KiriCAN: Kiribati's Grassroots Network on the Frontline of Sea-Level Rise

KiriCAN was established as Kiribati's first climate-change NGO, organized around a network of youth and women's groups across South Tarawa and outer islands. Volunteers, including women's groups in villages like Ambo, plant mangrove seedlings along the lagoon to slow coastal erosion and buffer communities from rising seas. The network has represented Kiribati at three UN Climate Change Conferences (COPs) and at Commonwealth, Pacific Islands Forum and Least Developed Countries meetings, pushing for stronger global action on the existential threat sea-level rise poses to low-lying atoll nations. In November 2010, KiriCAN helped rally more than 1,000 people in Tarawa ahead of the Tarawa Climate Change Conference.