The people of the Pacific Islands have a long history of living and coping with a highly variable climate and environment.
Constraints faced by Pacific islands societies historically were not much different to the issues faced by many Pacific societies today: limited arable land, deforestation, limited freshwater, high population growth and depletion of natural resources, and vulnerability to extreme events such as cyclones, droughts, earthquakes and tsunamis. Responses to these constraints included various social controls on natural resource use, population control and voluntary or forced migration to other islands. These offered a high degree of resilience to climatic events.
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Source: Islands Business