At an event organized by the Coalition of Atoll Nations on Climate Change in December 2019, Tabitha Awerika, 21, from Kiribati, urged world leaders to listen to the climate science and to the pleas of those living in the South Pacific. “I will not leave the lands of my ancestors,” she said. “I will not abandon my motherland. I refuse to leave the only place I call home.”

Her words reflect some of the challenges ahead for those who live in Pacific Island Countries (PICs) that climate change may make uninhabitable. Land is a critical component of Pacific Island societies and in most places the people strongly identify with the land of their ancestors. Neither people nor the land can be considered complete without the other. Yet Pacific land has rarely been the subject of analysis in relation to the impacts of climate change and the development of appropriate adaptive (and indeed mitigation) responses.  

Land as Kin

The Polynesian term “fanua” and its cognates can mean both “island, territory, estate”, “the people of the estate” and “placenta,” with land often described in kinship terms, as mother, brother, sister, and/or grandparent. Land provides ontological security—that enables a person to trust that things such as people, objects, places, and meanings will remain the same over time—and feelings of continuity in one’s life that are based on a sense of belonging and confidence in one’s identity. While migration has always occurred, traditionally it was often circular. People who left their land usually returned. Land could not be left unoccupied, and some people always remained to sustain the connection to the land.

Security Tied to Land

Two major issues arise when the security—physical, social, and cultural—of a people is strongly rooted in the land. First, all attempts must be made to achieve in situ adaptation so that essential links to the land can be sustained. Second, where relocation is unavoidable, all efforts must be made to reduce the psychological, spiritual, and emotional losses to reduce the possibility of violent outcomes. Planning should involve steps to minimize cultural, social, emotional, and psychological disruption, and hence the potential for conflict.

The great majority of land in independent Pacific Island countries, over 90 percent, is inalienable and cannot be bought or sold or otherwise permanently transferred. It is generally considered to be held communally, and to belong to past and future generations as well as those of the present. Land can be, and has been through time, exchanged in a variety of traditional arrangements. However, while people can live and conduct their livelihoods on land that is not customarily theirs, usually such arrangements are based on usufruct rights, which are generally temporary rights to use the property of another.

This has implications. Climate change impacts, linked to environmental degradation, can lead to a scenario where not all inhabitants can be satisfactorily supported by the local resource base. Worse yet, the land may no longer be able to support its people at all, and the whole community must be relocated. Such climate change induced migrants will need to find another place to live and conduct their livelihoods. Whether migrants seek rural locations or find themselves in urban or peri-urban squatter settlements, tensions and conflict with customary owners may result.

Where whole communities are forced to move, it is likely that communities will break up and individual families or groups will make independent migration decisions. Many will find themselves in urban locations, with no land to belong to or return to.

A number of measures may reduce the negative impacts of community relocation both for those who are forced to move and those on whose customary land they settle.

Identify Land at Risk

First, land at risk needs to be identified. The physical impacts of climate change upon the land are relatively well understood. These include coastal erosion and inundation, increased magnitude and/or frequency of extreme climatic events, changing disease vectors and other health issues, and possibly reduced agricultural and fisheries production. These impinge upon material security by damaging the spaces where people live, their resources, and in turn their livelihoods. Many PICs have already conducted vulnerability assessments, and there is growing awareness of places that may become uninhabitable.

Preparing for Relocation

Relocation sites must be identified. And one must recognize the difficulty involved when one community cedes some of its land to others. In some settings, communities that have existing relationships with vulnerable communities may be able to begin discussions about making land available. In others, it may be possible to call for voluntary offers of land. Such an approach will be difficult, but not impossible. Already the Prime Minister of Fiji and the Pacific Council of Churches have acknowledged the sense of unity among the people of the region who support a regional Pacific resolution on the issue of forced relocation.  

Early planning and consultation between people, from both origin and possible destination communities, should be conducted in a sensitive and culturally appropriate manner. It is important that parties understand that the planning is long-term and contingent on climate change effects worsening.

Discussions among governments and all parties should cover such issues as compensation, which may or may not involve money and the needs of the resettled communities. The relocated community, once established, should be able to enjoy, as much as possible, livelihood, land, and habitat security as they did in their customary homelands. This would include enough land (and fisheries) to establish a settlement and meet subsistence and commercial requirements.

Early interaction should be encouraged between representatives of the origin and destination communities, including reciprocal visits to each other’s land in order for both groups to understand the social, cultural and physical characteristics of each community, followed by initial resettlement by an “advance” party of relocatees to facilitate resettlement.

A site can then be developed. This process will involve building homes, preparing gardens, and establishing infrastructure prior to resettlement.

Ongoing monitoring and evaluation involving communities from both origin and destination will be required to ensure that any problems are identified and resolved as quickly as possible.

These measures may reduce the negative impacts of community relocation for both those who are forced to move and those who give up land so the migrants can settle somewhere new. While climate change induced migration may lead to increased levels of conflict in a region, a proactive, long-term planning approach is advised. Paradoxically, while forced movement of entire communities should be the last option considered, planning for relocation should not be left to the last minute, which could result in problems that fester for generations.