Category: Uncategorized

Differing Geographical Features Between Oceanic Countries

Taking a dive into what makes Fiji and Samoa unique from each other, as well as what brings them together.

Perceived similarly, Fiji and Samoa are two Oceanic countries that are thought to be nearly the same. With their white sand beaches, beautifully blue waters, and lush green forests, Fiji and Samoa are easily mixed up. However, the two island groups differ from each other in more than one way. So, what is it that makes these countries so uniquely independent?

Location

Map of Oceanic countries, including Fiji and Samoa (Omondi).

Between Hawai’i and New Zealand is a region within the Central and South Pacific Oceans known as Oceania. This area consists of 3.3 million square miles of Pacific Islands, including the well-known countries of Fiji and Samoa.

Fiji is further towards New Zealand, about two-thirds of the way from the United States’ islands of Hawai’i. Its 332 islands can be found closest to Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, also found in the region of Oceania. The capital, Suva, can be found on the island of Viti Levu (Briney, “Fiji Geography and Information”).

Samoa can be located closer to halfway between the country of New Zealand and state of Hawai’i, where it is found below the equator in the Southern Hemisphere. Apia, the capital of Samoa, is found on the island of Upolu (Briney, “Geography and History of the Island Nation of Samoa”).

It can be easy to confuse the two countries considering they are close in distance and can be mistakenly grouped together with the rest of the Oceanic islands. It is important to pay respects to each island group independently because while they do share some similar characteristics, individually, Fiji and Samoa are uniquely beautiful and interesting places.

Place: The Islands and People

Map of Fijian Islands. Two main islands Viti Levu and Vanua Levu (“Oceania”).

Fiji consists of roughly 332 islands, 110 of which are inhabited, and an additional 500 islets. Of the over seven thousand square miles between all the islands, 87 percent of the total area is found on the two main islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. In addition to that, most of the 944,720 person population inhabits the largest islands of Fiji (“Oceania”). The English and Fijian speaking people have been able to make use of the lush, tropical forests and volcanic mountains formed hundreds of millions of years ago. Since it is considered a tropical marine island, Fiji’s climate consists of a mild climate with a few slight season variations in terms of temperatures, as well as tropical cyclones which typically occur between November and January (Briney, “Fiji…”).

The people of Fiji are predominantly Melanesian with a Polynesian mixture, with Indian being the second most prominent ethnic group of the islands. The second smallest ethnic groups make up only 4.5 percent of the entire population of Fiji, and they are European, part European, other Pacific Islanders, and Chinese (“Fiji vs. Samoa”). The diversity of ethnicities on Fiji may come from the fact that Fiji can be considered a highly toured country compared to other Oceanic countries which may not be frequented as often.

Samoan Islands, including two main islands: Upolu and Sava’i (“Map of Samoa”).

In contrast to Fiji, Samoa is much smaller and less populated. There are two main islands, Upolu and Sava’i, and several other smaller islands and islets, that are uninhabited, that make up the 1,093 square miles of Samoa. The islands of Samoa consist mostly of coastal plains, but the inner parts of Upolu and Sava’i have rough volcanic mountains. Similar to the other Oceanic countries, Samoa has a mild, tropical climate meaning it is temperate year round. However it does have a dry season lasting from May to October, and a wet season from November to April (Briney, “…Samoa”).

The almost two hundred thousand person population speak the official language, Samoan, in addition to English. The most dominant ethnicity in Samoa is actually Samoan, at 92.6 percent of the total population. Europeans only make up less than half a percentage, and persons of both European and Polynesian blood, known as Euronesians, make up the last seven percent (“Fiji vs. Samoa”). Due to the smaller size of the country and less advertising for tourism, it is reasonable that nearly all inhabitants are of Samoan descent.

According to Alyson L. Greiner in “Visualizing Human Geography,” the crude birth rate (CBR) is how many births there are per one thousand people per year. The crude death rate (CDR) is just the same: how many deaths occur per one thousand people annually (67,71). Comparing Fijian and Samoan birth and death rates, there is little difference between the two countries. Fiji has an average CBR of 18.6 births and Samoa has an average of 20.4 births per year. The CDRs for both countries are drastically smaller than the birth rates, at 6.1 and 5.3, respectively (“Fiji vs. Samoa”). This means that there is a rapid population growth since the birth rates are and will continue to be high. The high CBR compared to the low CDR also indicates that the population is growing through a rate of natural increase.

Human-Environment Interaction

Fiji and Samoa both have an abundance of natural resources that help contribute to the human-environment interaction, on top of exporting goods to other countries.

Because it is larger, however, Fiji has much more resources available to the people since it has a bigger area and more arable land, or land that can be used for agriculture (Greiner 67). Fiji’s natural resources include timber, fish, gold, copper, offshore oil potential, and hydropower. These help fuel Fiji’s economy in that the resources can be utilized into goods like clothing, building materials, and more, in addition to creating more jobs. Agriculture is a large aspect of the economy in Fiji and over 23 percent of the country’s land is used for agricultural purposes, with less than half of it still able to be used for more crops or pastures. The main agricultural products in Fiji are, “sugarcane, coconuts, cassava, rice, sweet potatoes, bananas, cattle, pigs, horses, goats, and fish” (Briney, “Fiji…”). Since a large amount of the islands is used for agriculture, it can be assumed that most of the population of Fiji is employed through this aspect of the country.

Though smaller, Samoa is also a country rich with agriculture and natural resources. The main three natural resources are hardwood forests, fish, and hydropower and through this the main industries are food processing, building materials, and auto parts. Though agriculture employs two thirds of the labor force, only 12.4 percent of the land is for agricultural purposes. Unlike Fiji, however, the amount of arable land left is considerably smaller. Meaning, Samoans are utilizing more of their agricultural land than Fijians are, growing coconuts, bananas, taro, yams, coffee, and cocoa for trade with foreign nations (Briney, “…Samoa”).

Both Fiji and Samoa are dealing with current environmental issues that are putting their agricultural businesses and labor forces at stake. These environmental issues either stemmed from ignorant human error, or from natural causes. The problems in Fiji are soil erosion, a natural occurrence that can greatly damage crops and make it nearly impossible to grow anything, and deforestation, which stems from cutting down too much timber by humans. Surprisingly, the smaller Samoa has run into more issues than Fiji, possibly due to the fact that the country is using more of its land than the other Oceanic country. In addition to soil erosion and deforestation, Samoa has encountered invasive species (mostly animals that eat the crops or other animals on pastures) and overfishing, which is a massive error on their part (“Fiji vs. Samoa”).

Movement

Movement in a country can entail anything from the exporting and importing of goods to the actual human movement throughout and outside of the country. As mentioned above, there are many natural resources made into goods that are exported from Fiji and Samoa to other foreign nations through trade. This is one type of movement seen in a region. Another type is tracking the migration, or “movement from one territorial or administrative unit to another associated with long-term or permanent change in residence.” Emigration is a type of migration where people are departing from an area, and immigration is the arrival of people to a new place (Greiner 81). In order to better understand the near exact measurements of the movement of the population in or out of the country, one can use net migration. This determines the difference between immigration and emigration from an area in a given time. Fiji’s annual average net migration is -6.5 migrants per one thousand people in the population. Samoa’s annual average net migration is -9.1 migrants per one thousand people in the population. Though there is more emigration in both countries, neither’s population growth is negative due to the fact that the birth rates are considerably high.

Fijian net migration between 1969-2013 (“Fiji – Net Migration”).
Samoan net migration between 1969-2013 (“Samoa – Net Migration”).

Region

According to geographers, there are three different types of regions that can be identified. First is a formal region, which is one that possesses one or more trait that unifies the population. This can be a physical or cultural trait, such as level of education. Secondly, a functional region is connected through a specific activity that can be economic, political, or social. An example of this would be the certain political beliefs that a region has. Lastly is the perceptual region, which differs greatly from both formal and functional regions. This type is derived from people’s connections and identities associated with certain areas. Due to people perceiving areas in specific ways, it is hard to define strict borders of these regions on maps and figures.

Concentrating on the Oceanic countries of Fiji and Samoa, both possess all three types of regions in some form or another. However, the main focus is on the functional regions of the two countries.

In Fiji, the government can be considered a parliamentary republic. This means that it has a chief of state, head of government, and a judicial branch. The judicial branch encompasses the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, a High Court, and Magistrate’s Courts. The Fijian government also has a bicameral, or two branched, Parliament which has a 32 seat Senate and 71 seat House of Representatives (Briney, “Fiji…”). The Fiji islands can be considered a functional region because the country is unified through specific political views.

The Samoan islands can also be put under that same category due to the fact that they all fall into a government of parliamentary democracy. Like Fiji, the Samoan government also has an executive branch with a chief of state and head of government, and a judicial branch. In contrast, however, Samoa also has a Legislative Assembly of 47 members who are elected by voters, and the judicial branch is made up of a Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court, the District Court and the Land and Titles Court (Briney, “…Samoa”). These are the major differences between the two governments of Fiji and Samoa, yet they are unified due to the fact of them both being functional regions because of their political views.

In conclusion, Fiji and Samoa are perceived similar when one is not properly educated on the geographical differences that each country possesses. Countries within Oceania are often confused for each other and can get mixed up easily. However, it is important to be well-versed on what sets apart countries like these from each other, because it is respectful to acknowledge each country as independent from one another.

Works Cited

Briney, Amanda. “Fiji Geography & Information.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 25 May 2019, http://www.thoughtco.com/geography-of-fiji-1434590.

Briney, Amanda. “Geography and History of the Island Nation of Samoa.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 25 May 2019, http://www.thoughtco.com/geography-of-samoa-1435493.

“Fiji – Net Migration.” Fiji Net Migration, 2019, tradingeconomics.com/fiji/net-migration-wb-data.html.

“Fiji vs. Samoa.” Fiji vs. Samoa – Country Comparison, 2017, http://www.indexmundi.com/factbook/compare/fiji.samoa.

Greiner, Alyson L. Visualizing Human Geography. John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

“Map of Samoa.” Lonely Planet, 2019, http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/pacific/samoa/.

“Oceania.” World Atlas – Maps, Geography, Travel, 12 Aug. 2015, http://www.worldatlas.com/geography/fijigeography.htm.

Omondi, Sharon. “The 10 Most Populated Countries in Oceania.” WorldAtlas, 18 Oct. 2017, http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-10-most-populated-countries-in-oceania.html.

“Samoa – Net Migration.” Samoa Net Migration, 2019, tradingeconomics.com/samoa/net-migration-wb-data.html.