PNG's fall in its UN development ranking despite Australian aid is prompting extra scrutiny of Australia's contribution to the region Australias foreign aid contributions to Pacific nations are likely to come under increasing scrutiny from the federal government. The Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, said on Tuesday the way aid is delivered to Papua New Guinea must change after the country...
Researchers hope 10-expedition will conclusively solve mystery of what became of aviator after she vanished Seeking to chronicle Amelia Earhart's fate 75 years after she disappeared over the Pacific, researchers prepared on Monday to look for wreckage of her airplane near a remote island where they believe the famed US aviator died as a castaway. Organisers hope the 10-day expedition will conclusively...
Dave Savage took a long route to representing his native Kiribati "Do you know what I'm really looking forward to after the Commonwealth Games? Chicken curry." And why not after 18 months of full-time training and sacrifice? Dave Savage is not the only competitor in Manchester who will treat himself after he has finished. However, unlike the majority of them, Savage's goal is not gold, silver...
The Pacific island of Kiribati has pitted China and Taiwan against one another in an attempt to get the highest price for diplomatic recognition, writes David Fickling For a few brief weeks Kiribati - pronounced "Kiribass" - was the only country in the world to flout the One China policy, whereby Beijing insists that friendly governments refuse diplomatic recognition to Taiwan, whose independence...
Thousands of negotiators, politicians and activists are discussing the climate change deal in Copenhagen this week - but what about those already at the sharp end? Click on the individuals to read their stories with stunning images taken by Mathias Braschler and Monika Fisher . Text by Jonathan Watts . There is also a video of the project ....
Yachtsman Alex Bond co-ordinates rescue after finding inhabitants of remote South Pacific island had run out of supplies A British yachtsman who stopped off at a remote island in the South Pacific helped to co-ordinate an international rescue for inhabitants after finding they had run out of supplies. ...
t the only danger the islands face. Unless poor policy is addressed, they also risk a homemade environmental and energy crisis A dead pig lolls among the flotsam on South Tarawa beach. No children play in the water – unusual in the Pacific islands, where a childhood spent splashing in the ocean is an age-old rite. In Kiribati's capital, years of poor waste disposal coupled with overpopulation and a...
s lawyer, Michael Kidd, plans to argue the case before New Zealand's high court. Kidd, who specialises in human rights cases, told Associated Press he will appeal the case all the way to the country's supreme court if necessary. Legal experts consider the man's case a long shot, but it will nevertheless be closely watched, and might have implications for tens of millions of residents in low-lying islands...
state control' of religion An Arizona family who set sail for the island nation of Kiribati to escape abortion, homosexuality and "the state-controlled church" in the US are back home after their boat foundered in the Pacific. Hannah Gastonguay, 26, said she and her husband, Sean, 30, had "decided to take a leap of faith and see where God led us" when they took their two small children and her father-in-law...
s Research on Development Institute (IRD) and New Caledonia University , 30 or so scientists from the Pacific basin spent a week at the end of April discussing the design of a sustainable development model suited to local conditions – in particular, pressure from the climate on ways of life that reach back several millennia. In a study published by the journal Nature Climate Change, the SPC and IRD...
s main refugee advisory body has said. Phil Glendenning, president of the Refugee Council of Australia has advised the Australian government that it should prepare to create a new migration category for those fleeing the effects of climate change. No country currently has a special visa category for those displaced by climate change, but Glendenning said there was a new cohort of displaced people emerging...
The waves are slowly seeping over the islands of the Pacific nation, which is at the frontline of the climate change-induced rise in sea levels striking low-lying nations all over the world ...
the end of history' unless action is taken to stop sea levels rising Every country in the Caribbean faces huge economic losses caused by rising sea levels over the coming decades, losing hospitals, airports, power plants, multi-million dollar tourism resorts, roads, bridges and farmland, according to a UN report. Diplomats from the 43 Caribbean, African and Pacific nations grouped as Aosis (Alliance...
s got to be accessible, we don't talk about it, we must do it. That is basically the desire of countries on the frontline that are facing the problem." But will the Ambo declaration have any real impact at Cancun? Many of the representatives of the most vulnerable countries watched on quietly as the lengthy negotiations revealed the deep divisions between the world's most powerful nations about what...
d been transported by boat," said Cunha. Families had to walk for 40 minutes to get water because the wells dried out - a scene that resembles the arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa, not the water-rich Amazon. In recent years Brazil has been severely affected by changes in climate – and not only in the Amazon. Extreme events such as floods are becoming more frequent in the South and in the north-east....
s unlikely Namibia will be swallowed by the sea like Kiribati , a gathering of atolls in the South Pacific and host to the Tarawa climate change conference . Nor will we catch Namibia's 75-year old President Hifikepunye Pohamba conducting a cabinet meeting on the sea floor , as Maldives' Mohamed Nasheed, wetsuit and all, did a year ago in a dramatic bid to put his drowning country on the map. Still,...
t act, the future of this country will be sealed within a few years. Today, all of humanity is influenced by environmental changes, which are as much social as economic and political. Poverty, illiteracy, vulnerability, famine, chronic disease, shifting cultivation, pollution, waste, lack of water, lack of hygiene: all are words attached to Malagasy society, from the city to the countryside. The living...
s total land area was submerged. Over a million homes were flooded, more than 2,000 people were killed and up to 4 million were left homeless. The nation's worst natural calamity has ruined roads, bridges, schools, health clinics, electricity and communications. The floods have damaged standing crops as well as stored grain and seeds for planting. Pakistan's agriculture industry – a pillar of the economy...
health and children's education, as some do not attend school due to lack of food for lunch. The declining food source also means islanders do not have a surplus to sell the village market, which is impacting everyone.. On the larger islands, the unsustainable rate of logging leads to more carbon emitted into the atmosphere. To reverse the 60% of government revenue from logging, I think the UN...
s most vulnerable countries Halfway through this year, Pelenise Alofa left her job managing a cafe in Tarawa, Kiribati, so that she could focus on setting up KiriCAN, an NGO that works with local communities on climate change. Each morning she gets up at 4am and cooks 50 lunches, which get sold at the local school canteen for AUS$1 each. "After the costs, I make about $20, but that's OK, you can survive...