Samoans look to seafaring heritage to adapt to climate change

World Meteorological Organization found that ocean temperatures in the South West Pacific are increasing at up to three times the rate worldwide, while sea level rise in the region is outstripping the global average

Aboard a Gaualofa, a traditional Polynesian canoe, one of only seven of its type in the world, Leota Fitimaula Donna Aiono Le Tagaloa-Ioane looks out into the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, as she runs a workshop teaching and passing on knowledge of her Samoan maritime legacy.

For Aiono Le Tagaloa-Ioane, the Samoan Voyaging Society’s President, reviving and adapting her seafaring heritage is the way to navigate and mitigate the impacts of climate change; in doing so, conserving her island’s culture and environment.

“To go back to beaches and places where you've been, and then to see the beaches gone... we're seeing it all around us,” Aiono Le Tagaloa-Ioane said.

“To be resilient, to learn how to adapt, that's always been part of who we are as people.”

Samoa, with a population of about 218,000, will be the first Pacific small island state to host the annual Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), putting the spotlight on climate change.

A World Meteorological Organization report earlier this year found that ocean temperatures in the South West Pacific are increasing at up to three times the rate worldwide, while sea level rise in the region is outstripping the global average.

Over half of the Commonwealth's members are small states, many of them island nations facing the threat of rising sea levels caused by climate change. The leaders are expected to make a declaration on protecting the ocean, with climate change a key topic for discussion.

Having been raised on the beaches of Samoa, climate activist Brianna Fruean has grown up seeing the worsening and varying impacts of climate change – coral bleaching, loss of livelihoods, shoreline erosion – and has brought that message to climate conferences in New York and Glasgow. She said it was important for world leaders to see the frontlines of climate change.

“I would say it's alarming the fact, there's so much talk about climate action, but yet there's still so much inaction,” Fruean said, who also pointed to the contradictions coming out from big emitting countries like the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, and their commitments to the Paris agreement.

“You have a look at their plans of expansion of coal, oil and gas. Their expansion plans don't make sense with their commitment to the 1.5 degree,” she said.

President of Samoa’s Conservation Society, James Atherton, said that climate talks need to move beyond rhetoric and focus on action.

“I think it's hard for Western countries to actually dodge action when small countries like Samoa are doing so much themselves,” he said.

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