Climate Resilient Islands

Tonga

Climate Resilient Islands Tonga

Tonga has been part of Climate Resilient Islands since the programme began in 2021.

Partnering with 15 communities across the districts of Ha’apai, ‘Eua and Vava’u, CRI will work in mostly low-lying coastal areas and marine habitats, though also some forest ecosystems. These ecosystems are crucial to Tongan life, with significant reliance on them for not only material but also spiritual and cultural aspects. Climate Resilient Islands is focused on working with the Indigenous knowledge embedded in partner communities to inform nature-based solutions to these challenges.

Climate Resilient Islands is a New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade initiative, implemented by Live & Learn with funding from the New Zealand Government.

Community Resilience Profile & Planning

The Climate Resilient Islands programme is working with 65 rural communities in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu to strengthen community resilience to climate change through nature-based approaches.

The programme uses a complex range of approaches and concepts, combining a diversity of activities communities can use to explore the interdependence of people and ecosystems, understand ecological complexity and develop nature-based plans for adaptation and resilience.

The CRI Toolkit details the approaches helping create climate resilience across CRI partner communities.

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Disaster preparedness in Tongan CRI communities

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Income and expenses in Tongan communities

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Case Study: CRI as an ecosystems intervention

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Community Priority Values and Assets in Tonga

Absorb Adapt Transform CRI 3symbols

Throughout the Climate Resilient Islands programme, we think about how three different things are combined when working with climate resilience: absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, transformational capacity.

These are symbolised in the programme by the coconut palm, crab and butterfly. These three capacities relate to the levels of challenges communities face and the changes required to meet these challenges throughout all six partner countries in the CRI programme.

Climate Resilient Islands

Climate Resilient Islands is working with rural communities in Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and PNG to strengthen community resilience to the impacts of climate change through nature-based approaches.

Learn more about how the programme is working in other partner countries through the pages below.

MFAT Manatu Aorere

Climate Resilient Islands is a New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade initiative, implemented by Live & Learn with funding from the New Zealand Government.