PACC Demonstration Guide: Piloting climate change adaptation in food production and food security on low-lying atolls of Solomon Islands

Abstract

In Solomon Islands, the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) project focused on food security, with a goal ‘to contribute to reduced vulnerability and increased adaptive capacity to adverse effects of climate change in Solomon Islands’. The pilot sites for the demonstration projects were the low lying atolls of Ontong Java and, in a second phase, Sikaiana. These atolls are extremely isolated and are highly vulnerable in many respects. Climaterelated threats mainly come from sea level rise and extreme weather events, and impacts on food security include contamination of the freshwater lens affecting crop production. Associated soil salinisation, as well as loss of land through erosion, also have serious implications for subsistence food production in locations that are already stressed.