have to think outside the square on every aspect of climate change adaptation.

New nationhoods

For example, sea-level rise and cyclones could result in some communities, islands and nations becoming totally uninhabitable. That’s driving some unique thinking around the concept of nationhood, says Nalau. “A lot of people think that Pacific people just live on the islands and they’ve grown up there and they’ve always lived there, but the Pacific has a really rich history of moving around.”

So, nations are now working together to ensure their people don’t lose their homes. “Kiribati, for instance, has negotiated with Fiji that there will be areas where, if and when sea levels get too high in Kiribati, some of the population could move into,” Nalau says. “The government of Tuvalu has been very vocal in raising this discussion and talking, even about digital citizenship – a state which exists entirely online. That raises questions around what a state actually is? Is a state still a state when it loses its actual land mass?”

This idea of managed retreat, or relocation from threatened areas, is one that wealthy nations, like ɫ��վ, are still struggling with – particularly when some of the most expensive prime real estate is right on the coastline.

Community change

Climate change also threatens tourism – one of the main industries in the Pacific islands. It brings in the dollars, but it’s also a major contributor to climate change through carbon emissions, water shortages and environment degradation, says Susanne Becken, Professor of Sustainable Tourism at Griffith University.

“It’s a conflict between people wanting to apply to visit paradise and connect with nature, but then you generate carbon emissions and, at the same time, Pacific islands particularly are exposed to the risks of climate change,” Becken says. “So, it’s very important that tourism has to improve the resilience, rather than actually undermining it.”

Many of the large hotel chains are implementing sustainability initiatives and investing in restoring local ecosystems. But communities are also getting together and innovating. “Vanuatu is really driving the whole regenerative tourism idea. It’s community-controlled and connecting tourism with the local food production,” Becken says.

And in Samoa, for example, the government decided to invest more in traditional, more local-style accommodation, which is also community-owned and operated, after a tsunami damaged many of the larger, western-style hotels.

Now, it’s time for other countries to take the initiative, says Langton. “The small island nations are driving the importance of climate action, and holding larger nations accountable to their pledges,” she says. “Their leadership style – that you can’t do everything alone – runs instinctively from how you’re brought up and raised in the Pacific. You have the community there to support you. They’re proof that collective action can happen.”

Image captions (top to bottom):

Johanna and Angus at Climate Summit.
Shannon at Olohega Swains Island, American Samoa.
Susanne pictured at an outdoor workshop with Pacific Island partners exploring a better tourism model.

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