2 Dec 2015

Fiji research shows growing climate change resilience

9:40 am on 2 December 2015

A researcher who's just been in Fiji says communities can adapt and relocation is not necessarily the answer to dealing with climate change.

Jeffrey Smith has spent several weeks in the northwest of the main island Viti levu as part of a project studying communities living in flood-prone river basins in Fiji and Cambodia.

Researchers with the three year study which is based at Auckland University are looking at how people are responding to the increased flooding resulting from climate change and other risk factors.

Mr Smith says his research in Votua village shows people are adapting and becoming more resilient.

"Something that the local people said was 'hey, instead of telling us to move, we want more education, we want more assistance from outside so that we can be more prepared to deal with flooding ourselves in our given context.'"

Jeffrey Smith