Planning for Community Relocations Due to Climate Change in Fiji

As a consequence of the impacts of climate change, some households and entire communities across the Pacific are making the complex and challenging decision to leave their homelands and relocate to new environments that can sustain their livelihoods. This short article charts how the residents of Vunidogoloa village in Fiji relocated in early 2014 to reduce their vulnerability to encroaching sea level and inundation events that regularly devastated the community. As a consequence of the Vunidogoloa relocation, this article also explores how the Fiji Government is planning for similar resettlement transitions, including vulnerability and adaptation assessments to develop a list of potential community relocations and the development of national relocation guidelines. This study draws from key informant interviews (n = 8) with government officials, as well as representatives from intergovernmental and local nongovernmental organizations, who are involved in the relocation issue. Given the speed at which these national, top-down initiatives are being forged and especially in light of the absence of any mention of relocation in Fiji’s 2012 climate change policy, careful and inclusive engagement across all scales and stakeholders, including communities “earmarked” for relocation, is paramount.

• Publication year

  2015

• Venue

  International Journal of Disaster Risk Science

• Publication date

  2015-09-21

• Fields of study

  Sociology, Geography, Political Science, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1007/s13753-015-0065-2
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Climate-induced community relocations: Creating an adaptive governance framework based in human rights

  2012cited by this paper
• Neoliberalising Adaptation to Environmental Change: Foresight or Foreclosure?

  2012cited by this paper
• Climate change: Migration as adaptation

  2011cited by this paper
• Climate Change and Small Island States: Power, Knowledge and the South Pacific

  2010cited by this paper
• Climate change, migration and adaptation in Funafuti, Tuvalu

  2009cited by this paper
• In search of shelter: mapping the effects of climate change on human migration and displacement.

  2009cited by this paper
• 'We do not want to leave our land': Pacific ambassadors at the United Nations resist the category of 'climate refugees'

  2009cited by this paper
• The Future of Large Dams: Dealing with Social, Environmental, Institutional and Political Costs

  2008cited by this paper
• Compensation for climate change must meet needs

  2005cited by this paper
• Climate Dangers and Atoll Countries

  2003cited by this paper
• Environmental Concerns and International Migration

  1996cited by this paper

• Climate-related Planned Relocation as Domicide: The Multi-dimensional Destruction of Home in the Philippines

  2026cites this paper
• Inclusive urban futures: climate justice in small island developing states

  2026cites this paper
• Climate Crisis and Indigenous Well-being: Ancestral Land, Psychological & Ontological Impact, and Resilience in Fijian Communities

  2025cites this paper
• The canary and the crucible: Fiji’s climate stewardship and a blueprint for planetary resilience

  2025cites this paper
• Rooted in crisis, growing solutions: economic impacts and adaptive pathways for Fiji’s climate-threatened sugarcane industry

  2025cites this paper
• Does secure tenure alone solve the problem of homelessness? A critical appraisal of the resettlement practices in rural Bangladesh

  2025cites this paper
• Perspectives on climate change and adaptation in Fijian villages contemplating relocation

  2025cites this paper
• Climate change and the planned relocation of people: A longitudinal analysis of Vunidogoloa, Fiji

  2025cites this paper
• Essential competencies of nurses for climate change response in Saudi Arabia: A rapid literature review

  2024cites this paper
• Reconstruction of hourly coastal water levels and counterfactuals without sea level rise for impact attribution

  2024cites this paper
• Is the coastal future green, grey or hybrid? Diverse perspectives on coastal flood risk management and adaptation in the UK

  2024cites this paper
• Looking backwards to move forwards: insights for climate change adaptation from historical Māori relocation due to natural hazards in Aotearoa New Zealand

  2024cites this paper
• A missing link? The role of international organizations in climate-related planned relocation

  2024cites this paper
• Climate change loss and damage governance. Where are we now? A case study from Fiji’s sugar industry

  2023cites this paper
• Social capital and community integration in post-disaster relocation settlements after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami in Indonesia

  2023cites this paper
• A need to better monitor the effects of coastal defence measures on coastal socio-ecological systems to improve future adaptation solutions

  2023cites this paper
• ‘Curui’: weaving climate justice and gender equality into Fijian educational policies and practices

  2023cites this paper
• Health and wellbeing implications of adaptation to flood risk

  2023cites this paper
• Evolution trend and hot topic measurement of climate migration research under the influence of climate change

  2023cites this paper
• Adaptability of Low-Income Communities in Postdisaster Relocation

  2023cites this paper
• Fostering Well-Being in Resettled Communities: Cultivating Cultural Resilience and Sustainable Development in Resettlement Caused by Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project, Pakistan

  2023cites this paper
• Integrative Cross-Chapter Box on Low-lying Islands and Coasts

  2022cites this paper
• Perceptions of Local Leaders Regarding Postdisaster Relocation of Residents in the Face of Rising Seas

  2022cites this paper
• Internal relocation as a relevant and feasible adaptation strategy in Rangiroa Atoll, French Polynesia

  2022cites this paper
• Planned relocation: An unusual case for developed countries

  2022cites this paper
• Climate Change, Voluntary Immobility, and Place-Belongingness: Insights from Togoru, Fiji

  2022cites this paper
• Climate change adaptation, gender, and mainstreaming: the role of gender in Fiji's relocation initiative

  2022cites this paper
• Political ecologies of resettlement in river deltas

  2022cites this paper
• A place-based framework for assessing resettlement capacity in the context of displacement induced by climate change

  2022cites this paper
• Modeling future habitats to identify suitable sites for ex situ conservation of the endangered palm Metroxylon vitiense (H. Wendl.) H. Wendl. ex Benth. & Hook. f. in Fiji

  2022cites this paper
• Unlocking the inherent potential of plant genetic resources: food security and climate adaptation strategy in Fiji and the Pacific

  2021cites this paper
• Climate Change Adaptation on Small Island States: An Assessment of Limits and Constraints

  2021cites this paper
• Reshaping ties to land: a systematic review of the psychosocial and cultural impacts of Pacific climate-related mobility

  2021cites this paper
• Mental wellbeing following landslides and residential displacement in Indonesia

  2021cites this paper
• The importance of attention to customary tenure solutions: slow onset risks and the limits of Vanuatu’s climate change and resettlement policy

  2021cites this paper
• Community Participation, Situated Knowledge and Climate Change (Mal-) Adaptation in Rural Island Communities: Evidence from Artificial Shoreline-Protection Structures in Fiji

  2021cites this paper
• A Systematic Literature Review of Inclusive Climate Change Adaption

  2021cites this paper
• A review of mental health and wellbeing under climate change in small island developing states (SIDS)

  2021cites this paper
• Planning for Disaster-Induced Relocation of Communities

  2021cites this paper
• Migration and dignity – relocation and adaptation in the face of climate change displacement in the Pacific – a human rights perspective

  2021cites this paper
• Coastal Migration due to 21st Century Sea‐Level Rise

  2021cites this paper
• Seawalls as maladaptations along island coasts

  2021cites this paper
• Navigating slow-onset risks through foresight and flexibility in Fiji: emerging recommendations for the planned relocation of climate-vulnerable communities

  2021cites this paper
• Refuge in a Moving World

  2020cites this paper
• Towards a critical geography of resettlement

  2020cites this paper
• An orientation for coastal disaster risks management and prevention policy in a global warming context: Case study in Ouvea (New Caledonia)

  2020cites this paper
• Thick temporalities of planned relocation in Fiji

  2020cites this paper
• Adaptation to sea level rise: Learning from present examples of land subsidence

  2020cites this paper
• Climate Change and Impacts in the Pacific

  2020cites this paper
• Lost Material Stock in Buildings due to Sea Level Rise from Global Warming: The Case of Fiji Islands

  2020cites this paper
• Climate change-induced loss and damage in small-island developing states in the Pacific: a scan of the scientific literature

  2020cites this paper
• Peripherality as key to understanding opportunities and needs for effective and sustainable climate-change adaptation: a case study from Viti Levu Island, Fiji

  2020cites this paper
• Place attachment in disaster studies: measurement and the case of the 2013 Moore tornado

  2020cites this paper
• Adaptation to Climate Change: Contemporary Challenges and Perspectives

  2020cites this paper
• Climate Change, planned relocation and land governance in the Pacific region

  2020cites this paper
• Access and allocation in climate change adaptation

  2020cites this paper
• “Adaptation in Small Islands: Research Themes and Gaps”

  2020cites this paper
• Learning from risk reduction pilot projects for enhancing long-term adaptation governance: The case of Mauritius Island (Indian Ocean)

  2020cites this paper
• Origins and functions of climate-related relocation: An analytical review

  2020cites this paper
• Climate change loss and damage policy implications for Pacific Island Countries

  2020cites this paper
• The importance of climate to emigration intentions from a tropical city in Australia

  2020cites this paper
• Mental health in the Pacific: Urgency and opportunity

  2020cites this paper
• Rediscovering the past to negotiate the future: How knowledge about settlement history on high tropical Pacific Islands might facilitate future relocations

  2020cites this paper
• A place-based framework for assessing resettlement capacity in the context of climate change induced displacement

  2020cites this paper
• Comparison of Statistical, Graphical, and Wavelet Transform Analyses for Rainfall Trends and Patterns in Badulu Oya Catchment, Sri Lanka

  2020cites this paper
• Islander migrations and the oceans: From hopes to fears?

  2020cites this paper
• Planned Relocation as a Contentious Strategy of Climate Change Adaptation in Fiji

  2020cites this paper
• Understanding the preferences of rural communities for adaptation to 21st-century sea-level rise: A case study from the Samoan islands

  2020cites this paper
• Sustainable development impacts of climate change and natural disaster

  2019cites this paper
• Imaginary Numbers of Climate Change Migrants?

  2019cites this paper
• Moving People in a Changing Climate: Lessons from Two Case Studies in Fiji

  2019cites this paper
• THE IMPACT OF RELOCATION FROM SLUM TO SIMPLE RENTED FLATS ON THE HEALTH OF RESIDENTS AT KAMPUNG PULO

  2019cites this paper
• Failing adaptation in island contexts: the growing need for transformational change

  2019cites this paper
• Sea-level rise and human migration

  2019cites this paper
• Christianity and Climate Change Adaption: Sea-level Rise and Ritualising Village Relocation in Fiji

  2019cites this paper
• Voluntary immobility and existential security in a changing climate in the Pacific

  2019cites this paper
• Place attachment in disaster studies: measurement and the case of the 2013 Moore tornado

  2019cites this paper
• Voluntary Household Relocation Decision Making in the Wake of Disaster: Re-interpreting the Empirical Record

  2019cites this paper
• Climate change, natural hazards, and relocation: insights from Nabukadra and Navuniivi villages in Fiji

  2019cites this paper
• In-situ adaptation against climate change can enable relocation of impoverished small islands

  2019cites this paper
• Climate Change Migration and Displacement: Learning from Past Relocations in the Pacific

  2019cites this paper
• Descente d'échelle statistique du niveau de la mer pour les îles du Pacifique Sud-Ouest : une approche de régression linéaire multiple

  2019cites this paper
• Managed retreat as a strategy for climate change adaptation in small communities: public health implications

  2019cites this paper
• Stabilization of global temperature at 1.5°C and 2.0°C: implications for coastal areas

  2018cites this paper
• How sea-level and climate change affect island people: Examples from Yadua Island, Fiji

  2018cites this paper
• Heading for the hills: climate-driven community relocations in the Solomon Islands and Alaska provide insight for a 1.5 °C future

  2018cites this paper
• Transformative mobilities in the Pacific: Promoting adaptation and development in a changing climate

  2018cites this paper
• The effects of climate change on the geography and timing of human mobility

  2018cites this paper
• Reconstruction of Local Sea Levels at South West Pacific Islands—A Multiple Linear Regression Approach (1988–2014)

  2018cites this paper
• Limits to Adapting to Climate Change Through Relocations in Papua-New Guinea and Fiji

  2018cites this paper
• Climate Change and Migration Crises in Oceania

  2018cites this paper
• “The place where I live is where I belong”: community perspectives on climate change and climate-related migration in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu

  2018cites this paper
• Responding to multiple climate-linked stressors in a remote island context: the example of Yadua Island, Fiji

  2018cites this paper
• Forced Migration in the Global South: Reorienting the Debate

  2018cites this paper
• Managed retreat as a response to natural hazard risk

  2017cites this paper
• Climate Change and Human Mobility in the Pacific Region: Plans, Policies and Lessons Learned

  2017cites this paper
• Customary Land and Climate Change Induced Relocation—A Case Study of Vunidogoloa Village, Vanua Levu, Fiji

  2017cites this paper
• Performing “A New Song”: Suggested Considerations for Drafting Effective Coastal Fisheries Legislation Under Climate Change

  2017cites this paper
• Samoa: Exploring the Linkages Between Climate Change and Population Movements

  2016cites this paper
• Resettlement and rehabilitation : Indian scenario

  2015cites this paper