Visions from a vanishing atoll

Ontong Java islands combine to make up merely 12 square kilometers (4.6 square miles) of land that rests no more than 3 meters (10 feet) above sea level. Surrounded by the vast depths of the western Pacific Ocean, Ontong Javans have always lived at the mercy of the wind and waves - but changing climate and rising seas is making this increasingly difficult.

Polynesian peoples settled the islands about 2,000 years ago. Centuries-old dance routines, which include tales of powerful natural forces, form an integral part of the unique culture and identity of the local population.

Traditionally, housing is built from coconut and pandanas trees. Today, these huts are illuminated with the modern luxury of lighting generated from solar power. The vast darkness of a nearly uncontaminated night sky is one advantage of complete isolation.

If sea levels continue to rise at current rates, the islands will eventually be wiped off the face of the Earth. The children of Ontong Java, including 8-year-old Wilson Ayunga (pictured above), may have no other option than to relocate to higher lands elsewhere.

The pristine beauty of Luaniua - one of the two permanently occupied islands in Ontong Java - becomes more obvious from above. But beneath the idyllic palm trees, a committed government is lacking. Administratively, Ontong Java is part of the Solomon Islands. Yet failure to provide healthcare, policing or consistent education is generating social problems as modernity reaches the islands.

The consequences of climate change have already become obvious to the people of Ontong Java. The island of Henua Aiku has started to split in two as seawater infiltrates through its center - setting signs of a bleak future with relation to food security and erosion.

Beyond losses caused by rising sea levels, increasingly intense and unpredictable storms and winds - due to climate change - are also taking their toll on coastlines and villages around the atoll.

Patron Laliana's experimental taro garden has not lived up to expectations due to salination of soil, which already lacks crucial nutrients for highly productive agriculture.

Sarah Abora has spent her entire life on Ontong Java. She remembers a time when there was nothing but bush where her village stands today. She also remembers when people lived beyond today's end of the island. The village has retreated, as this point has been swept away by rising tides and currents.

Where there is now a fragile finger of white sand, once was a beautiful and thriving village. Rising seas consumed about 40 homes, and a cemetery.

Without their land, Ontong Javans cannot see how they could continue their culture. To give up their islands, they believe, is to give up their identity. The culture of Ontong Java faces a dire future as the effects of climate change threaten to displace people there.

While the likelihood of relocating the population from Ontong Java becomes ever more likely with the passage of time, people there remain hopeful that they will be able to remain on their traditional lands - which have sustained them and their culture for as long as 2,000 years.