Ursula Rakova (born 1964 or 1965) is a

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

and

climate change activist Individual action on climate change describes the personal choices that everyone can make to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of their lifestyles and catalyze climate action. These actions can focus directly on how choices create emissions, such ...

. In 2008, she was awarded the Pride of PNG award for her environmental contributions to the development of her country. As executive director of the not-for-profit organisation Tulele Peisa, she is responsible for organizing the relocation of the inhabitants of the

Carteret Islands The Carteret Islands (also known as Carteret Atoll, originally known as Tulun or Kilinailau Islands/Atoll) are Papua New Guinea islands located north-east of Bougainville Island, Bougainville in the Oceania, South Pacific. The atoll has a sca ...

to the mainland of

Bougainville Province Bougainville may refer to: Places * Autonomous Region of Bougainville, historically known as the North Solomons, ** Bougainville Island, the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea *** Bougainville campaign, Wor ...

. The islands are expected to be uninhabitable by 2040, rendering Rakova's people the world's first

climate refugees Climate migration is a subset of climate-related mobility that refers to movement driven by the impact of sudden or gradual climate-exacerbated disasters, such as "abnormally heavy rainfalls, prolonged droughts, desertification, environmental de ...

Career

Rakova was born in 1964 or 1965 on the

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

of Han in the Carteret Atoll. In 2005. she established a community schooling system in Bougainville as an alternative to the failed public school system. In 2006 she established Tulele Peisa to assist her people with relocation as the Carteret Islands were becoming increasingly exposed to

sea level rise The sea level has been rising from the end of the last ice age, which was around 20,000 years ago. Between 1901 and 2018, the average sea level rose by , with an increase of per year since the 1970s. This was faster than the sea level had e ...

. The first settlement was established in Tinputz. Rakova has assisted in establishing several environmental

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

's in Papua New Guinea and Bougainville. She coordinated a landmark legal case whereby the Warangoi successfully sued illegal loggers and won compensation for their stolen forest resource. She established Bougainville Cocoa Net Limited to assist relocated Carteret Islanders with opportunities to produce fair trade

cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rakova, Ursula 1960s births Living people Papua New Guinean environmentalists Women environmentalists Papuan people People from the Carteret Islands