Tonga's national treasure the Fanga’uta Lagoon Catchment, home to 64 per cent of the population of Tongatapu, is seriously polluted and remains unhealthy because of long-term mismanagement, neglect and blatant disregard of laws that were designed to protect it. Although a healthy lagoon is able to clean itself, Fanga‘uta Lagoon is receiving levels of pollutants that far exceed what it can assimilate.
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Results for Environment
Sunday 8 March 2020
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Friday 7 February 2020
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Plastic waste is rapidly increasing in Tongatapu, where people could do a lot more to reduce the amount of single use plastics they discard, especially during church conferences, says the Tapuhia Landfill Manager, Tevita Toli.
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Thursday 28 November 2019
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
A popular picnic and swimming beach in the capital was this morning found contaminated with fresh offal – apparently the remains of a large animal that had been butchered, either at the site or elsewhere and dumped on the foreshore.
Tuesday 19 November 2019
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Three important multi-million pa'anga Climate Resilience Sector Projects were commissioned on November 18, at vulnerable low-lying areas on the Eastern District (Hahake) of Tongatapu.
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Wednesday 6 November 2019
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
A new bigger island has formed following an eruption at Lateiki Island (aka Metis Shoal) last month 13 – 31 October, The remnants of the former island have submerged in the location between Kao and Late in the Ha’apai group.
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Tuesday 15 October 2019
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Tongan geologist Taaniela Kula said this evening that a Late Iki Island (also known as Metis Shoal) eruption over the last two days was emitting only steam, heat and gas into the atmosphere. While there may be a hazard within 4-5 kilometers radius of the vent, another hazard may be volcanic fog that can form downwind from the island causing inconvenience in civil aviation and maritime operations.
Monday 7 October 2019
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Ithaca, New York
Cornell University students are working with the Tongan government on a climate change report for the upcoming United Nation’s Conference of the Parties (COP25), to be held in Santiago, Chile, in December.
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Monday 30 September 2019
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Haveluliku youth planted 200 Kauri trees (Agathis robusta) on September 24 under a project which aims to strengthen communities resilience by enhancing land tenure systems.
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Monday 23 September 2019
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New York, USA
Youth leaders from more than 140 countries and territories, including Tonga’s dual sport Olympian and UNICEF Pacific Ambassador, Pita Taufatofua, and Greta Thunberg, a prominent young climate activist from Sweden, gathered at the first UN Youth Climate Summit to voice their demands for urgent climate action in New York, USA, on 21 September.
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Friday 16 August 2019
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
An exhibition held under the theme ‘Increase Climate Action to Save Tonga’ saw government departments, civil society organisations, private sector, and others showcase what they are doing to combat climate change at the Queen Salote Memorial Hall today, 16 August.
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Thursday 15 August 2019
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Ottawa, Canada
A non-profit organization is calling on nations to join the Cook Islands and Samoa in preserving the Arctic Ocean by signing the Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary (MAPS) Treaty.
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Tuesday 11 June 2019
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
An exhibition explaining the science behind climate change and its effects was officially launched on 11 June at the Taufa’ahau Tupou IV Domestic Wharf. The exhibition was initiated by scientists working in Antarctica who felt the public needed to be informed about the impacts they were seeing caused by climate change.
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Wednesday 15 May 2019
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Organic Certification will enable local agricultural growers to access organic agricultural markets overseas, while organic farming helps to protect Tonga's underground water supply from chemical pollutants, participants learned from an organics workshop held at the Tanoa Hotel, Nuku’alofa, 6-9 May 2019.
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Monday 8 April 2019
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
A group of students from Cornell University, an Ivy League research university in Ithaca, New York, were in Nuku’alofa last week to look at the impact of climate change in Tonga as part of their workshop focusing on the Pacific.
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Saturday 6 April 2019
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'Ahau, Tonga
“When we cut down a tree it is important to plant a new one,” Crown Prince Haakon of Norway said after planting a mangrove seedling in the swampy coastline of ‘Ahau village in Western Tongatapu today.
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Friday 15 March 2019
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
There is a growing and urgent need to rid Tonga of plastics, say youth groups who are on the frontline of a fight against single use plastics. The youth who conduct regular rubbish collections in coastal and popular picnic areas and public places say the problem of plastic waste is getting worse. By Eleanor Gee.
Friday 8 March 2019
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Twenty-four people involved in managing climate resilience projects have completed a certification in Project Management Practice at the USP Tonga Campus, organized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its USD$24 million regional Climate Ready Project.
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Friday 25 January 2019
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
A legal workshop to draft an Act for Tonga’s Marine Spatial Plan (MSP) which will oversee its ocean space was discussed by legal advisers and policy experts across government ministries yesterday, 24 January, at the Tanoa Hotel.
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Monday 17 December 2018
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Katowice, Poland
Countries have agreed to a set of rules to implement the Paris Agreement in a bid to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels as the UN climate negotiations came to an end on 15 December in Katowice, Poland.
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Friday 14 December 2018
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
A new marine navigation chart survey of the waters of Ha‘apai and Nuku‘alofa, has discovered uncharted marine volcanoes that are big enough to sink a cruise ship. Tonga's marine charts, among the oldest still in use, are being updated using airborne laser, metric sonar and an unmanned submarine- enhancing Captain Cook's fathoms measurements made by ropes in the 18th century. By Eleanor Gee.
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Tonga weather forecast from yr.no, delivered by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the NRK. See also Fua'amotu Weather Forecasting Center, Tonga, for latest local weather bulletin.