Culturally Grounded Peacebuilding in the Face of Climate Displacement
Image: Sam Lawrence Photography / Shutterstock
Pacific Island nations have identified climate change, through the Boe Declaration on Regional Security, as the single greatest threat to their security, livelihoods, and well-being. Between 2018 and 2025, the Toda Peace Institute’s Climate Change and Conflict workstream convened annual workshops bringing together academics, policymakers, practitioners, and activists working on climate security across the region. This work surfaced a persistent gap: dominant frameworks tend to treat climate change as a driver of conflict and displacement requiring top-down, state-led responses, while more nuanced approaches recognise climate security as culturally specific, grounded in decolonised methods that centre Indigenous knowledge and local context.
Building on these insights, this project undertakes community fieldwork in both Vanuatu and Fiji, working non-extractively and in partnership with local communities and organisations. In Vanuatu, the research examines how customary and intercultural relations can support peaceful relocation and in-situ adaptation. In Fiji, it investigates the same question within traditional systems of governance that are being adapted to relocation contexts, supporting both communities that choose to relocate and those that choose to stay and adapt in place. Together, these two fieldwork strands are complemented by a policy analysis component, drawing on interviews with policymakers to assess how far national and regional frameworks recognise and support customary and intercultural approaches to peacebuilding, and where gaps remain.
Reports and Policy Briefs for this project will be published following the research phase.