Shrinking Carteret Islands in the Pacific Force Evacuation Plans

The Papua New Guinea islands called the Carteret Islands are submerging and are expected to be utterly uninhabitable by 2015, according to Friends of the Earth International. In response, the Papua New Guinean government has authorized an evacuation that will be operative beginning in 2008 and ending in 2020.

For 20 years, Carteret Islanders have been battling rising sea waters that continually wash away homes and agriculture and contaminate fresh drinking water supplies. As a defense against an encroaching ocean and its storm surges and high tides, islanders have built sea walls and mangroves. Their efforts have been in vain.

In November 2005 wide spread reports of the islands becoming progressively uninhabitable made the Carteret Island situation well known. It was on November 24 of 2005 that the Papua New Guinean government authorized the evacuation plan that will transport ten families at a time from the islands to the Papua New Guinea mainland and resettle them in autonomous Bougainville. Unfortunately, poor relations between the two governments could interfere with the proper governmental resourcing of the relocation.

Added to this is the islanders' hesitation at relocating to Bougainville, which is in the midst of civil unrest. Although many Carteret Islanders move voluntarily between Bougainville and Carteret, many more do not feel safe in a situation of civil unrest and wish to remain on their islands.

The Carteret Islands, also known as the Atoll, Tulun or Kilinalilau Islands, lie 86 kilometers north east of Bougainville, which is on the Papua New Guinea mainland, in the Pacific Ocean. The horseshoe shaped scattering of low lying islands surrounding a lagoon stretches over approximately 30 kilometers running from north to south. The Carterets have a maximum elevation of 1.5 meters above sea level and have a population of 2500.

As climate change has affected the sea levels of the Pacific Ocean, saltwater intrusion has eroded the land, felled trees, poisoned crop gardens and even divided some islands in half. A video is available in which islanders talk about their islands and their lives there. A transcript of the words of three of the interviewees follows (brackets [ ] indicate missed or unclear words).

Man 1: We still believe that industrial countries can still help us. Countries like America, England, Australia, [ ]. If these people can spend millions and millions on sending troops to fight other countries, why can't they spend maybe a couple of millions just to save people like ourselves, the marginalized, the poorest of the poor. Why? Because we are taking the brunt, we are the victims of this...green gas...emission that is being, uh..., the pollution made by industrial countries.

Man 2: I would say that, really, the people who are causing thi-i-is erosion of the ice, or what they call it, should try and look to us, now, on the islands, and try and do something that will help us stay on our island. I think that's alright, [that] I can say. Because we love to live on our little island.

Woman 1: The sea has washed away a big part of this island. Today, we are very short of food, [ ]. No bananas growing, no [cassavas], produce that we live on, nothing is on those trees that we eat. Onl--today now, we live only on coconuts and fish.

Collated from the research and interviews of Pip Star, by Steph Long, "Steph from Australia on the Carteret Islands," Friends of the Earth Australia/Friends of the Earth International.