[Source: File]

Women and elders from four Fijian communities will share their lived experiences of climate-related planned relocation at a Pre-COP31 event in Nadi next week.

The “Amplifying Voices of Relocation” side event will bring together women and elders from Nabavatu, Narikoso, Vunidavo and Nayavuira to discuss how relocation has affected their land, livelihoods, culture, identity, families and sense of belonging.

Their experiences have been documented through the Community Climate Talks and brought together in a documentary which will be screened during the 45-minute session.

The German Embassy in Fiji is convening the event as part of Germany’s engagement around Pre-COP31 and is being delivered in cooperation with GIZ Pacific through its Global Programme on Human Mobility in the Context of Climate
Change, SauVaka Culture Consultancy and Tabualuma Media Production.

Head of Delegation of the Federal Republic of Germany, Secretary of State Jochen Flasbarth, says planned relocation is ultimately about people, communities and the places they call home.

Flasbarth says Germany’s engagement on climate mobility in Fiji is grounded in listening to people living through these realities.

He says the event aims to bring community perspectives directly into the wider discussion on climate mobility.

The documentary features communities at different stages of relocation.

Narikoso in Kadavu partially relocated more than a decade ago, while Nabavatu in Macuata is currently undergoing relocation.

Vunidavo in Namosi relocated through community efforts in the early 1980s, while Nayavuira in Ra has chosen not to relocate.

The experiences demonstrate that planned relocation involves more than simply moving people and infrastructure.

They also involve livelihoods, cultural identity, family wellbeing, spiritual connections, traditional knowledge and people’s sense of belonging.

GIZ Pacific representative Anina Vontobel says women are not only experiencing the impacts of relocation but are also carrying knowledge, responsibilities and perspectives that are important to understanding what successful and inclusive
relocation means.

The session will use the documentary as a starting point for a wider discussion connecting community experiences and traditional knowledge with research, policy and the international climate conversation.

The “Amplifying Voices of Relocation” event will be held from 4.30 pm to 5.15 pm on Monday, 5 October, at the Sofitel Fiji Resort in Nadi as part of the Pre-COP31 Stakeholder Engagement Programme.