Firifau Community – Artificial Island

Firifau Island Community is one of the artificial Islands in Langalanga Lagoon in Malaita Province. The lagoon is located 22 Km on the west coast of Malaita Province with 59 artificial Islands and approximately 6000 people (Ministry of Provincial Government Institutional Strengthening, 2017; Van der Ploeg, 2020). There is limited information about the origin of the artificial islanders or the reason behind that development.

Impact of Climate Change in Lilisiana Community

In Solomon Islands, sea level rise has threatened 85% of the coastal communities living near the coastline, along with their agricultural land, freshwater supply, infrastructure and services (Gagahe, 2011). Lilisiana is one of these communities that experiences sea level rise and extreme events such as storm surges and king tides. Respondents from the Lilisiana Community highlighted the visible impacts of sea level rise and king tide. The king tide in 2013 flooded and damaged approximately half of the community including a church building, shrinking their shoreline and intruding into their living space.

Seal level rise also contaminated their freshwater supply through intrusion into the freshwater lens causing brackish water. Their graveyards and cultural worship grounds are also being damaged. The respondents also revealed that consultation and vulnerability assessment reports to relocate the settlement have been submitted to the authorities in the Malaita Provincial Government; however, due to land tenure issues and attachment to the coastal location, nothing has been implemented to date.

Implication of Relocation From the Mainland

The elderly participants from Lilisiana recalled how their grandparents practiced different ways of farming and preservation of food and water in the mainland before moving into the coastal area in 1950s. They highlighted that population was minimal and land was abundant. A participant recalled how her grandparents mitigate climate change in the past by practicing different techniques of gardening and preservation of root crops in the following lines:

“In the past, my grandparents used to cultivate different plots of land at different sites as food gardens. Such an approach ensures our family is secure if flooding or landslides affect a particular plot. During harvest season, I observed my grandmother select the best root crops such as Yam or Taro and stored them away for future use.”

However, with the current location (coastal), it is difficult to utilize such food preservation methods due to high population and loss of productive land. Another respondent mentioned that the traditional way of retaining soil fertility for improving crop production such as shifting cultivation is no longer practiced:

“In the past, we had abundant land available. Thus, our ancestors practiced shifting cultivation: they moved from place to place allowing the soil to recover. This is no longer practiced due to shortage of productive land and increase in population. We currently use the same piece of land for gardening for over 20 years causing the soil to lose its fertility.”