‘We want action’: Fijian climate activist sends message ahead of UN talks in Pacific

Lavenia Naivalu hopes to draw attention to Indigenous and Pacific perspectives when Fiji hosts leaders ahead of this year’s climate talks. Photograph: Fiji Government

From her wooden veranda in Fiji’s remote Yasawa islands, climate activist Lavenia Naivalu remembers when the reefs were once so healthy, her grandfather would walk to the shoreline and return with fish. But life there has changed.

“The reefs that the older generation of men spearfished in, no longer provide what they once did,” the 44-year-old says. “Young people … now must travel further out to sea to find fish for their families.”