Carteret Islands

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The Carteret Atoll seen from space

The Carteret Islands (also known as Carteret Atoll, Tulun or Kilinailau Islands/Atoll) are Papua New Guinea islands located 86 km (53 mi) north-east of Bougainville in the South Pacific. The atoll is a scattering of low lying islands in a horseshoe shape stretching 30 km (19 mi) in north-south direction, with a total land area of 0.6 square kilometers and a maximum elevation of 1.5 m (5 ft) above sea level.

The group is made up of islands called Han, Jangain, Yesila, Yolasa and Piul, and were collectively named after the British navigator Philip Carteret who discovered them in the sloop Swallow in 1767. As of 2005 about one thousand people live on the islands. Han is the most significant island with the others being small islets in the lagoon.

1 Flooding
- 1.1 Cause of Carteret Inundation
2 Relocation
3 References
4 External links

It was widely reported in November 2005 that the islands have progressively become uninhabitable, with an estimate of their total submersion by 2015. The islanders have fought a more than twenty years battle, building a seawall and planting mangroves. However, storm surges and high tides continue to wash away homes, destroy vegetable gardens and contaminate fresh water supplies. The natural tree cover on the island is also being impacted by the incursion of saltwater contamination of the fresh water table.

View of Huene from Iolassa Island. Huene used to be one island but has now been bisected by the ocean

Paul Tobasi, the atolls' district manager with PNG's Bougainville province, and many other environmental groups have suggested that the flooding is the result of sea-level rise associated with global warming. The South Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project, an Australian government initiative, have documented sea-level rise in the Papua New Guinea region at approximately 6.2mm per year.^[1]

The Carteret islands likely consist of a base of coral that sits atop an extinct volcanic mount. In the usual geological course of events first proposed by Charles Darwin, such islands eventually subside due to weathering and erosion, as well as isostatic adjustments of the sea floor. It has also been speculated that dynamite fishing in the Carterets such as occurred in the island during the prolonged Bouganville conflict may be contributing to the increased inundation. Coral reefs buffer against wave and tidal action, and so their degradation may increase an island's level of exposure to those forces. Another suggestion is that tectonic movement may be causing the gradual subsidence of the atoll. ^[2]

On November 25, 2003, the Papua New Guinean government authorized the government-funded total evacuation of the islands, 10 families at a time; the evacuation was expected to be completed by 2007, but access to funding caused numerous delays.

In October 2007 it was announced that the PNG government would provide two million kina to begin the relocation, to be organized by Tulele Peisa of Buka, Bougainville. ^[3]

It is believed that the Carteret islanders will be the the first island community in the world to undergo an organized relocation, in response to rising sea-levels. This will make them among the first climate refugees due to sea level rise attributed to global warming and climate change.^[4]