pacificIslands
Sometimes refer to as Oceania, the Pacific Islands are spread over the Pacific Ocean. The estimated 20,000 to 30,000 islands are divided in three cultural groups: Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.
Melanesia, meaning the Black Islands, includes New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands, are is located from the Western Pacific to the Arafura Sea on the North east of Australia. The islands were settled around 35,000 years ago by Papuan speaking people, then 4,000 years ago came the first Austronesian people.
Micronesia, meaning small islands, is comprised of hundreds of small islands including Guam, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau. This island group is located North East of Melanesia and West of Polynesia.
Polynesia, meaning many islands, is composed of all islands within the “Polynesian triangle”: Hawaii-New Zealand – Easter Island. They include Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Niue, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, or Wallis and Futuna.
Pacific Islands share many common features, one of which is their close connection to the sea. The first settlers were, indeed, highly skilled navigators who travelled the thousand of islands with the stars and the sun as their only navigation instruments.
The main economic activities are agriculture (copra), fishing, and tourism. However, many islands derive much of their income from foreign aids, as their isolation makes them less competitive than other regions. Some islands, such as Papua New Guinea, are also involved in mining and logging, but because of pre-independence agreements, the state cannot profit from the exploitation of their resources. As a result, resource exploitation is high and unsustainable. Three decades of deforestation have had serious effects in Papua New Guinea: only 25% of lowland forests are pristine. Forest resources are now sacrificed for subsistence agriculture, copra, or oil palm plantations. This is problematic as the islands are rapidly losing the ecological services of their ecosystems.
Biodiversity
The region is extremely rich in biodiversity and is home to 4 conservation hotspots. Because of the island diversity, the region is one of the most complex areas on the planet and present high levels of endemism.
There is high endemism in plant populations. In Easter Melanesia, for instance, 50% of the 8,000 species of vascular plants are endemic.. Because of increased land clearings for agricultural purposes, mining, logging, increased population growth, as well as the spread of invasive species, plants suffer high stresses.
Vertebrates also present unique populations. Bird species have high levels of endemism (about 40% in Eastern Melanesia and over 50% in Polynesian and Micronesian islands). However, bird populations are highly threatened. Over 25 species have already gone extinct because of combined effects of decreased habitats, increased hunting, or increased numbers of predators.
The region is also rich in its mammal population, especially bats with over 75 species who are also threatened.
The islands are considered to be at the epicenter of the current extinction crisis. Because these islands have been isolated, the species in these ecosystems have not developed competition mechanisms. In addition to these invasive species, they also have to suffer from an increase human-made environmental stress including increase population, increase urban development, or loss of traditional resource management practices. All these effects have contributed to decreasing the resilience of these environments.
Impacts of Climate Change
The South Pacific region comprises of numerous small land masses whose combined exclusive economic zone is approximately 30 million square kilometers, an area almost the size of Africa. According to the World Bank, the South Pacific island nations have suffered more than US$1.0 billion in damages in the past 10 years from rising sea levels and tropical storms.
Tuvalu, an island of the Pacific, is already experiencing internal displacement of its population from flooding. Leaders on the island predict that the nation will be completely submerged in 50 years. Tuvalu comprises nine coral atolls between Australia and Hawaii. Their highest point is 5 meters (15 feet) above seal level. As sea level has risen, the island has experienced lowland flooding and saltwater intrusion that has adversely affected drinking water and food production. Coastal erosion has eaten away at nine of the islands that make up the country. The Coastal Erosion is due to the unusually high level of tropical cyclones and hurricanes in the Atlantic that have occurred in the last ten years. The government is currently seeking a home for 11,000 environmental refugees. In March of 2002, the country’s prime minister appealed to Australia and New Zealand to provide refuge and safety for his people once the island is submerged. After being rebuffed by Australia, the Tuvaluans asked New Zealand to accept its 11,000 citizens, but it has not yet agreed to do so.
Other islands in the region, such as the island of Majuro (Marshall Islands), have already lost up to 20 percent of its beachfront. Low-lying islands such as Tarawa atoll in Kiribati, will face estimated annual financial damages of more than US$8-$16 million a year, or the equivalent of 17-34 percent of Kiribati's gross domestic product, according to World Bank estimates. Higher islands such as Fiji's main island would also be affected, with damages of US$23-$52 million a year by 2050, equivalent to two to four percent of Fiji's GDP.