Solomon Islands: Rising Seas Spur Relocation
Sea level rise and other climate impacts-compounded by insecure land tenure, limited access to land, and inadequate government support-are undermining the rights of the people of Walande, an Indigenous community in Solomon Islands, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Despite taking the last resort measure of leaving their island home to escape the impacts of climate change, the community is still at risk.
The 66-page report, “‘There’s Just No More Land’: Community-led Planned Relocation as Last-resort Adaptation to Sea Level Rise in Solomon Islands,” documents why Walande community members made the difficult decision to relocate after decades of adapting to climate change in place, how they moved without adequate government and international assistance, and how their enjoyment of their economic, social, and cultural rights is still threatened. Human Rights Watch found that the Solomon Islands’ government has taken important steps to support communities facing the most acute impacts of the climate crisis, including by adopting Planned Relocation Guidelines, but has not yet fully put them in operation.
“Walande’s story is a warning that communities cannot face the climate crisis alone,” said Erica Bower, climate displacement researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Solomon Islands’ government can be a global leader on rights-respecting planned relocation approaches, but only if it urgently implements its guidelines and ensures that communities displaced by the climate crisis have adequate support.” Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 130 community members from Walande and other coastal villages, government officials, and experts, and analyzed satellite imagery, data on adaptation aid, and additional documents.
Walande is a community of approximately 800 people on the coast of South Malaita in Solomon Islands. Until the mid-2010s, the community lived on a small island off the coast. For decades, after being hit by cyclones and storms, the people of Walande would rebuild their houses and adapt in place. However, following devastating “king” tides in 2009, the entire community relocated to the mainland.
Walande’s experience highlights the dangers of government and international donors failing to adequately support community-led planned relocation. Despite requesting assistance, community members largely financed and executed their relocation on their own. The move enabled only short-term safety. Seawater is breaching protective seawalls at the new site and destroying the community’s traditional food sources.
The community has minimal funds to protect itself from sea level rise, has insecure tenure to its relocation site, and lacks access to more land further inland. Some members are considering another relocation. “We look for higher ground-again,” one community member said.
Women in Walande face particularly acute concerns, as their control over land is limited under their province’s patriarchal land tenure system. A few women said that community leaders had pressed them to marry outside Walande as an adaptation measure.
Planned relocation is an adaptation measure of last resort with serious risks. Planning needs to respect human rights principles, such as informed consent, and involve members of relocating communities, like Walande, at all stages of the process. A community’s new site should enable members to enjoy their economic, social, and cultural rights.
The Solomon Islands’ government has obligations under international law to protect communities from foreseeable climate risks, by facilitating rights-respecting climate adaptation and upholding Indigenous rights, customary land rights, and women’s rights. The 2022 Planned Relocation Guidelines establish a strong framework to implement those obligations on paper. But until they are operationalized, relocated and relocating populations remain exposed to the effects of climate change and risks to their human rights.
The Solomon Islands’ government should fully implement the guidelines, including establishing a plan for a countrywide assessment to determine which communities are most exposed to climate hazards and prioritize support based on communities’ needs. The government should also scale up funding for community-led relocations, ensuring that funds cover the costs of not just rebuilding homes and making people safer, but also providing for the full spectrum of rights, including education, health, and cultural heritage.
Under international climate and human rights law, “developed” nations have obligations to support climate adaptation in the least-developed countries, like Solomon Islands. Yet between 2011 and 2021, Solomon Islanders received an average of just US$20 per year in foreign aid for climate adaptation.
A few countries have begun supporting community-led adaptation efforts, including Australia, which supported preparation of Walande’s new site. But international donors should rapidly scale up financial and technical assistance to ensure that Solomon Islands can respond to climate change and frontline communities, like Walande, can adapt in place or relocate with their rights protected, Human Rights Watch said.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects that “as climate risk intensifies, the need for planned relocations will increase.” Every country with a coastline, at a minimum, needs to anticipate this challenge, learning from past community-led relocations, like Walande’s, and policies, like the Solomon Islands’ guidelines.
“Support for communities on the front lines of the climate crisis is already urgent and will only become more imperative,” Bower said. “Meeting these mounting challenges will not be possible without putting human-rights-centered policies in effect.”
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Community leader looks out to the seawall that has recently fallen apart and no longer fully protects the village of Walande, Malaita Province, Solomon Islands. © 2025 Cyril Eberle for Human Rights Watch
https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/03/17/solomon-islands-rising-seas-force-relocation