DS Hosts International Workshop on Land Solutions to Climate Displacement

October 08
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 DS hosted an international workshop on land solutions to climate displacement in Auckland, New Zealand on 4 October. The workshop brought together experts and government officials from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and New Zealand to discuss and examine legal and policy solutions to climate displacement in seven focus countries – Bangladesh, Kiribati, Maldives, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. An element of DS’ Land Solutions Project, the workshop examined the role of customary land law, internal relocation programmes and the construction of new housing, land and property options as solutions to ensuring the rights of climate displaced persons. The workshop will lead to the publication of seven papers on rights-based legal and policy solutions to climate displacement in each of the focus countries. These papers will be compiled into an innovative edited volume designed to provide policy-makers and affected groups with an in-depth understanding of the legal issues involved, how they can be approached and where work is already underway today to protect the rights of climate displaced persons. It is expected that this publication will be available in early 2013.

Interview with DS Director on Radio Australia Asia Pacific

April 23
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DS Director, Scott Leckie, spoke with Heather Jarvis on Radio Australia Asia Pacific on 18 April, 2012 about the intended use of land purchased in Vanua Levu, Fiji, by the Government of Kiribati. This interview follows significant coverage of Kiribati President Anote Tong’s plan for ‘dignifed migration’ for the i-Kiribati people in the face of rising sea levels and the many other challenges climate change has brought the island nation. In this interview he discussed a number of relocation and adaptation issues relating to climate displacement in these areas, in particular, addressing the need for investment in both domestic social services in the short to medium-term and long-term planning that may include off-shore solutions. Listen to the interview here.

NEW – Photo Essay on Climate Displacement in Kiribati

February 07
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Kiribati – a country of some 110,000 people, living on land with a maximum elevation of a little over 3 metres – has been shot into the international spotlight due to President Anote Tong’s unique “dignified migration” response to looming climate change – an approach that acknowledges the inevitability of climate displacement and thus endeavours to educate and train the i-Kiribati population so as to make them suitable for acceptance as skilled migrants in neighbouring countries when the fateful climate doomsday does indeed arrive. Drawing upon its extensive work in Kiribati over the last 2 years under its Climate Change and Displacement Initiative (CCDI), Displacement Solutions has just released a photo essay that analyses the government’s climate change approach and proposes a range of innovative yet practical solutions to climate displacement, featuring photographs taken by Jocelyn Carlin during the 2011 joint DS-UN HABITAT mission to the Pacific.

View the Photoessay below.

DS to Undertake Major Project on Land Solutions for Climate Displacement

November 30
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In 2012, DS will carry out a major project on land solutions for climate displacement with researchers and scholars from 7 climate-affected countries – Bangladesh, Kiribati, Maldives, PNG, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. The study will examine in detail the feasibility of land acquisition, relocation and resettlement options for communities threatened with land loss and homelessness caused by climate change.

New DS Project – Coastal Kids

November 30
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Nauti Primary School grounds, Funafuti, Tuvalu

One of DS’ latest projects – Coastal Kids – will be starting in earnest in early 2012. The Coastal Kids Project will initially bring schools and students living in coastal areas in Bangladesh, Kiribati and Tuvalu into direct contact with schools and students in Australia who are also themselves coastal dwellers. Using communications technology such as Skype and other forms of internet-based connections and learning, the Coastal Kids Project will bring children from these four countries into direct face-to-face contact during which time they can discuss the reality of climate change, learn how climate change is affecting them and what kids in all of these countries can do to better understand the needs and wishes of coastal kids everywhere. Check here soon for further updates!

DS Leads Mission to Climate-Threatened Pacific Countries 2011

October 25
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From 29 August – 15 September, a DS team visited both Kiribati and Tuvalu as a follow-up of the 2010 mission to the Pacific. As low-lying island nations, both Kiribati and Tuvalu are extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and the citizens of these countries are at risk of losing houses, lands and livelihoods unless pro-active, rights-based solutions are pursued. During their time in these countries, the DS team engaged with numerous politicians, UN officials, civil society actors and local people in discussions on the particular housing, land and property rights issues at play, as well as investigating the human rights dimension of the climate displacement threat. Over the course of the mission, a short film, an article and two photo booklets were produced to document and assess the crisis that is unfolding in the Pacific, and these will soon be made available through the Displacement Solutions website.

Kiribati – The sea wall protecting the airport built under KAP II

I-Kiribati gather at the airport to watch the first visit of a UN Secretary General to Kiribati

Kiribati – Matthew’s land is now frequently inundated due to rising seas

DS Director, Scott Leckie, being filmed as he speaks about the situation facing Kiribati

Tuvalu – A house over one of the borrow pits

Tuvalu – The Taiwanese Friendship Garden encourages Tuvaluan’s to create their own vegetable gardens

One of the few sea walls in Tuvalu

An aerial view of Funafuti atoll, Tuvalu, reveals how narrow the land is

New Article on Kiribati and Tuvalu by Scott Leckie and Dan Lewis

November 16
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The Ecologist was kind enough to recently publish a short piece by Scott Leckie and Dan Lewis of UN Habitat following their mission to these countries to examine possible solutions to looming climate displacement. The full article can be accessed here.

DS Leads Climate Mission to the Pacific

October 06
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Displacement Solutions led a three-person mission to Fiji, Kiribati and Tuvalu in August – September 2010. The mission team comprised of Scott Leckie of DS, Dan Lewis of UN Habitat and Emeretta Cross of the Global Dialogue Foundation explored the looming issue of climate-induced displacement and the particular housing, land and property rights issues that are emerging within the context of solving climate displacement. A report on the mission and further articles will be posted soon.

DS Director Addresses Climate Displacement Event in Berlin

July 13
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DS Director Scott Leckie was invited by German Green Party MP Ute Koczy and the Heinrich Boell Stiftung to present a talk on climate displacement and land solutions for those displaced. The talk formed part of a panel discussion held on 29 June in Berlin, and focused on DS efforts in Bangladesh, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea and Tuvalu to find viable and rights-based solutions to climate displacement for all affected persons and communities. To read a full report of the meeting, click here.

Displacement in the News

January 30
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Climate change based displacement featured on Australia’s ABC News, January 2009

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