Outside the marine
environment, the diversity of
species on the islands is
relatively poor. Although
they are home to seabirds
and insects, there are
virtually no endemic
mammals. Most of the
domesticated animals that
were needed were brought
to the islands during colonial
times, but nowadays
chickens and pigs form a
normal part of the backdrop
to the islands.
The absence of a functioning waste management system on Kiribati means that
rubbish often ends up on the street or the beach. Previously, it was mostly only
organic waste that was thrown away, but now there is plastic packaging that doesn’t
rot down. And it’s not only their own rubbish which is polluting the beaches.
Packaging materials from places far away also get washed up on Kiribati. The women
of the Kiribati Climate Action Network try their best to stem the tide of rubbish.
READER’S DIGEST
100 august 2019