ABSTRACT
Pacific Island countries are often seen as poster-children for global debates regarding climate change, land loss, and population mobility. Property is clearly implicated in debates regarding climate relocation, but is rarely explicitly addressed in scholarship. This chapter introduces some of the key property issues that arise for policymakers in the Pacific region as they attempt to respond to the challenges posed by climate-induced internal migration. It provides an introduction to the Pacific’s diverse land tenure systems, in particular the relationship between state-based law and customary tenure, and an overview of recent attempts by governments in Solomon Islands, Fiji, and Vanuatu to address the prospect of community relocation. It then examines the assumptions and preferences regarding property that are embedded in dominant policy responses promulgated by international organisations. These work to channel development policy and programming in specific directions, and constrain rather than enhance the capacity of Pacific Island governments to develop ‘local’, context-specific responses to climate-induced displacement, resettlement, and relocation. Furthermore, the predominant understandings of property held by aid donors reproduce the colonial systems that underpin the climate crisis.
