Tuvalu is an island country in Oceania that is integrated into Polynesia. It is located approximately 4,000 kilometers from Hawaii and Australia and its closest countries are Fiji, to the south, Kiribati, to the north, and the Solomon Islands, to the west. Its capital is Funafuti (although it is also considered Vaiaku, on the island of Fongafale, as it is the seat of the National Parliament) and it is considered the second independent nation with the smallest number of inhabitants, with 11,544, according to 2022 data.
Tuvalu’s sources of wealth are very limited and are based on agriculture, fishing and the sale of weighing licenses mainly to Taiwan, Japan and the United States. They only have one product that they export and that is copra, which is obtained from the drying of coconut meat. Despite the beauty of the country, Tuvalu is a territory with undeveloped tourism, so much so that it is one of the least visited countries in the world, with less than 4,000 tourists per year.
Being geographically isolated, it is extremely vulnerable to external factors including climatic phenomena. The United Nations already warned of this in a report on the “greenhouse effect” published in 1989, in which it included Tuvalu among the islands that would end up disappearing under the sea during the 21st century. In fact, a recent assessment by NASA scientists estimates that by 2050, 50% of Funafuti, where more than half of the country resides, will have been flooded by tides.
“Sea level will continue to rise for centuries, leading to more frequent flooding,” Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, who directs ocean physics programs at NASA’s Earth Sciences Division, said in a statement. “NASA’s new flood tool tells us what the potential increase in flood frequency and severity will look like in the coming decades for coastal communities in Pacific island nations.”
Climate change is here to stay and is currently present in almost all aspects of daily life. By the end of this century, the country is expected to experience more than 100 days of flooding per year, in addition to saltwater intrusion, heat waves and intensified cyclones. A burden that many Tuvaluans are, surprisingly, willing to live with. “It is true that climate change affects us, but we want to stay,” confessed the program manager of the Tuvalu Family Health Association to National Geographic. “We do not want to be Tuvaluans in another country. We want to be Tuvaluans in Tuvalu,” he stressed.
In November 2023, Tuvalu and Australia signed the Falepili Treaty, a bilateral climate and migration agreement that offers the small, unique country $11 million for coastal restoration projects and visas for 280 Tuvaluans to become Australian permanent residents. An issue that has the population of the capital divided: some think that it is a welcome route for those who want to leave; and others are concerned that it will encroach on Tuvalu’s sovereignty.
A digital country
Tuvalu decided to go one step further in its attempt to preserve its land and its statehood and to do so it decided to create a digital copy of the country, with the aim of recreating everything from its houses to its beaches and trees. This initiative is part of the Future Now Project and was first announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Simon Kofe, through a video speech released at COP27 in 2022.
The goal of including a digital twin is to create a virtual space where local traditions and practices can remain intact in case the population emigrates and the archipelago is submerged. The metaverse effectively becomes a virtual refuge for Tuvalu. This initiative challenges existing norms as it may set a precedent for other vulnerable nations in the future, paving the way for a new understanding of sovereignty and peoples’ rights.
“Our land, our ocean, our culture are the most precious assets of our people and we will transfer them to the cloud”
“Our land, our ocean, our culture are the most precious assets of our people and to keep them safe from harm, no matter what happens in the physical world, we will move them to the cloud,” Kofe revealed.
Therefore, in addition to securing the nation’s borders within the metaverse, the Tuvalu government seeks to create digital passports, stored in technology blockchainto allow the government to continue functioning. This mechanism will allow everything from holding elections and referendums to keeping a record of births, deaths and marriages.
A year after the COP27 announcement, the country completed a 3D scan of its 124 islands using Lidar technology, a remote sensing technique using laser pulses. Later, in March and April 2024, Place, a non-profit organization, began mapping Funafuti, using drones and 360-degree cameras. to record every detail both from the air and at ground level.
The next step for Tuvalu will be to map the rest of the islands and then fill in the remaining gaps, says Franck Pichel, operations supervisor at Place. “I think we have traveled about 80 or 90 kilometers and we have really covered everything we could,” he reveals in statements collected by the BBC. Still, Place hopes to return and capture more data every two years from the islands, which are constantly changing due to the impact of climate change.
“What’s at stake is more than just our homes,” said Tuvalu climate activist Grace Malie. “It is our dignity, our culture, our heritage. It is not something we can pack in suitcases and take with us. We have done the least to cause the climate crisis, but we are paying the highest price.” The journey to the metaverse world has only just begun…
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