Introduction by Croakey: Pacific Island and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community leaders are calling “for an ambitious, fair and inclusive approach to COP31” and for their voices to be centred in discussions about the climate negotiations and action agenda.
At Oceania’s First Voices workshop this week on Ngunnawal Country, Indigenous and community leaders met to discuss shared priorities to take to COP31 in Türkiye in November.
In this month’s edition of the Pacific Islands focus column, Isabelle Zhu-Maguire – PhD candidate and Croakey Health Media Member – reports on a critical medicine shortage in Samoa, ongoing impacts from April’s Super Typhoon Sinlaku, and a new Trump executive order on commercial fishing.
Isabelle Zhu-Maguire writes:
The Nauruan Government has recently passed a law to prohibit the importation, distribution or sale of all types of tobacco products, cigars, e-cigarettes and other harmful smokeless tobacco products every year on 31 May, World No Tobacco Day. This will be known as “Wõra ibûmin eatow Tobacco” (“Our Day to Let Go of Tobacco”).
It is estimated 35.3 percent of Nauruan adults are tobacco users. Nauru used to have the highest smoking prevalence of the Pacific Islands but was surpassed by Papua New Guinea around 2015.
Samoa’s national hospital is rationing critical medicine, including metformin and children’s paracetamol, due to a low supply. In June, the Health Ministry received an urgent air freight shipment from Fiji-based Pacific Specialist Healthcare; however, this only covered about half of what was needed, according to RNZ Pacific.
The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ recently celebrated completing 100,000 sight-restoring surgeries across the Pacific in its 20 years of operation. In 2025 alone, 114 outreach clinics delivered more than 64,000 consultations and close to 5,000 surgeries in areas where access to specialist eye care is often limited.
Violence against women
The rate of violence against women perpetuated by husbands and partners has substantially fallen in Vanuatu in the last 15 years, quicker than the global average and any other Asia-Pacific country, according to a study by the Vanuatu Women’s Centre and Vanuatu Bureau of Statistics.
The prevalence of physical or sexual violence against women by husbands and partners has fallen by nine percentage points over the last 15 years — from 44 percent of ever-partnered women aged 15-49 in 2009 to 35 percent in 2024.
Tatavola Matas, coordinator of the Vanuatu Women’s Centre in Port Vila, Sharon Frank, Project Manager of the Centre, and Juliet Hunt, independent gender equality consultant, said this is due to key strategies including a survivor-centred approach, community mobilisation and group education with women and men to change harmful social norms, and national legal advocacy to improve accountability.
The prevalence of coercive control remains high – 59 percent of women experience this abuse from husbands or partners.
Only 10 percent of women who experienced partner violence said that they had been to a health sector agency for help; comparing the data from 2009 and 2024 shows that this has reduced substantially. Without consistent health sector data over time, the report says it is difficult to validate this data or interpret the reasons for this decline in help-seeking behaviour.
The report concludes that while Vanuatu has made some progress towards the goal of eliminating violence against women and girls, the journey is far from over.
“The violence that women and girls face is not inevitable; it is a learned behaviour reinforced by social norms that can be changed,” it says.
“This survey provides the evidence needed to refine our strategies. We call upon the Government, donor partners, community leaders, and civil society to use these findings to redouble or collective efforts to ensure that the next generation of women and girls in Vanuatu can live free from fear, violence and excessive and damaging control.”
Menopause
In the Cook Islands, Aitutaki-based midwife and public health nurse Kura Samuel-Ioane has warned that common misunderstandings of menopause are causing marriage breakdowns. Samuel-Ioane told RNZ Pacific that she has personally treated women experiencing menopause as young as 30 years old.
She told RNZ Pacific, “because menopause is treated with immense secrecy in the villages, this lack of grassroots education directly impacts local households”.
“Uneducated husbands frequently misinterpret natural hormonal drops and the subsequent loss of physical interactions as intentional rejection, creating marital strain,” she added.
Samuel-Ioane said that greater access to menopausal hormone therapy and more local awareness training will help ease these tensions.
Typhoons, droughts and COP31
Impacts from Super Typhoon Sinlaku in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in April continue to be felt.
Charles Aiseam, Director of the CNMI Division of Agriculture, told RNZ that up to 60 percent of the livestock on CNMI’s largest island Saipan has been wiped out.
The first international flights since the super typhoon have returned to Saipan in June. This has marked two months without international commercial flights. South Korean carrier Jeju Air was the first to land in Francisco C Ada-Saipan International Airport, following approval by the Marianas Visitors Authority (MVA) of US$1.5 million sole-source agreement to support direct air service between South Korea and Saipan.
The United States Government has approved an $8 million disaster package for the Federated States of Micronesia after Super Typhoon Sinlaku. This package will be provided by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and coordinated by the US.
In June, the CNMI received another warning of heavy rain, gusty winds, and rough seas, however this did not eventuate into another typhoon.
In Papua New Guinea, communities are bracing for El Niño and a potential food security crisis. An El Niño phase typically creates more than usual rainfall in the central Pacific Islands region, but less rainfall – and more drought – in the western Pacific including PNG. Organisations like UNICEF have long had programs in PNG to improve nutrition and halt a reliance on imported foods.
Mid-year UN climate negotiations occurred in June in Bonn, Germany. Pacific island advocates told RNZ Pacific that there has been increased climate skepticism. Sindra Sharma, from the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, said that science must remain at the heart of climate negotiations as we move towards COP31.
Vishal Prasad, Director of Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC), published an op-ed this month called ‘The Pacific needs more than words from Australia’ which is worth a read.
Communication and technology
In Guam, internet networks are under constant threat from hackers and ‘adversaries’. According to the ABC, the strategic and military importance of the island nation makes it one of the most attractive places on earth for hackers and foreign governments to target.
Almost $2 million has been stolen from “government coffers” this year so far, and it faces ongoing threats of a much darker nature.
Papua New Guinea’s telecommunications regulator is in the process of blocking more than 1,000 websites containing pornography and other explicit material. This was in response to a government order three years ago to block harmful websites. In June, the regulator was given a 30-day directive to implement the ban.
Also in PNG, data bundles from large internet provider Digicel were unstable and unpredictable throughout 2025. The authors of this DevPolicy Blog post track the prices of several internet providers in PNG.
Space debris has been confirmed as the source of an object seen over Saipan, CNMI. Residents across Saipan reported seeing a bright object streak across the sky before fragmenting in the atmosphere, with videos of the event widely shared on social media.
At sea
In June, US president Donald Trump signed an executive order that would allow commercial fishing in parts of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument.
The order applies to the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument around Hawai’i, the Islands Unit of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, and the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument around American Samoa. This encompasses over a million square kilometers of protected Pacific waters for commercial fishing.
Conservation organisation Friends of the Mariana Trench said in a statement this order threatens Pacific communities, cultural heritage, and local stewardship of the ocean. The group said waters that were set aside to honour traditional fishing practices were now being “sacrificed for industrial gain”.
American Samoan Republican congresswoman Uifa’atali Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, has backed the decision to open up commercial fishing in these waters but has reservations and opposes fishing in the Rose Atoll.
Amata said that the proclamation by Trump “is incredible, positive news for our fishing and economy overall” but added: “I want to be clear that elsewhere throughout US waters, I support the change and thank the President – but Rose Atoll has special significance.”
In PNG, outrage has been sparked after footage was shared of a Filipino tuna fishing company catching dolphins illegally in Manus Province.
Also in PNG waters, Australian scientists have typologised a new shark species that walks on its fins. The fish is a type of epaulette shark, a group of small sharks native to New Guinea and Australia, famous for their ability to waddle between rock pools at low tide.
Locals have long been aware of the fish, which they have nicknamed Kadedekedewa, which means a “lazy shark” or “dog shark”.
Finally, after a week lost at sea, a Cook Islands fisherman was found alive. He was rescued by a Taiwanese fishing vessel in Samoan waters after being spotted by the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
Apiuta Apiuta, also known as Pone, told of his harrowing experience, being knocked out of his dinghy twice during relentless storms and violent seas. He has reunited with his family.
Further reading
Read this collection of additional reading on regional Pacific politics, economic news and sport.
About the author
Isabelle Zhu-Maguire is a PhD candidate at the Coral Bell School of Asia and Pacific Affairs, Department of International Relations within the Australian National University. Her thesis investigates the ways in which Australia listens and responds to the climate advocacy of Pacific Island Nations.
She has conducted extensive research into the experiences of women in Afghanistan and their perspectives and realities living through conflict, oppression, and climate change.
Isabelle has also been advocate for greater youth inclusion within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. She was elected a member of Croakey Health Media in December 2025.
Croakey thanks and acknowledges Isabelle Zhu-Maguire for providing this column as a probono service to our readers.
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