Research reveals a desire by Pacific tourism workers for genuine change once travel starts again, including better wages and conditions and greater local control of operations.
At the start of the cyclone season in the Pacific, weather forecasters are changing their warnings to focus less on weather information and more on the damage expected from an impending storm.
If only 1% of the Pacific’s population was permitted to work permanently in Australia, this would bring more benefits to the region than Australia’s annual aid contribution.
Andrew Magee, University of Newcastle; Andrew Lorrey, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, and Anthony Kiem, University of Newcastle
Tropical cyclones account for almost four in five natural disasters across Pacific Island nations. But a new forecasting tool now gives up to four months warning for the upcoming cyclone season.
Pacific communities have always been resilient, surviving on islands in the middle of oceans for more than 3,000 years. But climate change is an unprecedented challenge.
Pressure is growing to include struggling Pacific nations in an Australia-New Zealand travel bubble, but economic diversity is what the region really needs.
Tourism is vital to NZ and small economies in the Pacific. But as the Samoa Tourism Authority's CEO says, "we can always get money back, but once there’s a loss of life you’ll never have that back".
New Zealanders should expect new border entry restrictions to stay in place for some time, but the measures are important to control the spread of coronavirus in New Zealand and the Pacific.
Fish are attracted to floating objects, especially with dangling ropes or nets.
WorldFish/Flickr
Fishers who hunt wild tuna use fish's natural attraction to floating objects to lure them to known positions near GPS-equipped rafts. However, these rafts are attracting increasing concern.
While most Fijian settlement is coastal, new research into mountain settlements can teach us about this country pre-colonisation. Pictured is the Seseleka hill fort, 420 metres above sea level.
Patrick Nunn
New research casts light on the pre-colonial mountain settlements in Fiji.
The inability to meet Pacific Island expectations on climate change will erode Australia’s leadership credentials and influence in the region.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Australia ensured its official communique watered down commitments to respond to climate change, gaining a hollow victory.
Boys play on a beach in Kiribati in 2014. Cuba is training doctors to tend to people on the Pacific island nation, struggling with disease amid the worsening effects of climate change.
(Shutterstock)
Cuba is offering a compelling example of how we can take care of each other during the climate crisis with its work training doctors on Kiribati, a nation that is being devastated by climate change.
Rising sea levels are an urgent problem facing island nations across the Pacific.
Emma Kemp/AAP
Pacific countries are eager for assistance in securing their future, whether sourced from old friends like the US and Australia, or new enthusiasts like the Chinese.
A king tide breaching a defence wall at Sabai Island in the Torres Strait, 2011.
AAP Image/Suzanne Long
The entire Cocos (Keeling) Island group is a little more than twice the size of the Melbourne CBD. So it’s hard to envision 414 million debris items washed up there.