After more than 30 years of farming on her Takuvaine plantation, Jean Tekura Mason says climate change has disrupted everything she understood about farming.

“I’ve been a planter, gardener for over 30 years basically and what I’ve noticed over that time is, especially when it comes to food crops, they’re ripening at the wrong time, at different times,” she told Cook Islands News.

“It’s either they ripen at all or they take a long time to mature. I noticed with my bananas the last four years, they’ve gone haywire and it either could be the extended cold periods or bananas don’t do very well anymore like they used to.”

The Cook Islands’ topography and remoteness make it highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, according to the latest Pacific Economic Monitor – August 2024: Building Resilience the Pacific Way report.

According to the report, under Building Climate and Disaster Resilience in the South Pacific, the lead authors Lily-Anne Homasi, Ana Isabel Jimenez, Cara Tinio, and Jennifer Umlas state that the country’s topography and remoteness make it highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

The report also showed that the impact of disaster events on gross domestic product (GDP) could be staggeringly high, offsetting development gains.

Meanwhile, Mason said changes in temperature and rainfall patterns have made it harder to predict harvesting seasons.

“And I’ve noticed even our breadfruits’ confused. We could pick it twice a year before and now it comes three times a year or sometimes four which is great,” Mason said. 

“I remember like 10 or 15 years ago, it was the last time I had a breadfruit tree that was loaded and everyone in the neighbourhood had a lot of breadfruit trees so there’s no doubt in my mind either the climate has changed.”

Her experience with more intense droughts and shorter, hotter dry seasons has affected her ability to plan.

“In February, I find it hard to live in Rarotonga so I went to New Zealand for a holiday because it’s just too hot,” she said.

“Also long periods of drought and I was told that in two decades we’re going to have a lot of moisture in the Southern Cooks and for me, an intense rainfall for weeks can make up for six months (drought). It’s definitely changing in that regard and I noticed that from fruiting, from the result of my crops, from the inconsistencies.”

The recent drought crisis faced by the Cook Islands was evident in Rarotonga's growing water crisis as a result of intermittent showers for nearly a month, last year in August.

Some residents, especially those living in higher areas, are facing reduced pressure or no water in their taps.

Rarotonga’s water authority, To Tatou Vai (TTV) at the time was severely impacted by the lack of consistent rainfall, resulting in some residents struggling to access reliable running water in their homes or experiencing no running water at all daily.

Mason, who learned the importance of trees and climate as a child, was dismayed when she saw large-scale tree removals during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“They have a climate change office now but sometimes I wonder if the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. During the Covid, we lost so many trees on Rarotonga,” she said.

“When I was five years old in Primary school, we were taught trees helped the climate, contributed to rainfall and all that stuff and so here’s our government going around the island cutting down trees during lockdown period because the Ministry of Works guys employees needed jobs so the government made them cut down trees.”

“Before, it was never a problem when the trees near the road were lifting the tar seal wrecking the roads and it removed so many trees around the island and it was a shocker.”

Last month, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration Tingika Elikana at the recent 81st Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok, Thailand, stated that “Cook Islands Marae Moana initiative protects 1.9 million square kilometres of ocean, balancing conservation with sustainable marine resource use.”

Climate change poses our greatest threat. Rising sea levels, intensifying cyclones, and coral bleaching endanger our islands and livelihoods.

He said coastal protection projects, such as mangrove restoration and seawall construction, safeguard our communities from erosion and storm surges.

“We are also enhancing disaster risk management with early warning systems and community-based training, integrating traditional knowledge with modern technology to build resilience. These efforts, however, require robust partnerships,” he added.

Meanwhile, the topic of Loss and Damage came about when Pacific media representatives gathered in Samoa last month for the first regional media training on climate change Loss and Damage, hosted at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) headquarters in Apia.

SPREP Director General, Sefanaia Nawadra, encouraged the media to approach their coverage with cultural and regional sensitivity.

“We have a system of how we do things as Pacific delegations because we are so small we don’t have enough to cover everything. So we work together. Even up to the leaders level, where they appoint amongst themselves champions to champion specific issues,” he said.

“When you come to cover these events sometimes you might need to put your journalistic things aside for a while and remember that you are there as part of the Pacific community. Again thank you very much to the government of New Zealand for their financial support. And for your own organisations for giving you time to come in the front.”

Jonathan Lee, Second Secretary for the New Zealand High Commission in Samoa, highlighted New Zealand’s commitments.

“New Zealand is proud to support Pacific countries to respond to climate change and climate-induced loss and damage,” said Lee.

“At COP 27, New Zealand pledged $20 million to support activities to respond to loss and damage in the Pacific. Additionally, at COP 29 last year, New Zealand pledged $10 million to the newly established climate response to loss and damage.”

“Other parts of New Zealand’s broader climate finance programming also support loss and damage efforts in Samoa, Kiribati, Laos, Fiji, and regionally, through the Pacific Climate Change Centre and these specific climate change pledges.”

He added, “In fact, we know that the media plays a good role in addressing climate change, loss, and damage as front-line witnesses to the impacts of rising sea levels, extreme weather, and ecosystem disruption.”

“Pacific journalists are uniquely positioned to document and communicate these realities with cultural sensitivity and urgency. The media serves as a bridge between scientific evidence, lived experience, and policy action, making it an indispensable tool in the global response to climate-induced loss and damage.”

SPREP’s Director of Climate Change Resilience, Tagaloa Cooper, reminded journalists that behind every policy and pledge is real human suffering.

“As Jonathan was speaking, I remember the former climate change ambassador from New Zealand. I was thrown in the deep end to speak in the Pacific, and she stood up to support me. She said, you know, loss hurts? Loss hurts? No matter what kind of loss it is, it hurts,” Cooper said.

“And I was sitting there thinking, well, actually, loss and damage changes you. It changes all of us. It changes the way we have to live, the way for some of us how we outlook our life.”

She added: “There’s nothing to compensate for loss and damage… But why do the Pacific countries go to the COP meetings? Like I said, it’s there. It is the Pacific’s opportunity to be toe-to-toe and to be the moral compass in the world.”

“And so it’s something that we have to continue doing, and I think it is our responsibility. The role that you play is critical.”

Cook Islands News senior journalist Talaia Mika was one of the Pacific media representatives that was in Samoa last month for the first regional media training on climate change Loss and Damage, hosted at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) headquarters in Apia.