Dr. Salanieta Kitolelei is an indigenous social scientist who works closely with communities in Fiji. She specializes in building synergies between contemporary science and traditional ecological knowledge and applying this knowledge to relevant solutions on the ground. She holds a PhD in Marine Science from the University of the South Pacific, Fiji and works in various fields such as gender and equity, climate change, marine and environmental sciences. She is currently working as a Postdoctoral Researcher for Leibniz ZMT in Bremen Germany, and studies reef passages in Fiji.

What climate resilience looks like for us Fijians

Climate change is a global issue which is exacerbated by human activities. In Fiji, the iTaukei people have traditional ecological knowledge which guides their use of the environment and the adaptation strategies which they use to stay prepared for the impacts of climate change. The Fiji Islands are dispersed over large ocean space; however, each islander who lives on one of the 300 isolated islands of Fiji uses their knowledge of the environment and skills to adapt and survive. Resilience of the Fijians is evident in the survival methods which they use including the food preservation methods, flood mitigation, farming and fishing techniques among others. While contemporary issues such as waste, urbanization, lack of knowledge transmission between generations exist, global events such the COVID19 pandemic, reaffirm that traditional ecological knowledge of islanders can be a social net which people fall back on to survive and continue to survive on islands during climate change and other extreme global events.

Island Efforts to Respond to Climate Change

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