Mikaele Maiava

Tokelauan Mikaele Maiava is a founding member of the 350 Pacific Climate Warriors, a youth-led grassroots movement who set up, and facilitate workshops to educate and empower youth in the region, organise days of action to raise awareness on climate change and climate justice.

“We are not drowning, we are fighting.”

He is also the man behind Samoa Keyhole Organic Gardeners. Climate change not only affects rising sea levels but also threatens food security due to land mass shrinking and saltwater infiltrating the soil. Mikaele thought of taking a gardening method initially developed in Africa to help people grow food in desert areas where fertile soil is scarce. This method is called keyhole gardens and he adapted it so that it can be used to grow crops in low lying island nation's like his home of Tokelau where sea level rise is threatening not just land mass but also food security.

This is what leadership at a local level looks like.

Have a look into Mika's world and gardening down below and let this inspire you to think of ways you can lead in your community on a local level.