Pacific Dynamics: Volume 3 • Issue 1 • Aug 2019

FULL EXCERPT: Climate change is widely recognised as one of the biggest threats to livelihoods, security and well-being in the Pacific. Carbon markets represent one of a number of global responses, with projects expanding across the Pacific in recent years. This paper focuses upon carbon offset activities in Solomon Islands, including sustainable forestry for carbon trading initiatives. As signatory to the Paris Agreement, Solomon Islands has expanded its activities to support preparedness for entry into global carbon markets, demonstrated via national-level carbonisation of forestry governance. In the context of a resource constrained state, non government organisations (NGOs) occupy a central role in Solomon Islands carbon forestry governance. This paper documents some of the national and international policy settings and policies driving expansion of carbon markets. It takes the case study of Choiseul Province to examine gender sensitive livelihood initiatives introduced by one local NGO, the Natural Resources Development Foundation (NRDF), as part of preparedness for entry into carbon market initiatives, referred to as REDD type projects. Findings demonstrate positive outcomes associated with livelihood projects – including for women – accrue regardless of participation in carbon markets. The paper argues that climate change mitigation strategies that take a gender sensitive approach, alongside centring local assets, visions and possibilities, as well as the maintenance of communally owned and managed forest resources, are well placed to deliver positive on-ground impacts in Choiseul Province. These findings provide insights for future policy and planning in the Pacific in an era of climate constraint.

FULL ABSTRACT: Past climatological studies .use only one or two local stations to describe the full climate of Solomon Islands. In this paper, we examined all available daily minimum and maximum surface air temperature data between 1951 and 2011 for all seven weather stations operated by the Solomon Islands Meteorological Service. Taro has the highest mean temperature (Tmean) at 27.5°C, owing its warmer climate to its proximity to the equator than other stations. Henderson at the central region averaged the least at 26.9°C during the same period. Honiara has the warmest Tmean on average from June through October due to its elevation. The overall annual Tmean for the country was 27.3°C with the maximum at 30.8°C and the minimum at 23.7°C. All seven stations show significant trend in Tmean, ranging from 0.14 to 0.39 °C/decade. Over three decades, the frequency of warm days (warm nights) increased by 2.2 days/decade (0.8 nights/decade) with a corresponding decrease of cool days (cool nights) by 0.4 days/decade (1.4 nights/decade). The climate of the Solomon Islands has warmed significantly between 1951 and 2011 with more warm days and nights, and fewer cool days and nights.

FULL ABSTRACT: The Pacific is known as the most sensitive region to the impact of climate change on spirituality due to high Christian rates per capita. Using an explanatory design, here we studied 36 cases (n=36) of Fijians aged 25 to 55+ from 17 communities in Vitilevu, Fiji, and found that 50% (18) were affected, with which 22.2% (8) were negatively affected, 11.1% (4) were neither affected and 16.6% (6) were positively affected. A chi-square goodness-of-fit test shows that these differences were statistically significant: X2(5) = 29.000, p < 0.01. A Kendall’s tau-b shows, there is a strong positive correlation between climate change and impact on spirituality (τb = .747, p < 0.01). The same factors were explored qualitatively using an in-depth interview (n=3) and informant interview (n=1) and found spirituality to affect negatively and positively. These results inform further research and policy on the spiritual dimension of adaptation to climate change.

FULL ABSTRACT: The theory of collective memory argues that remembering is a socially constructed phenomenon. It is society that constructs and provides individuals with norms, beliefs, and ideas about life, and only within the social framework can people memorise the past. Each society develops its own unique social context, and so is the case with collective memory. Even if several social groups witness the same event, their memories differ because of the variations in the social frameworks to which they belong. However, in this globalised and digitised world, where it is no longer possible to construct social memory within isolated frameworks, collective memory can easily cross social borders; such interactions can lead to the development of new collective memory. This article introduces two cases of memory construction regarding ethnic relations between the indigenous Fijians and the Indo-Fijians. The first is based on a powerful political leader’s attempt to construct collective memory about past ethnic relations, and the second is the attempt to alter memories of how local Fijians responded when the ship Syria, carrying indentured labourers from India, ran aground in 1884. Although their processes were different and their outcomes seem unrelated, this article argues that these two cases are interdependent because of the changing and fluid nature of collective memory. The article concludes that in the study of collective memory in the present era, events in different contexts should be analysed within a single framework.

FULL ABSTRACT: This paper is a response to a phenomenon in the area of Samoan phonology, or to be exact, the vowels’ pronunciation. It involves a shift in the utterance of vowels in the past thirty years or so. And it comes to this. A gradual blurring in the articulation of the vowel sound has been noted. It appears that the glottal stop had rubbed off on the vowel for reasons that are linguistic, sociological and even pedagogical. This ’emerging reality’ is yet to be addressed in literature even though evidence of its first appearance can be traced back to the early eighties. Time moves on and there hasn’t been a question raised for reasons not quite clear to the writers, hence the purpose of this response. In this writing we hope to raise the issue, as we believe it is crucial to any type of research that delves into both Samoan phonetics and phonology, and the extent of both in language and learning application.

FULL ABSTRACT: The Pacific “cultural keystone species” (Garibaldi & Turner, 2004, pp.1,5) kava is uniquely linked with notions of mana (spiritual power) and used to infuse efficacy into celebrations and life events. The drink, made from this potent icon of identity, brings on feelings of relaxation without marked euphoria, aiding clear-minded talanoa (discussion) to facilitate important and/or contentious dialogue. The sharing and drinking of kava as part of host/guest formalities is used in bringing about mutuality and unity (Aporosa, 2019). It is estimated there are more than 20,000 kava users in Aotearoa/New Zealand on an average Friday or Saturday night, with increasing interest and uptake of this indigenous drink by Māori. Crowley (1994) reports that the Māori word ‘kawa’, literally meaning ‘marae protocol’, has its linguistic foundations in ‘kava’ and the practices associated with this cultural keystone species. This paper explores that linguistic union to ask whether increased kava use by Māori has greater significance than simply a new interaction with a foreign drug substance. Further, due to the use of kava in facilitating talanoa (discussion), the possibility of kava playing a similar role for Māori is considered, one linked to ancestral Pacific connections aimed at assisting kōrero (talanoa), cultural connectedness and practice.