Problems and prospects for Islands at the margins: a case study of Moturiki Island, Central Fiji

Outsiders sometimes fail to appreciate the complex geography of the Pacific Islands region when trying to understand the problems associated with global warming and their potential solutions. For this reason this presentation looks at an island on the margins rather than in the centre of a large island group - the Fiji Islands. Moturiki Island is home to some 800 people living in 10 villages, mostly engaged in subsistence farming and fishing. Increasing population has strained the resource base of the island, and making the population less resilient and more dependent on outside assistance. The physical fabric of the land of Moturiki is being slowly inundated by sea-level rise associated with global warming. Agriculture is being affected by rising temperatures. Decisions about adaptation -both current and proposed- are being driven from the community level and are often inappropriate. In the foreseeable future it is likely that conditions on Moturiki will become far worse, with large areas of coastal lowland being flooded. Key uncertainties include future precipitation levels and changes in the frequency of typhoons (tropical cyclones). Moturiki is typical of hundreds of smaller, more marginal, inhabited Pacific Inlands on which life may be more difficult to sustain in the future because of climate change.