Climate Change Program
Climate Change Program is a newly established Project within the Anglican Church of Melanesia Board of Mission (ACOMBM). It was set up in 2010; however, the initial planning was done in 2009. The purpose of the program is to create an avenue whereby issues of climate change variability and impacts that are affecting atoll island communities can be assessed. Currently the Church is engaging with the Ontong Java atoll communities lying just south of the equator 5 degrees and 258km north of Santa Isabel in the Solomon Islands with a population of 2,857.
The impacts of climate change being experienced include damages to food, diminishing of the islands physical geography, contamination of water source, and general health of the people. Some climate change issues affecting the people relate to sea level rise and strong storms as well as sporadic intense heat. These attributes have put the atoll islanders to be extremely vulnerable.
To address this situation V&A; assessment was done proposing some intervention measures. Thus ACOM is undertaking a food and water security intervention. Pilot plots are being established to trial salt-resistant crops such as fruit (breadfruit) and root crops (taro) and vegetables (pumpkin).These crops are tried under an agro forest system. The communities are also being assisted with water improvement.
The initial part of the project on Food security &Water; Security was funded by the Episcopal Relief Development (ERD) fund (still ongoing) and currently, a mission partner, the Anglican Board of Mission Australia (ABM) had stepped in to fund the water component of the Food and water security project in Ontong Java.
However, the Climate Change desk through its strategic plan will also focus on increasing its capacity to further involve its program on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) within ACoM Dioceses and Climate Change and Gender mainstreaming.
For futhure information, Contact:
Coordinator: Mr. Kasper Supa
Phone: +677 21892