Island neighbours at the mercy of rising tides
Teuga Patolo stands in king-tide waters that surround her neighbour's house at Funafui in Tuvalu. (Oxfam: Rodney Dekker)
A three-year study by Australia's CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology suggests the Pacific's small island states can expect rising sea levels, more heavy rainfall events, more very hot days and more cyclones.
Photojournalist Rodney Dekker visited Tuvalu and Kiribati for Oxfam to explore how climate change is affecting life there.
He shares his photos alongside quotes from local people.
We know that the rise of the sea is a true thing. It comes in. [It] comes to the dry places, it reaches the unreached spots. Who causes it? Our brothers and sisters in the big countries. I'm asking God to work with the big countries to show mercy to us, to consider our situation.
Teuga Patolo stands in king-tide waters that surround her neighbour's house at Funafui in Tuvalu. (Oxfam: Rodney Dekker)
My message for world leaders now is to ask and to plead with them to ... cut their emission rates to a level where we can be assured that we can be saved in our small island countries.
It is a true thing. The sea level is going up. People are starting to think about migrating to other countries. A lot of our people have migrated to Fiji, to New Zealand, because of what they think is going to happen. Some people panic and don't know what to do. They talk about it every day.
Fuel drums are being used as sea walls to provide protection against coastal erosion in southern Funafuti, Tuvalu. (Oxfam: Rodney Dekker)
All our traditional skills which have maintained our people for years are all upset because of the changing weather patterns.
Reverend Tafue Lusama, pictured with his daughter Sunema, is a church and community leader and an advocate for local and international action on climate change. (Oxfam: Rodney Dekker)
I've been travelling from country to country advocating and campaigning on the issue of climate change. The passion, the force that keeps me going, is the realisation that what I received from my ancestors, I won't be able to hand down … to my children and my grandchildren.
Eria Maerere and his granddaughter, Dian, walk next to a sea wall that used to protect their community before it was damaged in 2004. (Oxfam: Rodney Dekker)
That was a drastic night, just terrible. Everyone thought it was the end of the world ... the whole place was under water. Everyone ran for their lives ... We lost our wells, some of our houses ... our crops ... they were all lost.
Ekewi Nabubura, 42, carries water to her vegetables. She and her husband have expanded their garden and increased their income by selling produce to schools. However, access to water is a problem throughout Kiribati. (Oxfam: Rodney Dekker)
There's never enough water ... This is Kiribati. This is how we live … When you stay still you cannot survive. We have to use our hands, our minds, our strength, our energy … you have to be strong … But we still need some help."
Hetagi Lotomahana in her pawpaw plantation. Just after a king tide occurred on February 19, 2011 the plantation turned yellow due to saltwater intrusion. She watered the plants as much as possible hoping to flush the salt and revive them. (Oxfam: Rodney Dekker)
Every year ... I have been witnessing an increasing in the rate of erosion. I am really concerned about the impacts of climate change and sea-level rise.
Traditional singing is seen as a culture vunerable to climate change. (Oxfam: Rodney Dekker)
"Our culture and our traditions are so valuable. They are part of our identity. We cannot leave that behind. Our country, though small, is peaceful and it is beautiful to us. We cannot just get up and leave."
In the late afternoon, people gather and play sport on the airport runway at Funafui in Tuvalu. When king tides occur, sections of the runway are flooded. (Oxfam: Rodney Dekker)
We can use it as a place to relax and go with friends. If I meet a friend on the road, we'll end up on the runway and talk away.
Eliakimo stands next to mangrove plantations designed to help protect the Tuvalu coastline from erosion. (Oxfam: Rodney Dekker)
According to my grandfather ... the distance between the ends of the two islands [pictured above] was so close that if you threw a stone across, it would land on the other island. The mangrove plantation, started in 2007, [is] part of a joint project between Tuvalu and Japan. The purpose [is] to reduce the risk of coastal erosion. This a protection measure for our shorelines.
Locals such as Sakalia Teasi say there are fewer fish to catch now due to the greater fequency of storms, coral bleaching and over fishing. (Oxfam: Rodney Dekker)
It is getting very difficult to catch fish now. When I grew up, my grandfather and father used to teach me the shift from one season to the other and how it affects the movement of the fish in the sea from place to place. Those have been upset because of the changing weather patterns. The cost of fish caught around our islands has become very expensive. It is cheaper for a person to walk into a shop and buy a tin of fish ... which is processed thousands of miles away ... than buying fish from a local fisherman.
Community members of Bikenikora Village in Kiribati attend church. (Oxfam: Rodney Dekker)
Our hope is that God will have mercy on us on the low coral islands. I'm asking God to work with the big countries to show more mercy to us, to consider our situation ... I ask ... if they could put us somewhere in their minds.
The rainbow is seen as a symbol of God's protection: 30 per cent of people in Tuvalu believe God will save them from climate change. (Oxfam: Rodney Dekker)
I believe there won't be any more floods, because of the covenant between Noah and the Lord God. They made a promise during those days that there won't be another flood in the world.