BACKGROUND

Credit: giganet.net, graphicmaps.com

Geography

The Republic of Kiribati is an island nation stretching over 2,000 miles along the equator in the Central Pacific. Its 33 atolls comprise only 205 square miles, while its ocean area is 1,370,300 square miles or roughly the size of India. There are three main archipelagos: the Kiribati/Gilbert Islands, the Phoenix Islands, and the Line Islands. The Kiribati Islands are 930 miles north of Fiji. The islands gained independence from the British in 1979. Kiribati [kiribas] is the Kiribati pronunciation of Gilbert, the former British name for the main island group.

PEOple

With minimal land resources and periodic droughts, the Kiribati people are primarily dependent on the ocean both for sustenance and income. Fish and copra, a coconut product, are the top two exports. The majority of people live in villages with populations between 50 and 3,000 people. Their homes are open air huts, or buyas, constructed with materials from the pandanus and coconut trees. Almost half of the population, however, lives in the capital, Tarawa, where the population density exceeds that of Hong Kong.

The total population in 2005 was 92,533. Almost 100% of the people are Micronesian. Twenty percent of the people have at least completed high school, while 80% have at least completed primary school. About half of people engage in subsistence work while 25% are now involved in the cash sector. Life expectancy is 61 years.

Kiribati is one of the poorest countries in the Pacific by traditional standards. In contrast, they have one of the highest rates of protein consumption in the world, almost exclusively from eating fish. The Kiribati people pride themselves on self-reliance. Despite extreme isolation and limited land resources, the Kiribati culture has adapted to provide a lifestyle of subsistence wealth that has capitalized on the rich resources of the sea.

However, an increasing number of people have traded self-reliance for imported goods and limited cash incomes. A national-level household survey, with a design that compliments the Kiribati Islands Expedition, is being conducted by Sheila Walsh in cooperation with the Ministry of Fisheries and Finance to determine whether increased engagement in the cash economy has made people better off and reduced pressure on the coral reef fishery.

ENVIRONMENT

The low-lying atolls of Kiribati support extensive fringing and lagoonal coral reefs. These atolls, which are no higher than 5 meters above sea-level, are essentially reefs sitting on top of a volcanic base. The soil created by the emergent reef is some of the youngest and most infertile in the world.

Kiribati experiences a tropical marine climate that is mediated by the northeast trade winds and the equatorial counter-current. The temperature ranges from 80° to 90° F with very little seasonal variation. Kiribati's rainfall, however, is highly variable. Extreme droughts occur during La Nina periods. The islands nearest to the equator, such as those in the Central and Southern Kiribati Islands and Christmas Island in the Line Islands are most affected.

The terrestrial life is limited to those species that can tolerate the extreme conditions of the atoll environment. In addition, many of the coastal strand tree species and mangroves were removed during the colonial period and replaced by coconut trees that could be used to produce copra. Below sea-level, however, Kiribati has great marine biodiversity with 120 species of corals and 520 species of fish. Yet, almost nothing is known of the status of the coral reefs.

Photo credits: HEADER © 2006 Kevin Lafferty