The 33 atolls that make up Kiribati – the former Gilbert Islands – occupy a vast area in the equatorial Pacific – nearly 4,000km from east to west and more than 2,000km from north to south.
Kiribati – pronounced Kiribass – won independence from the United Kingdom in 1979. Home to the South Pacific’s largest marine reserve, many of the atolls are inhabited; most of them are very low-lying and at risk from rising sea levels as a result of global warming.
With the Fijian government’s permission, Kiribati has…
