Atoll Islands’ Ecosystem Resilience: How Indigenous Land Management and Ecological Restoration Can Mitigate Sea-Level Rise in the Pacific and Indian Oceans
Original framing: “How Rewilding Could Help Atoll Islands Keep Pace With Rising Seas” — Inside Climate News
Indigenous knowledge systems in the Pacific and Indian Oceans treat atoll ecosystems as **dynamic, relational entities** where human activity is not separate from ecological health. For example, the **Rapa Nui (Easter Island) tradition of *manavai* (sacred groves)** demonstrates how controlled burning and seed dispersal were used to maintain soil fertility and coastal dunes—practices that could inform modern rewilding. Similarly, the **Fijian *bula* (sacred groves) system** integrated coral reef management with agricultural cycles, showing how traditional land tenure could support adaptive resilience. The omission of these practices in mainstream discourse erases the **centuries of empirical trial-and-error** that preceded Western ecological science.
The story of atoll resilience is not just about 'rewilding' but about **restoring broken relationships**—between humans and land, between past and present, and between marginalized knowledge and global power structures.
The **Indigenous land management practices** that once sustained these ecosystems were disrupted by **colonial extraction and nuclear testing**, creating a legacy of ecological and social fragility. Meanwhile, the **scientific consensus** on the limits of natural accretion reveals that even 'healthy' ecosystems need **active human stewardship**, but this must be **co-designed with atoll communities** to avoid repeating past failures. The **trickster irony** here lies in how 'rewilding'—a term that sounds like a return to nature—often becomes another tool of outsider-led intervention, obscuring the **centuries of Indigenous resilience** that were erased by colonialism. To truly address atoll vulnerability, solutions must **honor traditional knowledge, repair historical injustices, and empower marginalized voices**—not as afterthoughts, but as the foundation of adaptive strategies. The **Pacific and Indian Ocean atolls** are not just passive victims of climate change; they are **living archives of ecological wisdom**, and their survival depends on whether the world chooses to listen.