Nigel Kelaepa is from the Solomon Islands, which is a country of a thousand islands in the South Pacific near Papua New Guinea. Nigel was born in 1968 and comes from the atoll of Ontong Java, which is a Polynesian outlier in the north of the nation. Nigel is also an Anglican Priest, with a Master’s Degree in Religion and Global Development from the University of Leeds (UK), and lives with his wife and children in Honiara, Solomon Islands. Together Nigel and Keith Joseph worked on the first climate change adaptation project in the Solomon Islands in 2009. This project was aimed at adapting agricultural practices on Ontong Java to enable food crops to resist encroaching salt water, and was a great success. However, the waters continue to rise and it now appears that his people will need to be resettled in other parts of the Solomon Islands. Please follow this link to see Nigel talking about this problem: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/un-climate-conference/as-un-climate-change-talks-start-in-paris-islanders-consider-a-life-on-the-move-20151126-gl96d3.html
However, the issues are more than just physical resettlement. Nigel is concerned to ensure that his ancient culture is not destroyed, but continues as a living culture enriching humanity with its wisdom gained over thousands of years of sustainable living in harmony with its environment.