The Carteret Islands:This is what climate change looks like.

The Carteret Islands are Papua New Guinea islands located 86 km north-east of Bougainville in the South Pacific.


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The Carteret Islanders have lived a peaceful existence on their idyllic islands with little impact on their environment. Sadly, their community is doomed to follow Atlantis underwater as a result of climate change.

The Carteret Islanders are amongst the world's first 'environmental refugees'.

An entire cultural group is facing relocation due to the impacts of climate change. The islanders have fought for more than twenty years against the rising ocean, building sea walls and planting mangroves. However, storm surges and high tides continue to wash away homes, destroy vegetable gardens, and contaminate fresh water supplies.

It has also been estimated that by 2015, the Carteret Islands could be largely submerged and entirely uninhabitable. Carteret Islanders are on the frontline of climate change.

Enter Tulele Peisa a community initiated organisation led by an inspiring woman, Ursula Rakova (pictured right) from the Carterets Islands. Tulele Peisa is helping the community relocate and resettle to the mainland of PNG. One of the resettlement locations is Tinputz a disused cocoa plantation on Bougainville. Tulele Peisa is setting up their site office there, the problem is there is no access to electricity.

Enter the Australian Conservation Foundation and The Body Shop. Last year, out of all The Body Shop franchises in the world, Australia won "Best Values" - yay! Anyway, we donated the prize money to ACF to help a poor community in Papua New Guinea with sustainable energy. We loved their environmental project proposal also had direct humanitarian benefits.

So the plan is to use the money to buy, install solar panels at the Tulele Peisa site office so that they can function and carry out their work as efficiently as possible. The resettlement site is about 81 hectares in size. ACF is also currently supporting Tulele Peisa to raise funds to help with the relocation and resettlement. It is hoped that with adequate funds, better land use planning and ecologically sustainable waste and sanitation system will be designed and implemented for the settlement site to ensure better environmental and health outcomes.

At the time of writing this ACF were meeting with Tulele Peisa to schedule the panel installation and maintenance training for local staff. ACF will be campaigning with The Body Shop again this July to try and save some of Australia's favourite icons from the affects of climate change.

We will keep you updated on the progress of the Carteret Islanders. Here's what you can do to make a difference:

• Watch this ABC TV Foreign Correspondent report on the Carteret Islands.
• Join the Tulele Peisa Support Group on Facebook.
• Learn more about the link between climate change and poverty.
  
• Write a quick note to Kevin telling him you care about this issue. Ask him to set a more responsible Carbon Emissions Reduction Target and increase the amount of Aid we are giving developing countries in our region.
  
• Watch this Oxfam 'Sisters of the Planet' video featuring Ursula Rakova

Images courtesy of Toby Parkinson / Podfruits