Entrenched within this “pristine paradise” is a sub-culture of environmental degradation that confronts visitors to the Solomon Islands the moment they enter the capital Honiara, whether by air or by sea. The plastic waste that spews out of open storm water drains outside the Rove Bulkshop, the blood-red betel nut spit that stain the walls of the underpass near Honiara Central Market, the disposable nappies and empty tuna tins that spoil the underwater view for snorkelers at Mbonege Beach, the rusted broken down logging equipment that lines the banks of the Poha River, the rubbish that is indiscriminately thrown overboard the Fair Lady into the Iron Bottom Sound by local travellers throughout the five hour voyage to Auki, and the unregulated logging tracks that are carved into the rolling hills of West Guadalcanal, are some of the evidence that environmental awareness and creation care is far from the consciousness of the average Solomon Islander. Such disregard for the environment by the indigenous population seriously compromises the “remarkable biodiversity” that has sustained the Melanesian “exotic local customs and traditions” for generations. In addition to this internal lack of environmental concern is the unsustainable pillaging of natural resources by foreign investors that goes largely unchecked by government authorities who seem to show little regard for long-term environmental impact.
Against this background of self-inflicted environmental degradation, the vulnerability of this “archipelago of 992 tropical islands and atolls” is compounded by ‘Climate change’, leaving the Solomon Islands ill-prepared to effectively mitigate or adapt to the increasing effects of this global crisis. Saltwater intrusion along Fanalei Island, intensifying tropical storms across Temotu and Renbell provinces, invasion of Coconut Rhinoceros Beetles around Guadalcanal, coastal erosion along the North Road in Malaita, are among the many climatic challenges confronting the Solomon Islands.
While living in Honiara and leading the growth and development of The Salvation Army throughout the Solomon Islands for the past two years I have had the opportunity to observe first-hand the issues outlined above and to speak with people from all walks of life about ‘climate change’ and the impact it is having on everyday life. From farmers and fishermen in remote villages to the Permanent Secretary for Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management & Meteorology, their stories from lived experience are much the same, despite gaps between their knowledge about the science and scope of ‘climate change’. Using the CEDRA Strategic Process as a template, this brief report will highlight some of these stories, discuss what The Salvation Army is currently doing in this space and reflect upon how churches may be more proactive in embracing ‘Creation Care’ as an integral part of their mission activity in the Solomon Islands.
“On 3rd April 2007 at approximately 07:40 local time, an earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter Scale occurred in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands, just off the coast of the main island of Gizo. Fifteen minutes later, an additional eight earthquakes of slightly smaller magnitude triggered a localised tsunami. Several islands in the Solomon’s chain suffered both quake and tsunami damage (in particular to low-lying seaside areas). In Gizo town, the provincial capital, the local Solomon Islands Red Cross said that at least 13 people had been reported dead in Gizo. Around 2,000 people (about 10% of the population) were made homeless, and there had been widespread damage to infrastructure. Initial reports indicate similar, or worse, levels of damage in other areas.” (https://reliefweb.int/report/solomon-islands/solomons-islands-tsunami-2007, Solomon Islands Tsunami 2007, Australian Red Cross, published 3rd April 2007)
2. Tropical Depressions
According to Dr Melchior Mataki, Permanent Secretary for Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management & Meteorology in the Solomon Island, the historic location for severe tropical storms has extended beyond Renbell, Temotu and Makira Provinces across all provinces in the Solomon Islands over the past 10 years. The data is indicating that tropical depressions are now behaving like tropical cyclones with intensified and unpredictable wind and rain causing the most damage, as these tropical low pressure systems linger over the islands for longer periods of time and with greater intensity (before being classified as a cyclone). This results in widespread flooding and destructive winds in areas previously untouched by cyclones. (Interview conducted by Major Robert Evans with Dr Melchior Mataki on Friday, 28th February 2020)
3. Rising Sea Levels
“Marie Schlenker a PhD student within the Energy and Climate Change Research Group at the University of Southampton is researching the impact of climate change and coastal hazards on the Solomon Islands. Her research focuses on the analysis of physical data to gain insights into climate change impacts in the Solomon Islands. She uses satellite images, aerial photographs and beach surveys to understand how shorelines of small islands have changed in the past and how they might evolve in a changing climate. However, Marie also added a significant social science component to her work. During her two-months long fieldtrip to the Solomon Islands, she conducted interviews and participatory workshops with local people to learn more about their perceptions of climate change and its impacts on coastal areas in the country.”
“Many coastal communities in the Solomon Islands are already experiencing adverse impacts of environmental change, including severe shoreline erosion and increased flooding frequency. The villages of Walande and Fanalei in South Malaita are two examples that show how coastal change might result in community relocations, associated with severe social implications. Low cash income, strong dependence on natural resources and disputes over land ownership have complicated relocation for the communities of Walande and Fanalei. One finding of Marie’s research is that climate change impacts in the Solomon Islands can only be understood within the unique cultural context, encompassing tribal land tenure, traditional customs and the wantok system.” (https://www.southampton.ac.uk/oes/news/2019/12/13-solomon-islands-study.page, Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southhampton, Solomon Islands study: how local communities are being impacted by climate change and coastal hazards, published 13th December 2019)
4. Logging
“Globally, remaining tropical forests are being rapidly cleared, particularly in countries like the Solomon Islands where commercial logging accounts for about 18 percent of government revenue, and at least 60 percent of exports while providing the largest number of formal sector jobs. However, the loss of native forests has huge ecological and social consequences, many of which are poorly documented. A team of researchers from The University of Queensland (UQ), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and other groups have found that increasing land clearing for logging in Solomon Islands – even with best management strategies in place -- will lead to unsustainable levels of soil erosion and significant impacts to downstream water quality. Combined, these impacts will compromise the integrity of the land for future agricultural uses, interrupt access to clean drinking water and degrade important downstream ecosystems.” (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180416142448.htm, Logging in tropical forests jeopardizing drinking water, Wildlife Conservation Society, published 16th April 2018)
5. Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle
“The coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB), Oryctes rhinoceros, was discovered in Honiara in January 2015. A delimiting survey was carried out and plans made for the introduction of the fungus Metarhizium anisoplae and Baculovirus oryctes. The outbreak is focussed in residential areas of Honiara but symptoms have been reported in palms several kilometres east and west of Honiara. To date there are no confirmed reports of the beetle on any other island in the country. CRB is a serious pest of palms elsewhere. Coconuts are a significant crop for Solomon Islands both for food and export, oil palm is also a significant export revenue earner. Uncontrolled attacks by O. rhinoceros will have important effects on both these industries. CRB adults damage palms by boring into the centre of the crown, where they injure the young, growing tissues and feed on the exuded sap. As they bore into the crown, they cut through the developing leaves. When the leaves grow out and unfold, the damage appears as V-shaped cuts in the fronds or holes through the midrib.” (http://www.biosecurity.gov.sb/News-Resources/coconut-rhinoceros-beetle, published 18th April 2016)
STEP 3 - COMMUNITY
Story from Western Province In response to the 2007 earthquake and tsunami in the Western Province, The Salvation Army Papua New Guinea Territory donated and delivered a recovery housing project with 15 new houses, constructed by Pacific Builders, to Paeloge tsunami victims in 2009, at a cost of SB$1.3 million. Recent conversations with local Salvation Army members who have wantok in Gizo reveal that many of these houses that were constructed on higher ground have since been disassembled and rebuilt back on traditional coastal land. The relocation for many of these families caused an unintended economic impact for the village due to fiscal displacement. Many of them rely on fishing for their livelihood and the risk of being closer to the shoreline is more preferable than a long daily walk to catch and store fish.
To visit our congregation on Suafa Bay in North Malaita, I frequently embark on the long and unconfortable six hour drive up the North Road from Auki on the back of a three tonne public truck. About two hours out from my destination the North Road hugs the coastline, which shows clear evidence of coastal erosion where waves lap up against the edge of the gravel road. Along this journey there are also a number of precarious river crossings. Many of the bridges are in a dangerous state of disrepair, causing truck drivers to divert through rivers when the water is low at some crossings. As recently as two weeks ago, the Taba River bridge (two river crossings before our church) collapsed as a result of flood waters, leaving people in North Malaita cut-off from the main port in Auki. This impacts access to the main market, affecting our ability to transport the coconut oil we are producing at our DME Coconut Oil Plant.
While visiting a new mission opportunity in Fouele Village in South Malaita last year, I witnessed first-hand the well-documented reality of rising sea levels on Fanalei Island across the bay. As our ship docked on the Fanalei beach, we were confronted with a long row of large steel containers full of rocks positioned to hold back the high tide from the remaining village homes. Village leader Chris Sukufatu was the first family to migrate across to Fouele from Fanalei around 30 years ago as the sea began washing away community buildings in the village. I asked Chris how local people understood or interpreted what was happening before they heard the language of ‘climate change’. He said they used the term “Bio” [bee-oh], which means in their Lau language – “beyond normal current of water”, which brought the expectation that something bigger was coming. Before Christianity came to the island locals believed this was an ‘act of the spirits’ who were not happy with them because they defied natural laws or committed some sin.
Among the many environmental issues associated with logging in West Guadalcanal is the perpetual impact it is having on the water supply for the 65,000+ residents living in Honiara. Every time it rains in the catchment areas, debris from the logging camps flows down the rivers causing a high level of ‘turbidity’ that clogs the pipes and damages the pumps. As a consequence, Solomon Water turn off the vulnerable pumps after rainfall to protect the infrastructure, which leaves large portions of the city without mains water for up to two days at a time. These shut-downs occur at least twice a week during the wet season, leaving residents who don’t have water tanks (which are generally only installed in expat homes) without access to clean water. Major services like the National Referral Hospital and the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force Headquarters are frequently impacted and are left without water when their tanks run out.
Spread of Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle (CRB) The data presented in the previous section from a 2015 report suggested there was no evidence of the CRB in other provinces at that time. Today, the damage to coconut palms caused by the CRB can be seen clearly along the North Road while travelling through West Kwara’ae in the Malaita Province. The tops of once fruitful coconut palms have been reduced to a few straggly palm fronds, which has effectively destroyed the productivity of these plantations. In East Guadalcanal, experts from New Zealand have identified significant breeding grounds for the CRB larve among rotting logs, saw dust, and compost, especially within the Guadalcanal Palm Oil plantations where a lot of organic waste lies after harvesting. The Biosecurity Emergency Coordination Centre has mobilised clean-up teams throughout Guadalcanal to destroy known breeding areas and are facilitating public education campaigns in Honiara and surrounding villages.
STEP 4 - RISK
Risk assessment and management is not a natural way of thinking in the Solomon Islands. A ‘here and now’ mindset tends to focus on the needs of today with very little regard or thought for tomorrow. This adds another layer of vulnerability for individuals and community leaders who are often exploited in this space by quick fix promises or offers of cash that diverts concern about managing risk associated with climate change or environmental degradation away from long-term mitigation or adaptation projects. For example:
- Asian logging companies will offer landowners in the outer villages timber to build their house in exchange for permission to log their land. The allure of a more permanent home than a leaf hut overshadows any potential degradation of the land that produces their food or the river that supplies their water and washes their children. It also blinds them to the possibility of landslides or flooding that inevitably follows the mass clearing of vegetation. During the tropical depression over Guadalcanal two weeks ago, a landslide below one of these logging camps destroyed a local village, killing eight Solomon Islanders!
- The promise to pay school fees or provide roofing iron by MP’s contesting the National General Election last year enticed thousands of voters from rural constituencies to register to vote in Honiara. This diverted Rural Constituency Development Funds into election campaigns instead of necessary community development projects in the constituencies where they are most needed. It also left unfulfilled promises to repair essential infrastructure like schools and bridges in the rural areas.
- The current construction of a large shopping plaza on a bend along the Lunga River in East Honiara, immediately adjacent to the bridge, is an example of promised economic benefits superseding a sound risk assessment of a site that was devastated by the 2014 flash floods in Honiara. This massive structure is literally right on the river edge where the river rose up to its ground floor during the most recent tropical disturbance. There is ‘suggested’ evidence that normal planning approvals were bypassed, and a risk assessment of the river conducted by the National Disaster Management Office after the flash floods in 2014 was ignored. This is literally a disaster waiting to happen!
With these examples in mind, it is hard to image remote communities that are living day to day with very little access to external resources or support giving much time or consideration to a risk assessment of the long-term effects of climate change on their villages and livelihoods until it is too late. There seems to be more of a reactive than proactive approach in the Solomon Islands that depends upon being rescued rather than being prepared.
The current global outbreak of Coronavirus has external agencies and authorities working diligently to try and manage the risk of the virus hitting our shores. While there is cooperation by the appropriate internal government departments, external pressure from the recent diplomatic partnership with China is compromising the safety of local citizens by the emergency safety measures being overridden by key business and diplomatic leaders who are driven by the needs of the ‘here and now’.
STEP 5 - ADAPTATION
What is The Salvation Army doing in The Solomon Islands to adapt to the changing environment?
1. Partnership with Kokonut Pacific Solomon Islands (KPSI)
The Salvation Army Solomon Islands District has partnered with KPSI to construct and manage a Direct Micro Expelling (DME) coconut oil plant in North Malaita as a part of the mission of Gateway Corps. This plant provides an alternative process to produce organic virgin coconut oil at a village level, which is then sold back to KPSI to produce their products that are sold locally and internationally. This social enterprise model enables us to purchase coconuts at a price that gives the farmers a higher return than if they produced copra, it provides jobs for people in the surrounding villages and generates a sustainable income to help fund the mission of The Salvation Army in the Solomon Islands. In an industry where there has been a slump in the international market for copra (traditional method for producing oil) this partnership is helping to keep coconut plantations profitable. Our manager captured the broader impact of our plant well while addressing our staff recently: “This plant not only provides our families an income but grants us the privilege of contributing to our national economy by processing a natural product in our village.”
2. Support of Biosecurity Emergency Coordination Centre (BECC)
After seeing the Salvation Army Emergency Services (SAES) team in action at the National General Election last year while we were serving meals to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF), a program coordinator from the BECC invited The Salvation Army to provide daily catering for their clean-up teams in Honiara. Our assessment of this request determined that it fitted the mandate of our SAES team to provide support in times of crisis, as the infestation of this beetle is very much an ecological and economic crisis that affects the long-term income for vulnerable people. Therefore, during October and December last year and February and March this year our SAES team has been cooking lunches daily for a crew of 16 workers involved in this clean-up project. In addition to this catering support, our DME plant will become a staging area for the BECC training teams in North Malaita, to help educate coconut farmers how to reduce the infestation of the CRB by proper management of their plantations.
STEP 6 - REPORT
On Friday, 28th February 2020 I interviewed Dr Melchior Mataki, Permanent Secretary for Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management & Meteorology…
Primary Impact of Climate Change in Solomon Islands
- Low lying atolls (including artificial islands) are subject to rising sea levels
- Intensity of extreme weather (cyclones, low pressure systems) is increasing across whole country.
- 10 years ago the impact of tropical depressions was limited to Renbell, Temotu and Makira Provinces, now across all provinces.
- Tropical depressions are now behaving like tropical cyclones, lingering longer and causing more damage.
- Tropical storms are much more unpredictable.
- Upward trend of temperature since 1950’s – less of a difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures (hotter nights).
- Saltwater intrusion in low lying atolls is affecting drinking water and crops.
- Saltwater intruding sub-soil fresh water supplies, which in turn affects food supplies.
- Seasons for fruiting (mangoes etc) are changing – earlier or later harvests are impacting food supply and access to markets.
- Insects/pests unpredictable and ever-present (microclimate).
- Some traditional plants are no longer available in some provinces, which impacts traditional cooking methods.
- People are experiencing shock relating to these rapid changes.
- Coastal erosion, while a natural process, is accelerated by extreme weather. There is a loss of 20-30 metres of land on some islands since 1980’s. Human activities and development is also contributing to loss of land.
Other Climate Change Issues
- Relocation is easier said than done! 80-90% of land is customarily owned. Relocation creates conflict over ownership, stirs up social issues, impacts population growth and presents challenges in cross-cultural integration. Other issues of land and marine resources, access and security need to be considered when considering relocation.
- Relocation as an adaptation response is not new – people have been moving across the islands for centuries. It’s not just about relocating the people, there is culture, heritage, fiscal assets, skills, mindset that need to be considered in relocation.
- Need to see climate change in relation to other social and cultural issues
- Other development needs MUST be considered alongside climate change issues, instead of isolating climate change from other development issues.
- Role of Solomon Islands Government in Climate Change Mitigation/Adaptation
- Ministry portfolio established in 2011, bringing together related areas of responsibility. Still finding his way in this role.
- Policy and actions need to be evidence-based
- Solomon Islands Government (SIG) policies and legislation have not kept pace with mitigation and adaptation issues.
- Other development needs hinder SIG response to climate change.
- Language of climate change has been opportunistically used to apportion blame.
- SIG approach to climate change:
- Easing the pressure on the islands
- Work with urban centres to allocate sub divisions for houses and reestablishment
- Using economic engine of urban areas to access available services and resources
- Prevent customary land clashes, provide respite while resolving other complicated issues
Existing/Potential Partnerships with NGO’s, Civil Societies, Churches
- Doesn’t want people to rely entirely on SIG for mitigation and adaptation (costly exercise).
- Self-regulated adaptation is more successful.
- Role of churches – pastors are more influential than politicians.
- Hasn’t really considered how the churches might be involved in this space.
STEP 7 - NEXT STEPS
Questions for further discussion and action…
- How do we overcome a ‘here and now’ mindset that inhibits a long-term vision for mitigation and adaptation?
- How might we shift communities from ‘waiting to be rescued’ to becoming ‘proactively prepared’?
- What other opportunities might there be for The Salvation Army to engage in the Climate Change space in the Solomon Islands?
- How can we effectively encourage other churches to integrate “Creation Care” into their mission and ministry?
- What role could the churches have working alongside NGO’s and SIG?
