Nauru

Treescape And...

• The mid-Pacific phosphate island of Nauru, only 5,263 acres in area, has achieved its independence. It will now have to solve for itself the problem of how to rehabilitate its worked out phosphate lands. One-third of the island has so far been destroyed, and all but the circular green coastal strip will be destroyed in the next 30 years as the deep phosphate deposits are removed, leaving only coral pinnacles. Much of the island's centre is already like a moonscape, and nothing lives there. The Nauruans may bulldoze some of the coral flat and build an international airport to replace the present grass strip on the valuable coastal fringe. In PIM's own aerial picture above, the darker areas in the background are worked-out weathered pinnacles; the lighter area in the centre is currently being worked by draglines, and in the foreground is soil overburden carrying vegetation, to be removed when that area is worked.