Write up: In what ways will Climate Change impact land tenureship and

ownership in the Pacific.

In our presentation, we focused mainly on what ways will climate change impact land
tenureship and ownership in the Pacific in specifically to Samoa and Tonga. The first thing
we did is that we compare both the country and how climate change affected each land
ownership and there were three things that stood out to me while doing this research and
making our presentation and it was the Volcanic Eruption in both countries. Recently about
January last year, Tonga was hit by the most terrific volcanic eruption that ever happen
anywhere in the Pacific because it destroys many lands owns by families and the
governments. This tragic affected families and individuals as well. Given by the data that we
collected, most families loses their homes in this eruption and it leaves them to find help from
the government and their properties. In comparison to the volcanic eruption in Samoa, what
was interesting to me was they both had similarity in the destruction that happen to both
countries but the difference was after the volcanic eruption in Tonga, there was a new island
that was form after the eruption but in Samoa the place that was affected by the volcano was
turned into lava leaving it hard for people to find shelter in it unlike Tonga, the volcano
eruption form up another new island that will be use up in the future.
 Furthermore, the second thing that was interested to me is how the tsunami in both
countries affected the land ownership in both countries. Right after the eruption in Tonga a
tsunami followed through which makes it worse in Tonga and according to the data that we
got it was not as bad as the tsunami in Samoa because the tsunami in Tonga sure did affected
a lot of people’s properties but there were not many people that died from it unlike in Samoa
the aftermath there was worsen because there were also people in Tonga that was affected by
that tsunami. The devastation extended beyond human casualties with houses destroyed, cars
swept out to sea and some villages being virtually annihilated. Lastly is the comparison of
cyclone in both countries, Cyclone Gita in Tonga destroyed 171 homes and many others like
schools, classrooms and lands unlike in Samoa there were damaged in there but it was not as
bad as the cyclone in Tonga.
One aspect of the presentation that resonated me was how us people takes care of the
environment that we lived in. These climate change will always happen but if we take good
care of the environment that we are living in, it will minimize the effect of the climate change
in the future on our countries, and I would strongly agree in supporting that because it is
important to the people and the society they are living in for the safety of everyone. One way
that this presentation change my perspective about this topic is how the environment is being
treated in each island. Many islands in the Pacific are struggling with the effects of the
climate change and that leads to losing of their lands and how it destroys many people’s lives
so it made me see how important it is to take care of the environment that we’re living in, so
that it won’t harm us in the future.