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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/31/moving-to-the-mountaintops-rising-seas-displace-tens-of-thousands-in-papua-new-guinea>
"Two years ago fisher Siri James lived on the southern coast of Papua New
Guinea, in a small village near Pariva beach. But as the tides continued to
rise, James was forced to move further in from the shore.
“It’s not easy moving inland, I was born and raised by the seas, I am a
fisherman. I know the flow of tides and currents, I know when the wind will
come strongly and when it will rain – but now I don’t understand why everything
is changing,” says James, who is in his early 40s.
He says the tides “seem to be growing every day”.
“I heard them say it’s global warming. I left school and ran away to go
fishing, so now I don’t know what’s global warming, but the rains don’t come
when it’s supposed to, the winds have changed,” James says.
“Maybe we offended the sea gods, I don’t know, but now I have to move my family
inland,” he says.
Pariva beach is part of Kerema in Papua New Guinea’s Gulf province. In that
area, rising sea levels and sand erosion have forced about 40,000 people to
move inland over the past decade, a local councillor says, in what a leading
climate change activist describes as a “humanitarian crisis”.
The Kerema councillor Mai Trevor says 80,000 people lived in the local area,
however, since 2015, almost half of the population has moved inland due to high
tides and sand erosion. Trevor says residents first began moving in 2015, but
over the last four years the number of people leaving has grown.
As well as fishing, many in the province earn a living from coconut and betel
nut farming. In recent years, residents say the tides have been rising and
weather patterns have shifted, making it harder to grow crops or fish in the
oceans, and affecting their livelihoods.
“Many are moving to the mountaintops in Kerema town, while those who have land
[further inland in nearby] Murua have moved there,” Trevor says.
“We need a proper count of the population in the area to come up with a way to
address it, all land are customarily owned so authorities can’t just relocate
people,” she adds. Papua New Guinea is in the process of conducting its first
census in many years, which experts say may reveal the population of the
Pacific country to be far higher than current estimates of about 10 million
people.
The leading Papua New Guinea climate change activist Duncan Gabi also estimates
tens of thousands of people have been displaced from the area around Pariva
beach.
“The sand erosion at Pariva beach [is] displacing 30,000 to 40,000 people, [it
is] a humanitarian crisis that highlights PNG’s vulnerability to climate
change,” Gabi says.
He warns that a controversial proposal to begin sand mining in the western part
of the Gulf province is fuelling fears the situation will get worse and argues
authorities must act to help communities."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
