Achieving Climate Resilience by Transitioning to Sustainable Sea Transport in Marshallese Waters

Achieving Climate Resilience by Transitioning to Sustainable Sea Transport in Marshallese Waters

Ri Majol, the people of the Marshall Islands where known for their superior boat building and sailing skills for centuries. They traveled frequently between their atolls (for trade and war) on big offshore canoes called Walap (some of them 100ft long). The lagoons of their low-lying coral atolls where crested by sails of smaller outrigger canoe designs for rapid inside lagoon transportation, food gathering and fishing.
Today, the traditional outrigger canoe designs are not in use for inter-atoll voyages in RMI anymore. The traditional inter atoll voyages stopped and none of the traditional inter-atoll canoes (Walap) survived till today. Nowadays, offshore transport tasks are mainly carried out by the government owned Marshall Island Shipping Corporation (MISC) and private contractors with conventional monohull freighters with motorized engines causing emissions and impact on climate change.
The way of inside lagoon traffic and artisanal fishing today differs from atoll to atoll in the Marshall Island. Major influence factors are the shape of the atoll, the density and concentration of its population as well as the existence of canoe building skills. Most of the Island communities were not able to maintain their canoe building skills in the past and depend now on motorized and fuel consuming boats for fishing and transportation. Aside of the significant greenhouse gas emissions by the lagoon shipping sector, the use of combustion powered boats causes various additional problems on the outer islands, including reduced availability of transportation and fishing means due to expensive fuel (if available at all), reduced availability of local seafood, obstruction of local economy, compromised security of food supply.

Hosted by:
GIZ, Waan Aelõñ in Majel (WAM) - Canoes of the Marshall Islands

Moderator:
Andrea Muller, Deputy Permanent Representative at the Mission of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to the United Nations
Alson Kelen, Director of WAM, Canoes of the Marshall Islands
Henrik Richter-alten, WAM - Canoes of the Marshall Islands
Clarence Samuel, Director for the Climate Change Directorate, the Ministry of Environment.