A perspective from the Bougainville islands, atolls

The National Weekender

By KERRY KIMIAFA
THE Bougainville Islands and Atolls which lie North-East of the capital Port Moresby are part of the islands that make up the country Papua New Guinea. It shares a political border with the neighbouring Solomon Islands across the Solomon Sea. The island faces a serious threat from the effects of climate change, more so in its atolls which are loosely submerged coral guyots.
Why is climate change posing real threats to the islands, atolls and its people?
Many of the Pacific islands and atolls recently rose from the sea when the sea level subsided during the second Ice Age, according to geological history. They have been mostly formed by coral polyps and deep sea volcanic activity (extrusion) forming island chains and guyots extending from the Hawaiian islands forming the great Pacific Ring of Fire which adjourns the neighbouring New Britain Islands.
Hence, the soils on the island have a volcanic (ash) and calcareous origin (calcium carbonate from shell, coral, marine invertebrate fragments).
According to scientists, about 2 per cent of the world’s land area has an elevation of less than 10 metres above sea level. These low-lying coastal areas, with their ease of access to the sea, level terrain, and fertile deltas, draw a disproportionately high percentage of the world’s population.
More than 600 million people worldwide or 10 per cent of the population are located along the coastal zone. Coastal areas are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, particularly from slow sea-level rise, and from rapid storm surges and devastating king tides. Of these effects, sea-level rise will cause the most widespread displacement and resettlement of populations. The average global sea levels are predicted to rise by 1.2mm to 2.4mm a year.
What is happening globally that’s having a regional and local effect
Due to a combined effect of man-induced activities such as wholesale rainforest clearance, increased reliance on use of fossil fuels (oil, gas, petrol), land use changes, which has triggered a number of unforeseen consequences such as changes to the hydrological cycles, nutrient cycles, meteorology, etc, with the biggest consequence being climate change to such an extent that it has become irreversible.
Climate change in itself can trigger off other consequential events such as:

  • Flooding due to extensive and intensive rainfall (La Nina type conditions)
  • Extended droughts (El Nino type conditions)
  • Sea level rising contaminating ground water tables
  • Salination of fresh water systems through sea water infiltration
  • Inundation of low-lying atolls and islands
  • Running of edible plants and food crops due to salination (excess salts)

What is happening on Caterets and Mortlock islands
Due to their low-lying geology and geomorphology, sea water (salt water) is literally seeping in through the sandy soils as well submerging the atoll. At some points, where the wave strength is very strong and at high tides, the coastline (shore) is being eroded inwards; thus, further reducing the area size of the atolls which are very small already by the nature of their making (formation).
What is the implication for the Carteret and the Mortlock islanders
I only knew of refugees from wars in Africa, Europe and the Middle East but never heard of “climate refugee” until I read an article about the Caterets Island in Bougainville. Who are they and why would they be called such?
The Carteret Islands lie 100km to the north of Bougainville Island, the North Solomon’s province of Papua New Guinea and is comprised of six tiny islands, occupying a typical coral atoll, one of the most densely populated atolls in the Pacific.
More than 600 people live on a land area of only 80ha, and that land area is declining. By the late 1960s the first concerns were being expressed by the islanders that they were no longer able to support themselves from their own resources, hence the term “climate refugees”.
Implications for sea-level rise for atolls people

  • Ruining of fresh water for cooking and drinking water through salinization.
  • Infiltration of sea water inland and making the soils highly saline (increased electrical conductivity) and ruining land to support gardening-food production. The once thriving betel nut trade in the Markham plains are thought to have been wiped out due to infiltration of sea water underground from the Huon Gulf (Huon Peninsula) into the low-lying valley interiors of the Markham plains due to its interconnecting hydrogeology (groundwater mixing with sea water) as evidenced from reports in the Quaternary Science Review of 2012.
  • Diminishing land space and land size which can lead to conflict over land space among islanders
  • Unfortunately, they have no option but to be relocated elsewhere – a case of survival because not to do that means starvation and eventual death with an interplay of factors (mentally especially for the loss of land which in PNG is deeply rooted as we identify ourselves with land and culture). The case of the atoll islanders would be to be relocated locally (to the Bougainville mainland), internally relocated to the PNG mainland or relocated externally outside PNG as climate refugees.

On the whole, it needs a collaborative effort and understanding between all the stakeholders because climate change is here for real and it’s affecting PNG’s coastal communities and low-lying atolls and island; including Manus, Trobriand Islands which are just perched a few meters above the sea in the ocean.