Carterets families sign relocation deal

By SALLYTIWARI
EIGHTY-three families living in the Carterets Islands, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, have signed up to be relocated to the mainland, local non-governmental organisation director Ursula Rakova says.
Rakova, who heads the Tulele Peisa, said the families had met the relocation guidelines in terms of vulnerability, willingness to relocate and participate with host community as well as the size of the family.
Programme manager Basil Peso said intermarriage was one of the criteria for relocation.
“There is emphasis on intermarriage because it binds and creates unity in inheriting and acquiring land,” Peso said.
Alaskans George Tom and Stanley Tom from the Newtok community and Alaska immigration justice project director Robin Brenon, with Michael Kiromat from Ahus Island, Isaiah Malachai from Luf of Western Islands and The Nature Conservancy’s climate change coordinator Dr Gabriel Kulwaum are in the region to observe and share experiences and ideas on the relocation of communities as a result of climate change.
Rakova said the Carterets had lost more than 20m of land to salt water invasion during king tides over the past 30 years.
She said since 2009, five families had been relocated to Tinputz Catholic mission.
She said although the church had gifted the land, the Tinputz community had been very welcoming towards their relocation process.
“They consider the relocated Carteret islanders at Woroav as a village and not a settlement,” Rakova said.
She thanked the church as well as the people of Tinputz for the 71ha of land, saying each family would receive a hectare each.
She said the remaining land would be used to farm cocoa so that the community could sustain itself economically.
Rakova said the settlers were working on a mini-integrated forestry project where they were planting trees as their contribution to mitigating climate change.