• Kiribati: Multi-million dollar coconut oil industry benefits tiny Pacific island community
• Japanese firm moves ahead with 'floating city' plan for Kiribati
• Taiwan plans to save Pacific ally Kiribati from rising sea

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Kiribati: Multi-million dollar coconut oil industry benefits tiny Pacific island community
1 May 2014 - A tiny Pacific island is fast becoming a booming coconut oil producer, several decades after its lucrative phosphate mines closed. The raised coral island Banaba, part of Kiribati, was so denuded by years of phosphate mining that the British colonial authorities relocated its people to Rabi Island in Fiji. Now, one Banaban islander and his Australian wife have built up a company offering work for as many Banabans as the mining once did. It produces coconut oil destined for the booming international market. (more)

Japanese firm moves ahead with 'floating city' plan for Kiribati
17 September 2013 - A Japanese company has sent engineers to Kiribati to update President Anote Tong on its plans for a floating city to save the Pacific island nation from rising sea levels. (more)

Taiwan plans to save Pacific ally Kiribati from rising sea
24 March 2010 - Following Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou's pledge to help rescue Kiribati the foreign ministry said it would look into offering the chain of atolls expertise accumulated from post-typhoon relief work. Taiwan will show Kiribati, population 96,500, how to plant mangrove forests along the coast to stop seawater intrusion and put farms inside giant water-resistant containers. (more)

Kiribati: Pacific island nation creates world's largest marine reserve
14 February 2008 - The Pacific island nation of Kiribati has created the world's largest protected marine reserve, a California-sized wilderness brimming with reefs, fish, and birds, conservation groups said. It lies near the equator about half way between Fiji and Hawaii. (more)

UN environmental conference: Pacific nation Kiribati creates protected marine area
29 March 2006 - The Pacific island nation of Kiribati announced the creation of a vast protected area Tuesday at a UN-sponsored environmental conference in Brazil. At the same conference, the European Union called for a global moratorium on deep-sea trawling, labelling the random fishing practice harmful to the biodiversity of oceans. (more)