10/18/21, 10:57 AM
Kiribati and China to develop former climate-refuge land in Fiji | World news | The Guardian
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The Pacific project
Kiribati and China to develop former climate-refuge
land in Fiji
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About this content
Christopher Pala
Tue 23 Feb 2021 14.00 EST
A block of land the government of Kiribati bought in Fiji half a decade ago – ostensibly to serve as a refuge when their country disappeared under a rising ocean – will be transformed into a commercial farm to help feed the i-Kiribati people, with “technical assistance” from China. The president of Kiribati, Taneti Maamau, announced last week that China would help fulfil his administration’s plan to resume farming on a 22 km sq parcel of land in Fiji, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/24/kiribati-and-china-to-develop-former-climate-refuge-land-in-fiji
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10/18/21, 10:57 AM
Kiribati and China to develop former climate-refuge land in Fiji | World news | The Guardian
sparking widespread speculation the land would be gifted or sold to China. Maamau
has ruled out any military application – “any land or sea base” – for the land.
The land was purchased in 2014 by Maamau’s predecessor, Anote Tong, as a potential
new home for i-Kiribati displaced by rising seas: “We were looking for a place that
could hold 60,000 or 70,000 people,” his government’s environment minister said at
the time.
But scientists have rejected the rationale for the purchase, saying
the archipelagic nation was not in danger of disappearing as its sand atolls will rise
with the sea level.
The plan, now, to use the estate to grow food for Kiribati – where nearly all vegetables
are imported and obesity levels are high – involves turning the estate back into a
commercial farm, its former iteration until a few years before its owner, the Anglican
church, sold it to Kiribati.
The village of Eita on South Tarawa Kiribati. There is little food grown on Kiribati’s islands. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The
Guardian
“A strategic plan for the land had been developed and we are seeking technical
assistance from China,” Maamau said in an interview with local journalists online.
“There is a lot of potential,” he said, giving no further details, leading to online
speculation that the land would be gifted or sold to China.
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Kiribati and China to develop former climate-refuge land in Fiji | World news | The Guardian
In response the president’s office on Monday issued a press release decrying “the
intentional fabrication of information on social media”.
But the government’s riposte gave no details on the plan: on who – i-Kiribati, Chinese,
or Fijians – would farm the land; what would be grown; and for whom?
Presidential aide Michael Foon told the Guardian the plan was to “supply produce to
Kiribati,” and “use i-Kiribati workers where possible” with the agreement of the Fiji
government.
“China will not be involved in any activities, apart from providing technical advice
during the development stages,” he said.
“The plan sounds ideal,” said Banuera Berina, who ran against Maamau in the June
2020 presidential elections. But, he said, the government should be “transparent in its
dealings with China over this as with other development projects as well”.
In Fiji, Seini Nabou, the general secretary of the opposition National Federation Party,
echoed Berina’s call for transparency, adding “they should employ Fijians; this a
blatant disregard of the local immigration laws”.
The announcement came a year-and-a-half after the Maamau administration – first
elected in March 2016 on a pledge to maintain diplomatic recognition with Taiwan –
abruptly flipped its allegiance to Beijing, sparking a loss of Maamau’s majority in
parliament.
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Kiribati and China to develop former climate-refuge land in Fiji | World news | The Guardian
The president of Kiribati, Taneti Maamau, pictured here in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. Maamau’s
government switched allegiance from Taipei to Beijing in 2019. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images
Yet Maamau was reelected by a comfortable margin in 2020 and enough MPs crossed
the aisle again for him to recover his majority.
In the current budget, Chinese aid is listed at AU$15m, or about twice what Taiwan was
contributing.
But Kiribati’s switch to Beijing had stoked western fears that it would pave the way for
Chinese military expansion in the Pacific by harnessing Kiribati’s strategic location.
The Micronesian nation of 113,000 people, independent since 1979, is made up of 33
sandy atolls across three archipelagoes, spread over a swath of ocean the size of India.
The capital, Tarawa, is just 1000km south of Kwajalein Atoll and America’s Reagan
Missile Test Site, while Kiritimati Island – also known as Christmas Island – is a little
more than 2,000km from Hawaii, home of the US Pacific Command and Pearl Harbor
Navy base.
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Kiribati and China to develop former climate-refuge land in Fiji | World news | The Guardian
Hawaii, US
Kiritimati
Tarawa
Fiji
Tarawa is the capital of Kiribati. Kiritimati Island – also known as Christmas Island – is a little more than 2000km from Hawaii
But so far, according to Kiribati sources, the Chinese have made no concrete aid offers
that could have military implications. Kiribati has a friendship treaty with the US that
allows the latter to veto third-party bases.
Kiribati’s property in Fiji, Natoavatu estate on the island of Vanua Levu, lies at the end
of a dirt road about 55 km from the town of Savusavu. Formerly a cattle and copra
ranch that used Solomon Islanders as labourers, about half of the land is now covered
in thick jungle and uninhabitable.
It was purchased in 2014, with no Kiribati parliamentary review, for AU$9.3m, about
four times the average per-acre price of comparable deeds of sale.
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The mountain half of the Natoavatu Estate in Fiji is mostly impenetrable jungle and is not used for cultivation. Photograph:
Christopher Pala/The Guardian
It was paid for from Kiribati’s sovereign fund of nearly AU$1bn and raised no objection
from IMF officials who track the economy.
The physical existence of Kiribati into the future has been keenly
debated, with Tong’s government arguing it needed to plan for “migration with
dignity” as the country became unliveable because of rising seas.
But Maamau’s administration has focused on climate change mitigation and
adaptation, including building up islands with dredged sand and elevating roads.
Coastal geo-morphologists report that atoll islands, unlike rocky islands, are in
equilibrium with the ocean: storm waves that wash over atolls every year or two
deposit sand, raising the islands.
… we have a small favour to ask. Tens of millions have placed their trust in the
Guardian’s high-impact journalism since we started publishing 200 years ago,
turning to us in moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope. More than 1.5
million readers, from 180 countries, have recently taken the step to support us
financially – keeping us open to all, and fiercely independent.
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PAD 3800 Managing Global Cities
Dr. Clark
Reflection Memo: Climate Migration
Due Date: See Canvas
Points: 25 points
Purpose:
The purpose of this assignment is to (1) connect current a global phenomenon to course objectives and (2)
demonstrate your ability to analyze information and apply it to questions about managing global cities.
Skills:
This assignment will focus on skills necessary for analyzing information and thinking critically.
•
•
•
Read and absorb information on a global issue.
Analyze complex global events and apply them to your daily life.
Find and cite outside materials using APA format. (Please see APA formatting resource below)
Knowledge:
This assignment will help you connect larger global events and problems to your daily life. One of the major
impacts of climate change is the physical changes that are wrought by increasing sea levels and inhospitable
weather patterns that force people from their homes.
Tasks:
1. This is an individual assignment.
2. Read the sources posted in Module 4 in Canvas for further background information. You may use other
outside credible resources. You should have 4 total sources.
3. Answer the following questions:
o How are cities around the world preparing for climate migration? Give an example.
o Where will people move? What communities will be impacted the most? What should cities do
to help everyone deal with the issue?
o How does property insurance play a role in this problem?
o Is your city prepared (either the one you live in or the one you are researching for the group
project)?
Criteria for Success:
Write a short response answering the questions above. You may address each point individually or write in
essay format. The total word count should be between 700-900 words (reference list does not count towards
word total). You need to follow APA formatting guidelines and cite all relevant information (including in-text
citations). This means that you must paraphrase and give proper credit to your sources within your writing
using in-text citations. Proper grammar, spelling, and evidence of careful proofreading is required. You may
enter text directly in the assignment page or upload a Microsoft Word document. See due date in Canvas. The
rubric is attached.
Resources:
•
FIU Library (this is a good source for navigating the library; Step 4 speaks about sources):
https://library.fiu.edu/gettingstarted
1
PAD 3800 Managing Global Cities
•
•
Dr. Clark
Module 4 sources
APA Formatting:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/gener
al_format.html
Rubric:
Criteria
Better
Good
Needs Improvement
Content
requirement.
Content shows a thorough
understanding of the topic. All
questions are answered. (10-9)
Content shows some
understanding or only
some of questions are
answered. (8-6)
Content shows little
understanding, or most
questions are not answered.
(5-0).
Research is
thorough and
credible.
Substantive research from
credible sources (4 minimum).
(10-9)
Adequate research or
sources mostly
credible (8-6)
Research is scant or uses
non-credible resources (5-0).
Length and
Format
Meets length requirement, APA Mostly meets length,
formatting, grammar, and
APA formatting,
spelling requirements. (5-4)
grammar, and spelling
requirements. (3-2)
Does not meet length, APA
format, grammar, or spelling
requirements. (1-0)
2
12/15/21, 2:37 PM
Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
Subscribe
The Guardian picture essay
Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight
for survival
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
The 33 islands of Kiribati, a remote and low-lying nation in the Pacific
Ocean, are under threat from climate change. But the islanders have
not given up hope
by Mike Bowers
Salt water from sea incursions and storm surges has isolated some houses Kiribati’s main island of South Tarawa. Photograph: Mike
Bowers/The Guardian
K
Sun 22 Oct 2017 19.18 EDT
iribati is one of the most isolated countries in the world. As you fly in to the
main island of South Tarawa, located less than 100 kms from the equator, a
precariously thin strip of sand and green materialises out of the ocean.
On one side, a narrow reef offers some protection to the inhabitants and
their land – at low tide, at least. On the other side, a shallow lagoon reaches kilometres
out to sea. The 33 islands of Kiribati – pronounced “Kiribass” – are extremely shallow;
the highest point on many of the islands such as South Tarawa is just a couple of
metres above sea level. Looking out of the aeroplane window, there is no depth to the
scene – sea dissolves seamlessly into sky, a paint palette of every blue
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
Pictured above: The island of South Tarawa; children playing chicken with the passing boats on the Nippon causeway that joins
Betio with the rest of South Tarawa. All photographs by Mike Bowers.
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
The only road
Pictured above: Cars on the Nippon causeway.
Kiribati is estimated to have a population of just over 100,000, with more than half
making their home on South Tarawa. There’s only one road on the island and
everything travels along it: schoolchildren, hospital patients, food, water, workers,
taxis, minibuses, private cars, and motor scooters.
When I was last here four years ago the road was in a very poor state – a reflection of
the country’s perilous economic position. Potholes and washaways were common, and
the speed bumps were severe enough to rip out the front end of your car unless great
care was taken.
Australia provided just under 30% of the A$77m (US$60.4m) cost of the Kiribati Road
Rehabilitation Project. It was the largest economic infrastructure investment in the
country since the second world war, and has made a substantial difference to the
quality of life on South Tarawa. However, Kiribati is facing greater challenges which
infrastructure alone cannot repair.
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Pictured above: Betio, at the southern end of Tarawa; the main land-fill site on South Tarawa.
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
Rising sea levels
Pictured above: Some houses on the lagoon side around the village of Eita have been isolated by salt water from sea incursions
and storm surges.
Climate change is a huge concern. Rising ocean waters are threatening to shrink
Kiribati’s land area, increase storm damage, destroy its crop-growing lands and
ultimately displace its people long before the islands are submerged.
Lack of fresh water is an immediate problem. Fresh water lies under the atolls and
islands of Kiribati in what are known as a “water lenses”. Fresh water, which is less
dense, floats on top of the denser salt water in a convex shape giving the sources their
name. However, king tides and sea incursions are polluting the once-reliable sources
and ruining the taro plant pits, known as babai pits, which depend on them.
Claire Anterea, one of the co-ordinators of Kirican, the Kiribati Climate Action
Network, says she fears the “extraordinary impact on our islands”.
Having yesterday witnessed the effects of sea incursions on vegetable growth on the
island of Abaiang, she says: “It has just moved me into tears. Like, oh my God, this is
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
very serious. [The sea] is two or three metres from the babai pit [where taro plants are
grown].
“I feel hopeless in one way that our people are suffering, but I also have the hope
within our people that they will try to find a way to adapt.”
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
Pictured above: Claire Anterea fishes off the island of Abaiang; salt water from the sea incursions into the plant-growing areas of
Tebunginako village has rendered the soil unable to sustain even coconut trees; a local football match played at the main stadium
in Bairiki, South Tarawa, on a flooded pitch.
Moving homes
Pictured above: Maria Tekaie stands beside a fallen coconut tree where the sea has washed away the village of Tebontebike on the southern end of Abaiang.
At the southern end of Abaiang in the village of Tebontebike, Maria Tekaie leans
against an uprooted coconut tree that used to be 100 metres from the shore. The
village had to be moved recently, as did the babai pits, due to the incursion of the sea.
The 65-year-old expects to have to move again: “My children are worried and have
started to talk about where else they can go. This is the only piece of land for us and
they love it here,” she said.
“I just want the world to know, and my request to them is that we need help to protect our land because if we try to build something like a seawall the waves are stronger and
we don’t know what option that we have. We just need help from you.”
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
Eighty minutes north along the bumping and tortuous dirt road is the village of
Tebunginako. It’s the most graphic example of sea inundation. Toroua Beree, 63, says:
“I moved away from this village because they don’t have any more life on this piece of
land.
“I talk about life because before this land was full of banana, babai, coconut trees, so
many coconut trees, so many trees we get food from, but now how can those trees
continue to live when you don’t have fresh water to give them? This is community land
and so everybody has a right to live on it but now it seems like the sea has taken that
away.”
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
Pictured above: A village resident of Tebuginako, Abaiang island, looking out from the village ‘maneaba’ or meeting house; a
fisherman waits for the tide to turn on the Anderson causeway; children from the village of Nanikai on South Tarawa performing
acrobatics on the beach.
Entrepreneurship
Pictured above: John Kaboa at his Tebero Te Rau Bungalow resort on the island of Abaiang.
John Kaboa, 28, and his wife, Tinaai, run the Tebero Te Rau bungalow resort on
Abaiang. Their optimism is typical of the spirit and entrepreneurship that runs hand in
hand with fear and despair.
The accommodation sits on stilts over the water and the resort is powered with solar
panels and a small, portable generator. Kaboa grows enough vegetables and fruit – such
as cabbages, egg plants, papaya, pumpkin, watermelon, longbean, sweet pepper, taro,
giant swamtaro and coconut tree – to supply his kitchen. He also buys local produce
from farmers on the island in preference to buying imported products. And he has
become involved in production of copra, the dried kernel of coconut which is used to
extract oil for cooking, hair oils, shampoo, margarine and detergents.
Kaboa says he is hoping “to get enough money so that I can support my family to move
to other countries if Kiribati will covered by the seawater. But I still really love my
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
paradise country.”
Elsewhere, I meet a Swiss man who is growing vegetables hydroponically in PVC pipes.
Each pipe has been elevated on racks to keep the plants safely away from the crabs
who are a constant menace to crops grown in the ground.
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
Pictured above: Tinaai Teava, John Kaboa’s wife; copra – the dried kernel of coconut which is used to extract oil for cooking, hair
oils, shampoo, margarine and detergents; Kaboa in his giant swamp taro pit, known as a ‘babai pit’; experimental hydroponic
vegetable growing on the island of Abaiang.
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
New government, new priorities
Pictured above: The daily catch displayed for sale on Tarawa.
In March 2016 Taneti Maamau became the new president of the Republic of Kiribati.
The elections swept away 12 years of BTK (Boutokaan Te Koaua) party rule along with
the outgoing president Anote Tong, who had spent many of those years on the world
stage raising awareness of the problems his low-lying island nation was facing due to
climate change.
The new government is more inward focussed. Its long-term project is Kiribati Vision
20 (KV20), which looks ahead 20 years. The plan is to plough revenue generated by
fishing licences and tourism back into the Kiribati economy to reduce unemployment,
raise education standards and reduce poverty. Kiribati earned A$197.8m in 2015 from
the sale of fishing licences, up from A$29.5m in 2009.
The new government has also doubled the price of copra to A$2 per kilo. This made the
average sack of copra worth about A$200 – a large sum on Kiribati. The idea of this
initiative is to entice people to travel back to their outer island homes and take
pressure off the heavily populated South Tarawa. It seems to have had an immediate
effect.
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
But opposition MPs believe the doubling of the copra price will mean that people
sacrifice their healthy subsistence lifestyle in favour of the more profitable copra
production. They also worry that the government’s dedication to domestic progress
will be futile given Kiribati’s future will ultimately be determined on the global stage.
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
Pictured above: A man fishes off the main wharf at Betio; Joseph Iteba shows the fish that he caught to feed his family at Betio.
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
No excuse
Pictured above: Former president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, relaxes at his home on South Tarawa.
Tong, the former president, sits on the seawall that protects his house. His extended family live all around him.
His public speeches have tracked his emotions regarding the fortunes of the I-Kiribati people from frustration to anger to a sense of futility. He says he grieves for what is happening to his country.
“Climate change for most if not all of the countries in the Pacific is a survival issue,” he
says. “If we do not address the climate change challenge, all of our efforts in trying to achieve economic survival, economic viability all will come to nought.
“[Since leaving office] I’m at home, I’m seeing my grandchildren grow up, and the
question that is always on my mind [is]: ‘What’s going to happen to my grandchildren
in 20, 30, 40, 50 years time?’”
I ask him: will the residents of Kiribati become climate refugees? “I think we have no
excuse, we have more than enough time to deal with it,” he says.
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Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival | Kiribati | The Guardian
Following the Paris agreement on climate change – and despite the withdrawal of the
US under Donald Trump – Tong feels there is now momentum for addressing the
challenge. However, he notes that capping global temperature increases at “two
degrees or 1.5 degrees does not mean a great deal for countries like Kiribati for whom
the projected sea level rise will continue to be disastrous”.
Tong hopes Australia and New Zealand will support Kiribati’s cause at the United
Nations’ framework convention on climate change in Germany next month. “If
Australia and New Zealand are not there, it really puts into question the meaning of
any relationship [we have] with Australia and New Zealand.”
Water lapping at your door
Pictured above: A fisherman returns home at dusk on his traditional wooden outrigger near the village of Ambo on South Tarawa.
Unfortunately, in Australia climate change has been used as a political punchline. In
2015, the Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton made a joke about rising sea
levels in Kiribati to the then prime minister Tony Abbott. After Abbott complained that
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the Pacific Islands Forum in Papua New Guinea ran later, Dutton said: “Time doesn’t
mean anything when you’re, you know, about to have water lapping at your door.”
During my conversation with Tong, I purposefully re-use those words and a brief flash of anger crosses over his normally peaceful face. He replies: “Well, actually, it does
come into the door … it’s not funny to the person being hurt.”
His sentiments are echoed by many of the residents of Kiribati, including Anterea. “I
think you are too comfortable in your own country,” she says. “Just come to Kiribati
and see with your own two eyes what we are suffering from.”
This story has been corrected. Previously it stated that the highest point in Kiribati is just
two metres above sea level; it now states that the highest point on many of the islands
such as South Tarawa is just a couple of metres above sea level.
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