Trouble in Pacific Paradise: A Call for Merging Traditional

and Modern Tools of Climate Protection

Fale Andrew Lesa

Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Volume 21, Fall 2020, pp. 21-27
(Article)

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/gia.2020.0021

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/766389

[ Access provided at 26 May 2021 03:17 GMT from Carleton University Library ]
Trouble in
Pacific Paradise
A Call for Merging
Traditional and
Modern Tools of
Climate Protection
Fale Andrew Lesa
I
n recent years, the Pacific Islands have
emerged as a popular destination for
climate scientists seeking to develop
cutting-edge solutions to the most immi-
nent climate-related challenges facing the
globe. A 2019 study by MIT scientists, for
instance, found that heat redistribution
from the Pacific Ocean was a key driver
in regulating the Earth’s climate.1 And in
2009, the United Nations (UN) partnered
with the Australian government to launch
the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change
Program.2 Pacific Island ecosystems are
uniquely sensitive to climate change, and its
effects are therefore more profound. Pacific
Island nations are threatened by melting
continental ice sheets that will result in sea-
level rises across the Pacific, and ocean tem-
peratures, sedimentation, and acidification
threaten corals needed for the seafood that
villagers consume and sell.3 Natural disas-
ters undermine the tourism industry and its
significant contributions to local economies
through job creation and investment.4
My colleagues at the Asian Development
Bank recently conducted a cost analysis of
climate change in the Pacific. With global
warming at 2°C (3.6°F), climate change
could consume up to 15.2 percent of Papua
Fale Andrew Lesa is a policy consultant at the Asian Development Bank and a senior fellow at the Asia Europe Founda-
tion (ASEF). Indigenous to Samoa, he studied policy at the University of Auckland and is a former city councilor.
New Guinea’s GDP by 2100. Over this cen-
tury, Timor-Leste’s GDP would drop by up
to 10 percent, followed by Vanuatu at 6.2
percent, the Solomon Islands at 4.7 percent,
Fiji at 4 percent, and Samoa at 3.8 percent.
Overall, assuming current trends continue,
climate change could cost the Pacific 12.7
percent of annual GDP by the end of the
century.5 These findings underscore the
need for urgent action and for climate resil-
ience to inform all development plans and
priorities.
The Pacific region’s climate activity, along
with its recent urbanization, provide the
ideal conditions to test climate solutions
informed by science and technology and
molded by traditional knowledge. Along
this line, all fourteen island states have de-
livered best-practice adaptations in three
areas: coastal zone management, food secu-
rity, and water security. The Pacific Islands
regularly share technical guidelines, strate-
gies, and practical lessons with the rest of the
world. Some of the most important lessons
so far have emerged from Pacific Islanders’
experience merging traditional knowledge
with the latest science and technology to act
quickly in mitigating the negative impacts
of climate change.
This paper explores the value of this syn-
ergy between tradition and technology for
remote and coastal communities and deter-
mines whether aspects of this new approach
to fighting climate change can be replicated
elsewhere with similar success.
Leveraging Ecosystem-Based
Adaptation against Negative
Human Behaviors
In the Pacific, a healthy ecosystem is fun-
damental for ecological resilience, or the
FAL L 2 0 2 0 , VO L UM E X X I 21
Fale Andrew Lesa
ability of the local environment to absorb
changes. It also performs another essential
function, providing most of the food and
income needed by locals. The advantages
of ecosystem-based adaptation are twofold.
First, it focuses society’s efforts on produc-
ing small, manageable changes in the local
environment that counteract negative hu-
man behaviors, such as pollution, coastal
development, or overfishing. These alterna-
tives build community resilience from the
ground up, speaking directly to the holistic
values of indigenous communities. The most
concrete examples include mangrove reveg-
etation to combat coastal erosion, protect-
ing coral reefs and wetlands, reforestation
and afforestation, and the management of
untreated water and food waste. Ecosystem-
based adaptation is a relatively modern con-
cept, but its principles have been practiced by
indigenous communities for generations.6
In addition, ecosystem-based adaptation
is a cost-effective alternative that favors local
ownership of the solutions. This emphasis
on solutions that empower rather than mar-
ginalize local communities is a stark contrast
to the more overbearing infrastructure proj-
ects that are often supplied by well-meaning
foreigners, such as the contracts awarded
to New Zealand companies to roll out re-
newable energy in the Pacific. Although
necessary, it is difficult for small islands
to maintain these projects without ongo-
ing assistance. Ecosystem-based adaptation
is rooted in everyday behavior and can be
adapted to the local setting.
To facilitate these interactions, New
Zealand and Japan funded the creation of
the Pacific Climate Change Center, which
opened in 2019.7 The center aims to docu-
ment successful projects such as a ridge-to-
reef initiative supported by the United States
Agency for International Development in
the Sasamuga village of the Solomon Is-
lands, which restored a damaged water
22 GEORGETOWN J O U RNA L O F INTE RNATIO NAL AF FAI R S
catchment area (commonly referred to as a
watershed, or a reservoir for water collected
from the surrounding natural landscape).
Villagers restricted activities in the area
and planted trees with local schoolchildren.
They repaired the catchment area, stabilized
the shoreline, and increased water storage
capacity for the entire village.8 Combining
water security with forest regeneration gives
the local environment extra protection at a
fraction of the cost. It also protects against
landslides, flooding, and contamination.
The UN Development Program recom-
mended in 2017 a similar trilateral relation-
ship between China, Australia, and New
Zealand, citing China’s experience in miti-
gation and a strong focus on accountabil-
ity and evaluation from Australia and New
Zealand.9 Their combined efforts on climate
change would eliminate duplication and al-
low for greater collaboration between aid
donors and recipients.
Combining Traditional
and Modern Climate-
Management Strategies
According to UN Sustainable Development
Goal Fourteen, concerning the conservation
and sustainable use of our seas and marine
life, this was the year that the world pledged
to protect at least 10 percent of our ocean ar-
eas from human activity.10 Regrettably, this
target has not been met, with one study put-
ting the real figure at just 3.6 percent.11 The
Pacific stands out as a leader on this target,
with not only the largest marine protected
areas in the world but some island nations,
such as Palau, banning fishing in 80 percent
of its waters.12
Marine-protected areas employing the
best of modern science and traditional vil-
lage council leadership offer one example of
traditional and modern management strate-
gies employed to considerable effect. Most of

the sites are managed by young professionals
and supported by chiefs and elders, allow-
ing for the transfer of traditional knowledge
between generations.
My Samoan grandmother would tell me
stories about the great Talagoa, the god of the
sea, who takes the form of a whale in some
accounts.13 Pacific Islanders believe that the
sea represents life and death. Before every
voyage or fishing expedition, my ancestors
would make a small sacrifice. Through such
rituals honoring the sanctity of nature, my
Pacific Island brethren and I learned early
on that man-made climate change was the
result of our negligence and greed. The early
efforts of young people to galvanize society
into climate-protecting action, more gener-
ally seen in the recent dramatic examples
of young community advocates around
the world—such as twelve-year-old Timoci
Naulusala, who spoke at the 2017 UN Cli-
mate Change Conference (COP23)—have
long-term benefits around fostering impact
and intergenerational change.14
In 1995, the son of a high chief in the
Fijian province of Verata reached out to
the national university for assistance with
overfishing in his district. Today, more than
four hundred locally managed marine areas
across the country owe their existence to
that single act.15 They each combine tradi-
tional conservation practices with modern
science and resource management. For ex-
ample, villagers teamed up with researchers
to monitor the state of vulnerable clams. The
clam had a cultural significance as the village
totem and helped quickly generate popular
interest in the initiative.16 In the past, the
death of a high chief resulted in a hundred-
day fishing ban followed by a gigantic feast.
This gave fishing stocks sufficient time to re-
produce. The practice was reintroduced by
the village to help revive clam numbers, but
initial improvements were deemed insig-
nificant, and the ban was extended to three
T rouble in Pacific Paradise
Through such rituals honoring the
sanctity of nature, my Pacific Island
brethren and I learned early on that
man-made climate change was the result
of our negligence and greed.
years. The researchers recorded a 300 per-
cent increase in clams within the designated
taboo area and a 200 percent increase just
outside of it. The initiative was so success-
ful that it spread throughout the wider re-
gion, spurring capacity-building workshops
on land-based management techniques, al-
ternative income stream development, and
the dangers of pesticides for marine life.17 In
recent years, the lack of involvement from
village elders meant that fishing quotas were
often ignored. The resounding success of
this single project suggests that indigenous
communities will mobilize with greater ef-
fectiveness when our traditional systems are
incorporated in the solutions.
Whale Breeding as a
Climate Solution?
The Pacific Ocean is the largest body of wa-
ter on Earth, with enough space to fit every
single continent and still have room left over.
Ocean-based climate action could deliver
nearly a fifth (21 percent, or 11 GtCO2e)
of the annual greenhouse gas emissions cuts
needed in 2050 to limit global temperature
rise to 1.5°C, according to a report released
at last year’s UN Climate Action Summit.18
Whales, for example, absorb carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere and deposit nutrients
necessary for the survival of marine wildlife
and biodiversity.19 They contribute half of
the oxygen in our atmosphere, and each
whale is “worth thousands of trees” accord-
ing to a recent study from the International
Monetary Fund.20
FAL L 2 0 2 0 , VO L UM E X X I 23
Fale Andrew Lesa
The Pacific is home to the world’s largest
whale sanctuary and their preferred breeding
ground.21 It should therefore come as little
surprise that the region serves as the global
standard for whale conservation and man-
agement. The Pacific protests the legitimacy
of scientific whaling, and reports on the eco-
logical value of every whale lend weight to
their argument. Regional solidarity on such
issues fosters consensus in an environment
where disagreements over emissions are
commonplace. Australia and New Zealand
have been singled out by their Pacific neigh-
bors for defending fossil fuels and carbon
trading. In New Zealand, for example, ten
companies are responsible for two-thirds of
total greenhouse gas emissions.22 Further-
more, the whale also has a spiritual connec-
tion to indigenous communities of Pacific
cultures, as seen in the movie Whale Rider.
They are considered the descendants of
Tagaloa and are therefore sacred.23
Drought and Heat-
Resistant Crops
New farming systems for vulnerable low-
lying atolls in the Pacific have gathered pace
since the first trial in 2011. The Centre for
Pacific Crops and Trees (CePaCT) in Suva,
Fiji, established by the Pacific Community,
now acts as a gene bank for climate-resistant
crops such as taros, yams, and bananas.
The Centre directs the latest stem-cutting
research, which involves cutting branches
from a mother-plant and re-rooting the cut-
tings in soil where they grow faster than nor-
mal. These scientific advances have been es-
pecially helpful in Tuvalu, where agriculture
was severely damaged by a recent cyclone.24
This is a welcome relief, given constraints on
an already impoverished region.
Unsustainable land use is a key contribu-
tor to climate change by disturbing major
terrestrial sinks and greenhouse gas stor-
24 GEORGETOWN J O U RNA L O F INTE RNATIO NAL AF FAI R S
age capacity. Anywhere between 80 to 90
percent of land in the Pacific is owned by
extended families, rather than individuals,
through a form of customary tenure.25 Most
households embrace subsistence farming to
survive, as the formal economy employs a
relatively small percentage of the popula-
tion.26 Planting trees and crops alongside
livestock maximizes land use on an already
small plot of land, allowing for access to
fruits, nuts, and firewood. The trees also
give shade to the animals, who provide milk
and meat in return. This has been the Pacific
way of life for generations and confirms the
relationship between agroforestry and indig-
enous communities.27
Agroforestry absorbs more atmospheric
carbon than conventional farming, accord-
ing to a recent report by Penn State Uni-
versity that analyzed findings from more
than fifty different studies.28 Globally, ag-
riculture is responsible for 24 percent of
greenhouse gas emissions.29 Finding better
ways to farm requires new ways of think-
ing. Unfortunately, modern science carries
a strong Western bias, restricting access to
other worldviews that broaden our overall
understanding of the environment.30 The
Pacific Island nations account for just 0.03
percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas
emissions but make up 0.12 percent of the
world’s population.31 Their knowledge of
the local environment could help other re-
gions adapt faster.
Mitigating Climate Effects on
Socioeconomic Well-Being
In 2017, a Royal Society of New Zealand
report determined that climate change was
“expected to have adverse mental health
and community health effects” due to an
increase in natural disasters, displacement,
and higher temperatures.32 A study by the
University of Auckland estimates that up to

75 million people in the Asia-Pacific could
be forced to migrate by 2050.33 This would
have a devastating effect on the Pacific’s
economic activity, making it even harder to
manage climate change. Adequate invest-
ment into disaster risk reduction is therefore
critical for building more climate-resilient
communities, particularly in urban areas
that are more vulnerable to climate-related
natural disasters. The Pacific was the first in
the world to integrate climate change and
disaster risk reduction alongside low carbon
development.34
The success or failure of our response
to climate change depends largely on our
ability to monitor progress independently.
Transparency International recently high-
lighted evidence of mass corruption in the
management of the region’s natural re-
sources, particularly in oil, mining, fisher-
ies, and forestry. A lack of accountability
mechanisms has allowed politicians to man-
age the distribution of licenses and permits
with very little oversight.35 Similar fears at
the international level over the new global
carbon market (developed countries paying
developing countries to reduce their carbon
emissions) have gathered pace. Aid donors
and watchdogs must prioritize the improve-
ment of checks and balances that guard
against green corruption.
A Pacific Call to Action
As the gap between modern science and tra-
ditional knowledge narrows, global interest
in indigenous communities has intensified.
Instead of treating them as two separate
entities, the world must see them as two
halves. Only then are we in the best pos-
sible position to adapt and to persevere. UN
Secretary-General António Guterres said
that the Pacific has a unique moral authority
on climate change.36 That moral authority
should not go unanswered.
T rouble in Pacific Paradise
Notes
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hannes Förster, Chiara Franco, Graham
Gaines, Berna Gorong, Robyn James, Gabriel
Posing-Kulwaum, Magdalene Tara, and Eliza-
beth Terk, “Lessons From the Pacific Islands–
Adapting to Climate Change by Supporting
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Marine Science 6, article 289 (2019).
4. Asian Development Bank, “The Economics of
Climate Change in the Pacific,” 2013, https://
think-asia.org/bitstream/handle/11540/66
/economics-climate-change-pacific.pdf?
sequence=1.
5. Asian Development Bank, “The Economics of
Climate Change in the Pacific.”
6. Jenny Bryant-Tokalau, Indigenous Pacific Ap-
proaches to Climate Change: Pacific Island
Countries (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Mac-
millan, 2018).
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ficially Open!” Secretariat of the Pacific Re-
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5, 2019, https://www.sprep.org/news/the-pa
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8. Catherine Benson Wahlén, “SPREP Supports
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Change, Water and Tree Planting Projects,”
SDG Knowledge Hub, International Institute
for Sustainable Development, November 16,
2015, http://sdg.iisd.org/news/sprep-supports
-ecosystem-based-adaptation-through-cli
mate-change-water-and-tree-planting-proj
ects/; “From Ridge-to-Community-to-Reef
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lands,” Secretariat of the Pacific Regional En-
vironment Programme, September 30, 2015,
https://www.sprep.org/news/ridge-commu
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9. United Nations Development Programme in
FAL L 2 0 2 0 , VO L UM E X X I 25
Fale Andrew Lesa
China, “China’s South-South Cooperation
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/conservation-publications/native-animals
/marine-mammals/conservation-of-whales-in
-the-21st-century/whaling-and-new-zealand
/the-indigenous-relationship-with-whales-in
-new-zealand/.
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-climate-change-its-real-and-urgent/.
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16. Wheeling, “Combining Tradition and Mod-
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17. Wheeling, “Combining Tradition and Mod-
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18. “RELEASE: Ocean-Based Climate Action
Could Deliver a Fifth of Emissions Cuts
26 GEORGETOWN J O U RNA L O F INTE RNATIO NAL AF FAI R S
Needed to Limit Temperature Rise to 1.5°C,”
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/release-ocean-based-climate-action-could
-deliver-fifth-emissions-cuts-needed.
19. Joe Roman, James A. Estes, Lyne Morissette,
Craig Smith, Daniel Costa, James McCarthy,
J. B. Nation, Stephen Nicol, Andrew Pershing,
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system Engineers,” Frontiers in Ecology and the
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25. Catherine Wilson, “Pacific Islands at Sea over
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-New-Zealand-Oct-2017.pdf.
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Risk Management and Climate Change,” Sec-
retariat of the Pacific Regional Environment
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.sprep.org/news/pacific-leads-way-integra
ting-disaster-risk-management-and-climate
-change.
35. Marie Chêne, “Corruption Challenges in
Small Island Developing States in the Pacific
Region,” Transparency International, Septem-
ber 9, 2010, https://www.transparency.org
/files/content/corruptionqas/255_Corrup
tion_in_small_island_developing_states_Pa
cific.pdf.
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