Frontline reporting,ethos and perception: Media challenges in the South Pacific

Abstract: The Melanesian sub‐region of the South Pacific, in particular, has been branded by some political analysts as an ‘arc of instability’ because of upheavals such as coups (Fiji), ethnic conflict (Solomon Islands), paramilitary revolts (Vanuatu), and secessionist rebellion and civil war (Bougainville‐Papua New Guinea and the Southern Highlands). Simplistic notions and prejudices about the region pose challenges for journalists attempting to report with depth, context and analytical skill. Pressures and dilemmas for the news media continue to gain momentum in the South Pacific, often from a cultural as well as socio‐political dimension. While the media in some countries is refreshingly outspoken and courageous, in others it has a trend towards self‐censorship. This article critiques coverage in the region and some of the problems in an age of globalisation and preoccupation with security. It also sketches the challenges for media education designed to contest images of the region beyond ‘coups, conflicts and contraband’.     

Mining,risk and climate resilience in the ‘other’ Pacific: Latin American lessons for the South Pacific

We suggest the value of considering Pacific Latin America and the South Pacific in relationship to each other in contexts of climate change and investment in extractive industry. The paper explores the interactions between extractive industry, climate change and environmental governance through the lenses of double exposure, double movements, resilience and risk. The first part of the paper addresses the nature and scope of investments in extractive industries in this ‘other Pacific’. The geography of these investments is changing the actual and perceived distribution of exposure and risk in the region. The nature of this risk is also being affected by climate change and its implications for the geographies of water and land‐use. Much of the contention surrounding extractive industries can be understood as conflicts over the unequal distribution of this risk, how to interpret its significance and the ways in which resilience might be enhanced to respond to it. The final section of the paper discusses the ways in which mining governance and governance for resilience converge and, on the basis of recent experiences in El Salvador, analyses the difficulties in governing extractive industry in a way that manages risk and builds resilience.     

Climate change education in the South Pacific: Resilience for whom?

Climate change education (CCE) can be an important tool to increase local community resilience. In 2017, the Pacific Community ratified the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific (FRDP) aiming to equip local communities with skills needed to become more climate change resilient. In 2018, Fiji implemented the Climate Change Resilience Programme (CCRP) at the University of the South Pacific (USP), the first of its kind in the South Pacific. This paper evaluates (i) the orientation and aim of the programme and (ii) how different stakeholders influenced the curriculum development process. Tribe's concept of curriculum space is used to highlight the overall aim of the CCRP. Freeman's stakeholder theory allows to identify key stakeholders and their influence on the curriculum. Results indicate that the programme seems to foster climate resilience in the workplace rather than the local community. Unfortunately, current and future community leaders, the notional targets of this course, were almost completely unrepresented in the process to accredit the course, with the body responsible for accreditation being dominated by industry representatives. This study helps to inform the current review of the Regional Certificate Programme to realign it with its initially envisioned community focus.     

海南岛西海岸植物群落的初探

海南岛西海岸野生种子植物约1520种（含变种、亚种）、686属、161科。本区系热带性质明显,热带分布属占总属数（除去世界属和外来属）的93%以上,热带分布种超过总种数（除去广布种和外来种）的80% 。植物群落约250个,其中单优种群落约118个。多数群落优势种不明显,群落主要由共建种构建。群落特征以共建种群落多,单优种群落少,多数群落分布规模小,常以灌木丛、刺灌丛或草甸状草丛及分布非地带性为主要特征;西海岸资源植物丰富,但几乎无蕴藏量,仍有不少资源植物很有开发潜力。     

Cross‐cultural interaction in the appraisal of disaster trauma in three Pacific Island countries

Abstract: The methods adopted in the appraisal of the trauma of three communities after different disasters in the South Pacific are described and discussed. The outcome affirms the need for non‐indigenous clinicians to be ready to adjust their concepts and methods to suit the cultural frameworks they encounter when they are invited abroad, and for local health professionals to be ready to share their knowledge and skills with their collegues from abroad. The outcome, it is argued, should improve the quality of service provided at all stages of disaster recovery, and still enable questions to be raised about matters of fundamental concern – such as the power of religious belief and of social justice in the process of healing. These questions were found to be of particular importance in the context of the South Pacific cultures.     

Pacific Island children: The use of maps in helping better understand children's lives

Children's voices have been little heard in the Pacific research. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 asserts the child's right to have a say on matters that affect them and for their views to be considered. There has been massive growth in technologically assisted participative research; however, we argue the value of hand drawn maps should not be underestimated in the rush to engage with more advanced techniques. We present data from 267 neighbourhood maps drawn by children in Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa and New Zealand. To better understand the social construction of knowledge in children's everyday lives, we propose two models to conceptualise the complexity of their world, a social connection and a spatial connection model. These models reveal how Pacific Island children negotiate different levels of social connection from home, family, and community through to transnational kinship relations. People, specifically family, provide the geographic basis on which their spatial encounters are overlaid. Irrespective of country or rural/urban/atoll setting, it is social space that is the strongest connector for children as displayed in their maps. Application of our models can be used to reveal how knowledge is socially constructed in Pacific children's everyday lives.