The implications of climate change on the iconic Torres Strait Island ecosystems could see whole islands inundated by rising water levels, the Torres Strait Regional Authority has warned.
The Torres Strait Regional Authority’s Chair, Toshie Kris, said, “Approximately 27% of our island communities are affected by climate change and the rising sea level right now, in 2009. For us, this is not a phenomenon that we have the luxury of reading about; unfortunately for some of us, it will become an even more real part of our daily lives each year.”
The threat of expected and potential climate change impacts, including small increases in sea levels, changing rainfall patterns, hotter weather and spread of diseases, have sparked the establishment of the Torres Strait Coastal Management Committee, who work towards long-term sustainable solutions to these issues.
Toshie Kris, said “The Committee leads a coordinated approach to coastal management and climate change and has been working on identifying long-term sustainable solutions to coastal issues and ways to secure funding to implement these solutions. However, funds to protect threatened infrastructure have been limited and hard to secure.
“To date, the Torres Strait Regional Authority, in partnership with the Australian Government, is undertaking a number of activities that will allow us to make informed decisions in the near future on how our region can adapt to sea level rise and climate change.
“Some of these include research to raise the level of awareness about short-term erosion and long-term inundation, extensive land use planning and finding ways to use scientific and traditional knowledge to deal with environmental change.”
Toshie said that Torres Strait communities, with governments, would need to find ways to make the most of limited resources to prepare for the realities of climate change, now and into the future.
“Addressing climate change in the Torres Strait will not only test us as a people, it will test Australia as a nation and how well we can all learn to adapt and ultimately thrive in an environment and a world that will hold us more accountable for what we do,” he said.
