Future Explained

Traditional climate knowledge in Fiji and Vanuatu proves vital for climate adaptation

Coastal communities in Fiji and Vanuatu have read weather, protected coastlines, and managed fisheries through knowledge passed down for generations, none of it written down. A University of Fiji study spent eight months recording it before it disappears, and found one village already facing the choice climate change is about to force on many more.

The Drua, a traditional Fijian voyaging canoe, gave its name to the research framework used in the study.

"Our elders have told us stories of how the sea levels used to be lower, and now we see it encroaching on our land. We are worried about losing our homes and ancestral burial grounds," one resident of Veiseisei village, on Fiji's Viti Levu, told researchers from the University of Fiji.

The quote is one of dozens collected for a study titled Traditional and Local Knowledge in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, funded by the AIS-UNDP programme and carried out between June 2023 and September 2024 in three Itaukei villages in Fiji and three villages in Vanuatu. "It's oral tradition, and nobody has recorded it, because nobody thought it was important enough to write it down," said Prof Shaista Shameem, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Fiji, who held oversight of the project.

Fieldwork ran in six villages across Fiji and Vanuatu

The study was led by Dr Dan Orcherton, Professor in Sciences at the University of Fiji, with Robson Tigona of the National University of Vanuatu overseeing the Vanuatu fieldwork and Mosese Baseisei, of the University of Fiji's Centre for Itaukei Studies, guiding cultural protocol. Fieldwork in Fiji ran across the villages of Veiseisei, Namoli, and Lauwaki in May and June 2024. In Vanuatu, three research assistants from the National University of Vanuatu worked in Mangaliliu, Eton, and Tanoliu between August and September 2024.

Shameem frames the approach as a deliberate combination rather than a rejection of formal science. "We're now developing a unique Pacific epistemology, or theory of knowledge," she told Innovation Report. "Not throwing out the baby with the bathwater, because we do think Western knowledge is very important as well." The fieldwork drew on what the report calls Drua and Kastom frameworks, named for a traditional Fijian voyaging canoe and the Vanuatu term for customary law, structured around community gatherings rather than formal surveys.

Tabu and Kastom systems govern local fishing and land use

In Fiji, the study documents the continued use of the Tabu system, in which communities set aside marine areas as no-take zones to let fish stocks recover, a practice used for centuries before the language of marine conservation existed. "We have traditional methods of building seawalls and planting mangroves to protect our coastline from erosion and storm surges," one respondent said. "These techniques have been passed down through generations and are still effective today." Villagers also described using medicinal plants including aloe vera, beach hibiscus, and coconut to treat everyday ailments.

In Vanuatu, the equivalent system is Kastom, cultural protocols governing when and how marine and land resources can be used, enforced through gatherings led by village elders and chiefs. Across all three villages studied, the report records rotational harvesting, in which specific fishing or farming areas are left fallow to allow natural regeneration, and predictive weather reading based on the behaviour of birds, ocean currents, and animal migration patterns, used to prepare for cyclones, droughts, and heavy rainfall before they arrive.

Tanoliu faces displacement from rising seas

The three Vanuatu villages face different risks. Mangaliliu's economy is tied to marine resources under strain from decline in fish stocks. Eton faces reduced agricultural yields from erratic rainfall. Tanoliu faces the most severe threat: displacement. The study's conclusions state that Tanoliu "faces severe economic challenges due to displacement, with rising sea levels forcing relocation, disrupting both economic activities and traditional practices," while noting the village's use of traditional knowledge of wind and weather patterns to build cyclone-resistant homes as a parallel adaptation strategy.

Shameem sees the stakes in cultural rather than purely economic terms. Traditional practice, observation, and oral history are bound to the land and the generations who pass them on in person. Displacement severs that transmission.

Older residents hold more traditional knowledge than younger ones

The study documents a limit in its own subject. Transmission of traditional ecological knowledge varies significantly between Tokatoka, the family or clan groups that structure Fijian village life, with older residents consistently holding more of it than younger ones. The study's own recommendation calls for active attention through elder engagement and intergenerational dialogue, treating the gap as ongoing work rather than something documentation alone resolves.

University of Fiji looks to empower local researchers and local knowledge holders

Shameem is explicit about who carried out the research and why. "We don't accept parachute researchers," she said. "We've got enough research assistants and so on to do our research on the ground. It's always collaborative. We insist on that." She points to the study's authorship as the model: a University of Fiji lead, a National University of Vanuatu co-author overseeing the Vanuatu fieldwork, and a named cultural protocols lead rather than an external consultant.

The university has extended the same approach to international partnerships, citing joint research with Amsterdam University, Stockholm University, and Lund University. "I'm a lawyer by profession as well," Shameem said. "I make sure that all the agreements are properly done, contracts are properly done, and that there's equal benefit."

Institutions in this article: University of Fiji, National University of Vanuatu, AIS-UNDP.