Academic literature on the topic 'Agriculture Vanuatu Malo Island'

Tamambo is an Oceanic language spoken on the western half of the island of Malo in northern Vanuatu. There are at least 3000 speakers of the language, most of them living on Malo, with several hundred residing on the neighboring island of Santo and in the country's capital, Port Vila. Many speakers are also fluent in Bislama (an English-lexifier creole spoken in Vanuatu), one of three official languages. A dialect of Tamambo spoken on the eastern half of the island is now almost extinct, the main phonetic differences from the western dialect being the lack of prenasalized stops and labialized consonants, and the short articulation of vowels. Previous phonetic work on Tamambo is limited to a descriptive grammar of the language (Jauncey 1997).

AbstractClimate change, malnutrition, and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are three of the most significant health challenges of this century, and they share fundamental underlying drivers. Pacific Island countries (PICs) are at the forefront of the impacts of climate change, which is likely to affect food and nutrition security (FNS) directly and indirectly, and many countries have existing high NCD burdens. This paper surveys the climate change adaptation (CCA) landscape in one PIC, Vanuatu. It explores the extent to which FNS and diet-related NCDs are considered and addressed within CCA initiatives. A comprehensive review of the literature related to CCA, FNS, and NCDs in Vanuatu was combined with 32 semistructured interviews with key experts and stakeholders. This study found that some promising groundwork has been laid for tackling the effects of climate change on FNS in policy and governance, agriculture, coastal management, and nutrition. However, several opportunities for strengthening CCA were identified: targeting urban populations; complementary integration of disaster risk reduction and CCA; incorporating local knowledge; applying a systems-based framing of NCDs as climate-sensitive health risks; and emphasizing human-centered, community-led CCA. Vanuatu will continue to be affected by accelerating climate change. A strong foundation for CCA presents clear opportunities for further development. As food and nutrition insecurity and diet-related NCD risk factors are increasingly exacerbated by climate change, alongside other socioeconomic drivers, it is crucial to find new and innovative ways to increase transformational resilience and adaptive capacity that also improve nutrition and health outcomes.

The Pacific Islands are vulnerable to climate change and increased risk of disasters not only because of their isolated and often low lying geographical setting but because of their economic status which renders them reliant on donor support. In a qualitative study exploring the adaptive capacity of Pacific Island Countries (PICs) across four countries, Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, and Vanuatu, it was clear that traditional coping strategies are consistently being applied as part of response to disasters and climate changes. This paper describes five common strategies employed in PICs as understood through this research: recognition of traditional methods; faith and religious beliefs; traditional governance and leadership; family and community involvement; and agriculture and food security. While this study does not trial the efficacy of these methods, it provides an indication of what methods are being used and therefore a starting point for further research into which of these traditional strategies are beneficial. These findings also provide important impetus for Pacific Island governments to recognise traditional approaches in their disaster preparedness and response processes.

International visitor surveys (IVS) are traditionally designed to provide destinations with marketing data and intelligence. The New Zealand Tourism Research Institute has been developing new approaches to IVS implementation and data collection in the Pacific Islands that can provide a much richer source of information [1]. The research outlined here is the first to utilise an IVS to explore the positioning of cuisine in the culinary identity of a destination – specifically, the cuisine of the Cook Islands. The Cook Islands is known primarily for its sun, sea and sand features, rather than its culinary attributes. Drawing on data mining of the Cook Islands IVS (2012–2016) and a web audit of destination websites and menus, this paper considers the positioning of food and food-related activities within the Pacific nation’s tourism experience. National tourism organisations are increasingly seeking competitive advantage by utilising their local cuisines as tourist attractions. Research suggests that distinctive local cuisines can act as both a tourism attraction, and as a means of shaping the identity of a destination [2, 3]. In addition to providing an important source of marketable images, local cuisine can also provide a unique experience for tourists. This reinforces the competitiveness and sustainability of the destination [2]. The cuisine of the Cook Islands has come up repeatedly in recommendations for how the country can grow its tourism revenue. Recommendations have been made to improve the food product on offer, develop a distinctive Cook Islands cuisine based on fresh, local produce, and to promote a Cook Islands cuisine experience [4, 5], and to use these to market the Cook Islands as a destination for local food tourism experiences [4]. Despite these recommendations, Cook Island cuisine features less prominently than stereotypical sun, sea, and sand marketing images, and little is known about tourists’ perceptions of and satisfaction with food and food-related activities [6]. Our research addresses this gap by mining IVS data to gain a deeper understanding of tourists’ experiences and perceptions of food in the Cook Islands and assessing whether local food can be positioned as means of creating a unique destination identity. Two methods were used to develop a picture of where food sits in the Cook Islands tourist experience: one focussed on tourist feedback; and the other focused on how food is portrayed in relevant online media. Analysis of all food-related data collected as part of the national IVS between 1 April 2012 and 30 June 2016 was conducted (N = 10,950). A web audit also focused on how food is positioned as part of the Cook Islands tourism product. After identifying the quantitative food-related questions in the IVS, satisfaction with these activities was analysed. Qualitative comments related to food experiences were also examined. The results suggest that participation in food-related activities is generally a positive feature of the visitor experience. The web-audit revealed, however, that food is not a salient feature in the majority of Cook Islands-related websites, and when food did feature, it tended to be oriented towards international cuisine with a ‘touch of the Pacific’ rather than specifically Cook Islands cuisine. This reinforced findings from the IVS data mining that Cook Islands food is presented as a generic tropical ‘seafood and fruit’ cuisine that, largely, lacks the defining and differentiating features of authentic Cook Island cuisine. High participation rates in food-related activities and overall positive evaluations by visitors emerged from the IVS data, yet a dearth of images and information on the country’s food suggests that the Cook Islands is not exploiting its cuisine and food experiences to their full potential. As a direct result of this secondary analysis of IVS data, which highlighted the importance of and potential for food-related activities, the Cook Islands Government is now actively addressing this gap by developing a range of food-related resources and information that can better link tourism to local cuisine. In addition to developing a greater presence of local food in online resources, the Cook Islands Tourism Corporation has also taken on board the messages from the IVS to drive the development of Takurua [7] – an initiative to develop and document local, traditional cuisine and share it with the world. This approach is part of a broader ongoing effort to differentiate the Cook Islands from other South Pacific destinations through its unique cultural attributes. Data mining and secondary analysis of IVS data has not been restricted to the identification of food-related opportunities. Secondary analysis of IVS data in the Pacific has also been used to investigate the impact of other niche markets such as events [8] and to gauge the impact of environmental incidents, for example Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu [9] and algal bloom in the Cook Islands [10], thus reinforcing that IVS data are a rich source of information and are indeed more than just numbers. Corresponding author Tracy Berno can be contacted at tracy.berno@aut.ac.nz References (1) New Zealand Tourism Research Institute (NZTRI). Cook Islands Resources and Outputs; NZTRI: Auckland. http://www.nztri.org.nz/cook-islands-resources (accessed Jun 10, 2019). (2) Lin, Y.; Pearson, T.; Cai, L. Food as a Form of Destination Identity: A Tourism Destination Brand Perspective. Tourism and Hospitality Research 2011, 11, 30–48. https://doi.org/10.1057/thr.2010.22 (3) Okumus, F.; Kock, G.; Scantlebury, M. M.; Okumus, B. Using Local Cuisines when Promoting Small Caribbean Island Destinations. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing 2013, 30 (4), 410–429. (4) Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Linking Farmers to Markets: Realizing Opportunities for Locally Produced Food on Domestic and Tourist Markets in Cook Islands. FAO Sub-regional Office of the Pacific Islands: Apia, Samoa, 2014. (5) United Nations. “Navigating Stormy Seas through Changing winds”: Developing an Economy whilst Preserving a National Identity and the Modern Challenges of a Small Island Developing State. The Cook Islands National Report for the 2014 Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) Conference and post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1074217Cook%20Is%20_%20Final%20NATIONAL%20SIDS%20Report.pdf (accessed Jun 10, 2019). (6) Boyera, S. Tourism-led Agribusiness in the South Pacific Countries; Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA): Brussels, 2016. (7) Cook Islands Tourism Corporation (CITC). Takurua: Food and Feasts of the Cook Islands; CITC: Avarua, Cook Islands, 2018. (8) Thorburn, E.; Milne, S.; Histen, S.; Sun, M.; Jonkers, I. Do Events Attract Higher Yield, Culturally Immersive Visitors to the Cook Islands? In CAUTHE 2016: The Changing Landscape of Tourism and Hospitality: The Impact of Emerging Markets and Emerging Destinations; Scerri, M., Ker Hui, L., Eds.; Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School: Sydney, 2016; pp 1065–1073. (9) Sun, M.; Milne, S. The Impact of Cyclones on Tourist Demand: Pam and Vanuatu. In CAUTHE 2017: Time for Big Ideas? Re-thinking the Field for Tomorrow; Lee, C., Filep, S., Albrecht, J. N., Coetzee, W. JL, Eds.; Department of Tourism, University of Otago: Dunedin, 2017; pp 731–734. (10) Thorburn, E.; Krause, C.; Milne, S. The Impacts of Algal Blooms on Visitor Experience: Muri Lagoon, Cook Islands. In CAUTHE 2017: Time for Big Ideas? Re-thinking the Field For Tomorrow; Lee, C., Filep, S., Albrecht, J. N., Coetzee, W. JL, Eds., Department of Tourism, University of Otago: Dunedin, 2017; pp 582–587.