A community resilience mapping system designed by the Diocese of Polynesia and operated by young Anglicans in Tonga (known as CIVA or QGIS) is being featured in a UN report as a case study of Pacific communities' successful responses to climate risks such as sea level rise and extreme weather events.

The Tonga case study sets out how the Anglican Church's CIVA/QGIS project maps each household in a community to ensure all are resilient to climate disasters. It also mobilises church youth to support people at risk in a disaster scenario. It is now featured in a key report from the UN Special Rapporteur on the 'Human right to a healthy environment'. 

The Anglican case studies join the many governmental, Indigenous Peoples' and NGO submissions that will make up the special report on "Human Rights and Ocean Health" to the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this year. 

Elisiva (Siva) Sunia, a CIVA/QGIS practitioner from Tonga, prepared the Tongan QGIS portion of the  Anglican Communion's submission (with help from Fe'iloakitau Kaho Tevi, Advisor to the Bishop of Polynesia) as part of her follow-up from her work in Colombia last October, where she was an Anglican Communion delegate to the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16).

Siva reports that positive aspects of this Church's contribution at COP16 were:

– Playing our part within the unified Pacific regional approach,"One Pacific –One people, One Ocean"
– Highlighting the value of traditional ecological knowledge in biodiversity conservation, and
– Advocating the role of Indigenous peoples and local communities in finding nature-based solutions in fisheries, forestry and tourism 

While Indigenous and local communities have knowledge and commitment to building resilience, Siva says the COP16 outcome was disappointing in terms of financing to support their biodiversity efforts. 

"These issues underscored the urgency of securing sustainable solutions tailored to Pacific realities, ensuring that our communities remain resilient in the face of growing environmental threats." she said. 

Overall, Siva reports that the Anglican Communion delegation ensured one key message came through clearly from our region,

"Pacific churches play a crucial role in climate resilience – leveraging their strong community presence to promote awareness, disaster response and policy advocacy."

"By innovating strategies such as sustainable farming and renewable energy adoption, and empowering youth and grassroots movements, churches can strengthen our communities' climate resilience efforts."

The Anglican Communion submission also includes a case study from an Anglican Church of Melanesia project, which mobilises scores of church volunteers in Malaita (in the Solomon Islands) to monitor ocean level changes that can affect community housing and food sources. 

The two Anglican Communion case studies are part of a wider submission jointly produced by the Anglican Communion, Franciscans International and the Philippines'-based Centre for Energy, Ecology and Development (CEED).

Fe'iloakitau Kaho Tevi says these contributions to the UN's climate work demonstrate the Anglican Communion's serious concern about climate change and its actions to support local initiatives. He says the case studies' emphasis on solutions is a crucial part of the Diocese of Polynesia's mission to build safe and resilient churches. 

"For our Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia it demonstrates a shift from our climate change work that looked at our Pacific communities' vulnerability, to a focus on building our communities' resilience. That shift is undergirded by Archbishop Sione Ului'lakepa's 2024 General Synod charge calling on our whole Church to move "From Lamentation to Hope".

The full report from the Anglican Communion, Franciscans International and the Centre for Energy, Ecology and Development is downloadable here during 2025.