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Watch: 'This area used to be a house' – 1 NEWS' Barbara Dreaver highlights shocking effects of climate change on Fiji

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As Fiji takes a lead role in the UN Climate Change conference in Bonn this week, its own reality back home is a stark reminder of what it's up against.

The village of Vunidogoloa has been relocated 2km inland, forcing residents to leave ancestral lands and family graves.

Sixty-eight villages have been identified as being at risk from the effects of climate change - four of them have already abandoned their coastal settlements and moved inland.

It hasn't been without challenges - apart from the cost which villages are having to contribute to - the emotional attachment and having to leave ancestral land and family graves behind has been hard.

Vunidogoloa in Vanua Levu was the first village to be relocated and the people there told 1 NEWS while it has been difficult, they are relieved to be safe from increasing storm surges and high tides which would sweep through their homes.

READ MORE:  Opinion: Fiji is stepping up where New Zealand has failed Kiribati on climate change

They've moved 2km inland.

Fiji is the first small island nation to chair UN climate change negotiations this week.

Fiji is presiding over the COP23 climate change conference this week, the first time a small island nation has taken such a role. 

By 2050 it's estimated up to 54 per cent of the nation’s main island will be inundated with sea water.

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