State commitments and support not reaching Carteret islanders

Caption:   (first right standing) Ursula Rokava standing with some of the relocated Carteret islanders at Tinputz.

Caption :   Hilltop view of the Tinputz relocation site.

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, September 22, 2013 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

RESETTLEMENT of the world’s first Climate Change Refugees, the Carteret Islanders of Bougainville, has been ongoing through the effort of local non-governmental organisation TulelePeisa- with almost all their funding coming from donor states, and organisations overseas.

ExecutiveDirector of TulelePeisa, Ursula Rakova,said that they were forced to form their own organisation in 2007 through the initiative of the council of community elders from the affected islands to spearhead the relocation effort, as they were not seeing assistance or commitments that were made by the state.

“Even the K2 million kina that was earmarked by the Somare government for Carterets relocation in September 2007 through the revised budget, has not reached us up until today.”

“Other commitments over the years have not really reached the communities that it is supposed to support,” she said.

With a total of seven families making up 86 islanders currently at the first relocation site on the mainland of Bougainville at Tinputz- three more families are anticipated to make the move to the site bringing the total to 100 individuals.

Rakova added that in 2007, only three families made the move to the mainland, and by 2009 the number steadily increased to the current number- the reason being that people back on the islands have seen the productivity of the relocated islanders and the ever increasing danger on the islands.

She said the organisation was now in contact with the Office of Climate Change to assist them with adaptation plans to assist the plans we already have in place on the ground.

“We have four sites to resettle islanders, all put up by the Catholic Church, who have made the land availableon spiritual grounds.”

“What we are going to do now is to engage lawyers to re-draft the titles so that TulelePeisawill hold the land in trust for the islanders.”

The other three sites are; Tearouki, which is planned to cater for 20 families; Mabiri another 20; and Tsimba will settle between 30 to 40 families.

She emphasised that they can only assist a few families at a time, because every new family moving required the organisation to make sure they have shelter, water, and land for food cultivation and income generation.

“Relocated islanders have been sending surplus food and other necessities to family back on the islands.”

“The biggest change the relocated islanders have experienced is the amount of food and crops they are now able to cultivate- something they struggled with back on the island.”

Their biggest need at the moment is transportation- with only one 20 foot boat running on one engine, making it difficult for them to make more trips to and from the islands.

Some of the donors that have assisted the Carteret islanders through TulelePeisa include German church organisations like Misereor, Bread for the World run by the Protestant Church, Lutheran Church, and the Finland Embassy based in Canberra Australia.