Kiribati considers Fiji land purchase for resettlement

[Stacey King]

Posted at 21:36 on 02 March, 2012 UTC

The President of Kiribati is considering buying land in Fiji for those forced to move because of sea level rise.

A spokesman at Anote Tong’s office in Kiribati says the President has been in Fiji recently and a decision is likely in about two weeks time once cabinet has considered the concept.

Fiji TV reports that a local agent has pointed at 2,000 hectares of freehold land on Vanua Leva for the Kiribati government to view.

The resources of the Kiribati capital island, Tarawa, are stretched by a burgeoning population and because of climate change.

There are also plans to move people to the country’s biggest island, Christmas Islands, in the Line group.

Just east of Vanua Levu is Rabi Island where about a thousand Kiribati people were relocated from Banaba at the end of the Second World War because their island was used for phosphate mining.

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[Eritai]

This might be a good time for us to consider independence!!!!