Kumi villagers plant mangrove seedlings to secure future in climate fight
In the midst of the growing economic challenges posed by the global COVID-19 pandemic, a small village in the province of Tailevu is fighting to mitigate the increasing impacts of climate change on their community.
Kumi Village is home to close to 100 families and for many years they have been grappling with the effects of rising sea level.
Recently, nearby surroundings of the village have been frequently flooded as a result of seawater inundation.
To help mitigate this, more than 200 villagers of Kumi, including children as young as three-yearsold, took to the shores of the village on Friday to plant more than 1500 mangrove seedlings.
Kumi villager, Ilaitia Ravasakula, joined by other village elders led the programme.
Village headman Timoci Ravasakula said although the planting of the mangroves is a long-term mitigating factor, it would still help save their village in the years to come.
“It has been almost five years since we have had our seawall, but today we have started to see things that we never used to experience before,” Mr Ravasakula said.
“At present when it rains heavily, our village boundaries are usually flooded and nearby surroundings of the village shores that are not protected by the seawall are usually inundated with seawater causing soil erosion and damage to trees and other resources.
“A lot of coconut trees in these areas have been damaged and washed out to sea because of this.”
He said because of this, the village did not want to wait for any assistance from Government and opted to take the lead in the fight against the global climate crisis.
“The sea here in front of the village used to have a lot of resources that many of our ancestors used to live on. Today, that has changed immensely.
“Today we don’t get what our ancestors used to get from the sea which was why we thought to start planting mangroves. We’re also doing this for our children.” Mr Ravasakula has urged other villages in the country that face the same issue to replicate what they have done and not depend on aid. “We hope that other villages in the country will learn from this and to not always depend on Government for everything. We need to start doings things on our own first.
“We need to help ourselves first because when Government sees that we are helping ourselves first, they will then help us,” he added. Minister for Rural and Maritime Development and Disaster Management, Inia Seruiratu, said for the people of Kumi, the mangrove planting programme was not only a village project, but linking what they had done to the Paris Agreement.
“It’s about taking ownership of global issues and of course with global warming; we need to take responsibility as well,” Mr Seruiratu said.
“In the Paris Agreement, two key issues are adaptation and mitigation and in this village through the assistance of Government we’ve had a seawall which was completed in 2016. That is adaptation.
“For us we need to contribute as well, so this project is a mitigation project where we are taking ownership because in the Paris Agreement – more mitigation means lesser adaptation in the future and this is about our future generations as well.”
Mr Seruiratu also emphasised the mangroves planted would be of great benefit to the villagers of Kumi.
“Mangroves play an important role in biodiversity which is linked to food security and not only that. It is also important in battling rising sea level and soil erosion.
“More villages are requesting for seawalls and the Government continues to build seawalls, but for us it’s not just about building seawalls, it’s about natural solutions as well. We need both to complement each other to achieve sustainability in the long term.”