Kioa

Kioa is an island in Fiji, an outlier to Vanua Levu, one of Fiji's two main islands. Situated opposite Buca Bay, Kioa is a freehold by settlers from Tuvalu, who came between 1947 and 1983. Kioa is one of two islands in Fiji populated by South Sea Islanders, the other being Rabi, also in the Vanua Levu Group and home to a displaced Banaban community.

Early in 2005, the Fijian government decided to grant full citizenship to the Kioa and Rabi Islanders. As a culmination of a decade-long quest for naturalization, a formal ceremony was held on 15 December, 2005 to award 566 citizenship certificates to residents of the islands and their descendants (some of whom now live elsewhere in Fiji), which entitles them to provincial and national assistance for rural development. The ceremony was led by Cabinet Ministers Josefa Vosanibola and Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, who is also the "Tui Cakau", or Paramount Chief of Tovata, which includes the two islands.

Lalabalavu called on the Kioa islanders to be proud of their identity and to nurture and protect their culture.

Although part of Cakaudrove Province, the island has a degree of with its own administrative body, the Kioa Island Council, although the Fijian Cabinet decided on 15 January 2006 to merge it with the Rabi Island Council.

Population transfer proposal

In February 2006, at a climate refugee forum in Melbourne, Don Kennedy, a retired Tuvalu-born Australian scientist, suggested the entire population of Tuvalu should move to the island, to preserve Tuvaluan culture as their homeland becomes uninhabitable due to rising sea levels. "A mass relocation would ensure the Tuvaluan language and culture is preserved instead of being scattered to the four corners of the earth," the Fiji Live news service quoted him as saying. Tuvalu's three islands stand an average height of just 3 meters above sea level.

He is negotiating with Tuvalu's Prime Minister Maatia Toafa to move the population before Tuvalu becomes submerged, which he predicts will happen within the next 50 years.

Fiji's political parties were cautious in their response to Kennedy's proposal. United Peoples Party President Mick Beddoes said that moving the 9000 Tuvaluans would put a great strain on Kioa's resources and economy. He said that Pacific Island nations should share the cost of such a move, with most of the finance coming from "the major polluting nations." National Alliance Party President Ratu Epeli Ganilau (who hails from the neighbouring island of Taveuni) said that the proper procedures would have to be followed, while National Federation Party President Raman Pratap Singh said that the proposal was a good one in principle, but that proper arrangements would have to be made, and compensation would have to be paid to the landowners.

Tuvalu's Prime Minister Toafa said on 21 February, 2006 that relocation to Kioa was under consideration, but was not a priority. Buying land in Australia or New Zealand was also an option, he said. If they were to move to Kioa, they would need finance to develop the island, "Fiji Live" quoted him as saying.

Sources

* [http://www.pacificmagazine.net/pina/pinadefault2.php?urlpinaid=20421 Pacific Islands magazine - Don Kennedy's proposed population movement]