Investing in resilience or in consumer model?

“People in the West mostly have a picture of the idyllic life on our Micronesian Islands. They think of palm trees, white beaches, an abundance of fruits and happy people.” Clarence Luther, the impressive Mayor of Namdrik Atoll, Marshall Islands smiles and continues: “That may have been so in the faraway past. When I was a boy over 50 years ago, we indeed ate our own fish and grew our own food. We couldn’t rely on the supply ship which only came twice year.

Today we are part of modern life with tinned food, bottled drinks, fridges. You name it, we go it. But now if the supply ship doesn’t come for three weeks we are worried – what will we do, what will we eat? This question was bothering me more and more. Especially when I learned about climate change and sea levels rising. So I started helping my community to develop one by one initiatives with support from government and partners. We reintroduced traditional crops such as breadfruit, taro and native pandanus. It protects and restores the soil. We started value-added secondary food processing industries. A pearl farm to provide jobs and fund community development projects in education and health. We introduced rainwater harvesting and solar technology.

In doing so I realized that if we don’t do what we are doing, it takes our power away and we don’t know what to expect. We can do something to make our lives better for now and for the future. If we don’t take action, we are not going to survive for long. This way we have a lot of lessons to show other parts of Micronesia and Melanesia. For example, we demonstrate that you don’t have to follow the consumer model. I know that we all follow this model to some extent, but we show that you don’t have to follow it all the way.

Now we are taking care of our natural resources and our mangroves. We do not have to be scared anymore if the supply ship does not arrive in time. We can stand on our own feet: this is what they call resilience!”

Namdrik Atoll Local Resources Committee is a 2012 Equator Prize winner. We retell the story from the perspective of the mayor.  The case is described in United Nations Development Programme. 2013. Namdrik Atoll Local Resources Committee, The Marshall Islands. Equator Initiative Case Study Series. New York, NY.