Women and elders from four Fijian communities — villages that have moved, are moving, or have decided not to move — will take their experiences of climate-related planned relocation into the Pre-COP31 programme in Nadi next week, at a side event convened by the German Embassy in Fiji. The session, titled “Amplifying Voices of Relocation”, is set for Monday, 5 October at the Sofitel in Nadi, according to FBC News and the Fiji Sun.
The 45-minute slot sits inside the Pre-COP31 Stakeholder Engagement Programme and is built around the screening of a documentary drawn from a process both outlets call the Community Climate Talks, followed by a discussion with the women and elders whose testimony shaped it.
Key facts
- The event: “Amplifying Voices of Relocation”, a 45-minute side event within the Pre-COP31 Stakeholder Engagement Programme, FBC News reports.
- When: Monday, 5 October, 4.30pm to 5.15pm, per FBC News.
- Where: the Sofitel in Nadi. FBC News gives the venue as the Sofitel Fiji Resort; the Fiji Sun places it at the Sofitel in Denarau, Nadi. The two descriptions point to the same property — the Sofitel Fiji Resort sits on Denarau Island, the resort island connected by road to Nadi — so this is a difference of naming, not of location.
- Who is speaking: women and elders from Nabavatu, Narikoso, Vunidavo and Nayavuira.
- The format: a documentary screening drawn from the Community Climate Talks, followed by discussion.
- The convener: the German Embassy in Fiji, delivering the session with GIZ Pacific’s Global Programme on Human Mobility in the Context of Climate Change (HMCCC), SauVaka Culture Consultancy and Tabualuma Media Production.
What Pre-COP31 is, and why it is meeting in Fiji
Neither Fijian report defines the term, so, as background: a COP is the annual Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the meeting at which close to 200 governments negotiate climate rules, targets and finance. A Pre-COP is the preparatory gathering held weeks before, where ministers and heads of delegation try to narrow the gaps before formal negotiations open. It takes no binding decisions of its own. Its stakeholder programme is the part of the schedule where non-government voices — communities, NGOs, scientists, industry — are given time in front of those delegations.
That is the slot the four Fijian communities have been allocated. Holding the Pre-COP in Nadi places the preparatory meeting for COP31 in the region that has spent three decades arguing that sea-level rise is a present emergency rather than a future risk, and it means Pacific testimony is delivered on Pacific ground rather than flown to a conference centre on another continent. Under the arrangement agreed at COP30 in Belém in November 2025, Türkiye is to host COP31 in Antalya while Australia leads the negotiations in partnership with Pacific states. That last point is context we are adding: neither FBC News nor the Fiji Sun states where or when COP31 itself will be held.
Why it matters
Both outlets frame the session around a single argument: that relocation is not simply a matter of moving people and infrastructure. FBC News reports the four communities’ experiences show relocation also involves livelihoods, cultural identity, family wellbeing, spiritual connections, traditional knowledge and people’s sense of belonging. The Fiji Sun puts it in the communities’ own terms — what happens to their land, livelihoods, culture, families and sense of belonging — and says the Nadi session gives women and elders a chance to describe the difficult choices communities face.
That framing echoes the case Fijian community advocates have been making domestically, including calls that villages should be treated as climate implementers, not spectators in programmes designed on their behalf. A stakeholder slot at a Pre-COP is one of the few fixed points in the international calendar where that case is put directly to delegations rather than relayed through officials, ministries or funding agencies.
Four communities, four different stages
The communities in the documentary are not at the same point in the process, and both outlets report that the spread is the point of the selection.
Narikoso, Kadavu — partially relocated
Narikoso was partially relocated more than a decade ago, both outlets report, making it the longest-running case in the film and the one best placed to show what life looks like after a move is finished rather than while it is being planned. Kadavu has continued to feature in Fiji’s climate programming since: the province was named the first site of a UNDP climate pilot.
Nabavatu, Macuata — relocating now
Nabavatu is currently undergoing relocation, according to both outlets, making it the only community in the documentary living through the process at the time of the screening. Its inclusion means delegates hear from a village whose outcome is still open rather than one recounting a decision already settled.
Vunidavo, Namosi — moved in the early 1980s
Vunidavo relocated in the early 1980s through community efforts, both outlets report. That is the outlier in the set: the move predates Fiji’s climate-relocation guidelines, its relocation trust fund and international climate finance entirely, which suggests the film is reaching for community-led precedent alongside the recent cases.
Nayavuira, Ra — has chosen not to relocate
Nayavuira has chosen not to relocate, both outlets report. Its inclusion is the clearest signal in the published programme description that the session intends to present staying as a legitimate outcome rather than a failure to act — though the reports do not spell out the village’s reasoning.
What the organisers say
The Head of Delegation of the Federal Republic of Germany, Secretary of State Jochen Flasbarth, said planned relocation was ultimately about people, communities and the places they called home. “Germany’s engagement on climate mobility in Fiji is grounded in listening to those living these realities,” Flasbarth told the Fiji Sun, adding that bringing women’s experiences into the Pre-COP31 conversation was meant to create space for community perspectives to inform the wider discussion on climate mobility.
Anina Vontobel, a representative of GIZ Pacific — which runs the HMCCC programme and is delivering the event with the embassy — said women were not only experiencing the impacts of relocation but also carried knowledge, responsibilities and perspectives that were essential to understanding what successful and inclusive relocation meant, according to both outlets.
Neither report carries a comment from a representative of any of the four communities, from SauVaka Culture Consultancy or from Tabualuma Media Production, and neither describes what the two Fijian partners contributed beyond being named as delivery partners.
The national picture behind the four villages
The following is context we are adding, not reporting from either outlet. Fijian ministers have for several years cited more than 40 villages identified as needing to move because of coastal erosion, flooding and land instability, with several hundred more classed as vulnerable. Fiji has developed national planned-relocation guidelines, among the first of their kind anywhere, and a dedicated trust fund for community relocation, financed in part by a levy on tourism. Those instruments exist precisely because the questions the Nadi session raises — who decides, who pays, what happens to land rights, ancestral sites and burial grounds — have no standard answer.
Neither FBC News nor the Fiji Sun connects the four communities to that national machinery, and neither reports whether the documentary or the discussion engages with it.
What is not reported
Both accounts are short announcement pieces. Taken together, they leave the following open:
- The names of the women and elders who will speak, and who will moderate the session.
- Whether the documentary has a public title, a director credit or a running time, and whether it will be released online, screened in the four communities, or shown only in Nadi.
- For each village: population, the cost of the relocation, who funded it, the destination site, the timeline, and what triggered the move. For Nayavuira, the reasons for staying and the hazards it faces.
- The HMCCC programme’s budget, duration, staffing, wider Pacific portfolio and commissioning German ministry.
- Which ministry Flasbarth serves in, his role in the COP31 negotiations, the size of the German delegation, and whether he will attend the 5 October session in person.
- Whether any Fijian ministry, national relocation body or UN agency is formally attached to the session. FBC News attributes the convening role to the German Embassy alone.
- The rest of the Stakeholder Engagement Programme: the other sessions, the number of delegations expected, the programme’s overall dates, and whether the session is open beyond accredited stakeholders.
Our read
On the programme description alone, and as our own observation rather than a claim by either outlet: the session appears to be structured around testimony rather than the budgets, engineering and site assessments that usually dominate relocation discussions at climate meetings. Neither report describes any decision, funding commitment or policy document as an expected outcome.
How we reported this
This account is compiled from two Fijian outlets, FBC News and the Fiji Sun, both reporting the same announcement, plus clearly labelled background on the UN climate process and Fiji’s national relocation policy. Nothing in it comes from direct contact with the parties involved: as of publication we have not sought comment from the German Embassy in Fiji, GIZ Pacific, SauVaka Culture Consultancy, Tabualuma Media Production or representatives of Nabavatu, Narikoso, Vunidavo or Nayavuira, and we make no claim to have done so. We are putting the questions listed above to the organisers ahead of 5 October and will update this report with any answers. If you are involved in the session or in any of the four communities and can add detail — including the documentary’s title or release plans — we want to hear from you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Pre-COP31, and when is the Fijian relocation session in Nadi?
A COP is the annual Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, where governments negotiate climate rules and finance. A Pre-COP is the preparatory meeting held weeks earlier, where ministers and heads of delegation try to narrow disagreements before formal talks open; it takes no binding decisions itself. The session featuring the four Fijian communities, titled "Amplifying Voices of Relocation", runs for 45 minutes from 4.30pm to 5.15pm on Monday, 5 October, inside the Pre-COP31 Stakeholder Engagement Programme at the Sofitel in Nadi, according to FBC News and the Fiji Sun.
Which four Fijian villages are featured, and why those four?
Both FBC News and the Fiji Sun report that the communities were chosen because they sit at different points in the relocation process. Narikoso in Kadavu was partially relocated more than a decade ago; Nabavatu in Macuata is relocating now; Vunidavo in Namosi moved in the early 1980s through community efforts, before Fiji’s climate-relocation frameworks existed; and Nayavuira in Ra has chosen not to relocate. The line-up puts a completed move, an ongoing one, a community-led historical move and a decision to stay in front of the same audience. Neither report gives Nayavuira’s reasons for staying or says whether that decision is treated as final.
Who is convening the session, and who is speaking for the organisers?
The German Embassy in Fiji is the convener, delivering the session with GIZ Pacific’s Global Programme on Human Mobility in the Context of Climate Change (HMCCC), SauVaka Culture Consultancy and Tabualuma Media Production, both outlets report. GIZ is Germany’s federal development agency and works on behalf of the German government. The Fiji Sun quotes Secretary of State Jochen Flasbarth, Head of Delegation of the Federal Republic of Germany, saying planned relocation is ultimately about people, communities and the places they call home. Anina Vontobel of GIZ Pacific is quoted in both reports saying women carry knowledge, responsibilities and perspectives essential to understanding inclusive relocation. Neither report sets out the HMCCC programme’s budget, duration or commissioning ministry.
How many Fijian villages face climate relocation in total?
Neither Fijian report places the four communities against a national total. As background we are adding: Fijian ministers have for several years cited more than 40 villages identified as needing to move because of coastal erosion, flooding and land instability, with several hundred more considered vulnerable, and Fiji has developed national planned-relocation guidelines and a dedicated trust fund for community relocation. Those figures and instruments are context, not claims made in either report on the Nadi session.
Can the public attend, and will the documentary be released?
Neither report says whether the 4.30pm session is open beyond accredited Pre-COP31 stakeholders, and neither says whether the documentary will be published online, screened in the four communities, or given a public title. It is described only as a product of the Community Climate Talks, produced with Tabualuma Media Production; no director credit or running time for the film, as distinct from the 45-minute session, is reported.
