17 April 2023, Port Vila, Vanuatu – Vanuatu is currently testing a ground-breaking application that looks to provide a solution to data collection challenges faced by Pacific Island countries, particularly on species and how they interact with climate and act as traditional knowledge indicators for climate.
The Pacific Island nation is comprised of 80 islands stretched out over 1,300 kilometres across the central Pacific ocean. Travel to some of the outer islands to collect data is a challenge, and because the country’s current observation and monitoring systems is in paper form, postage costs and return time delays are also pressing issues.
The Vanuatu Klaemet Infomesen blong Redy, Adapt mo Protekt (VanKIRAP) Project in partnership with Earthwatch Australia, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and the Climate and Oceans Support Programme in the Pacific (COSPPac) have developed a mobile application as a potential solution to these challenges.