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Ursula is losing her land and home in Papua New Guinea to rising seas. The community has built sea walls and planted mangrove trees, but they cannot stop the erosion. The only option for some islanders is to leave their ancestral home.

"Land here is traditionally owned by women," says Ursula. "My grandmother passed land to my mother and then it came to me. Ten years along the line I would love to pass on this island to my daughter, but I will not be able to."

The Carteret Islanders have fought for more than twenty years against the intruding Pacific Ocean, but within the space of a generation, the islands' shoreline has receded by 18-20 metres.

During storm surges, salt water washes away homes, destroys vegetable gardens, and contaminates fresh water supplies.

They are an entire cultural group facing relocation due to the impacts of rising sea levels and submerging islands.

"For the Carteret Islanders, we cannot wait any longer because the islands are shrinking," says Ursula who owns land on Huene Island, now divided into two smaller islands and disappearing fast.

"When it's high tide, we can see salt water bubbling out of the land. We can no longer make gardens."

"We are one of those who are going to be displaced very soon," she says.

Ursula leads a group lobbying for the islanders' plight to be given more attention. Oxfam Australia has supported a speaking tour for them to publicise their predicament.

For a population of 2,500, largely dependent on subsistence agriculture, the impact has been devastating. The islands’ highest point lies just 1.5 metres above sea level. Their inhabitants are living on borrowed time.

In November 2005, the Papua New Guinea government authorised the evacuation of the islands, ten families at a time, to Bougainville, the nearest large island, almost 130 kilometres away. The evacuation stalled but new funding promised by the Autonomous Bougainville Government in November this year could see islanders re-commence the relocation in 2008. The Islanders believe their home could be largely submerged by 2015.

This story illustrates how vulnerable small island states and coastal communities are to rising sea levels.

A plantation has been secured where the islanders can relocate. But there is no basic infrastructure on this land. The Carteret Islanders need their somewhere that they can settle together as a community with a shared set of values and cultural identity. They urgently need 3,000 new homes, schools, health care and other basic social services.

Country climate reference: Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007. Parry M.L, Canziani, OF, Palutiko, JP, Van der Linden, PJ & Hanson, CE (eds)

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Ursula takes in the changing landscape of Huene Island Tulele Peisa Photo: Cameron Feast/Oxfam Australia

Leva Ribata 13 and Ursula inspect the latest trees that have fallen into the sea Photo: Cameron Feast/Oxfam Australia

John Sailik stands next to the sea walls designed to keep the sea at bay Photo: Cameron Feast/Oxfam Australia

Batilda Matevia 19 and Ethel Mamaira 16, harvesting kaukau, a local sweet potato Photo: Cameron Feast/Oxfam Australia

Ursula and with her mother on Han Island Photo: Cameron Feast/Oxfam Australia

Ursula at the Tulele Peisa office Photo: Cameron Feast/Oxfam Australia

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