'No place like home': Climate change threatens Fiji's rugby nursery

An aerial view shows Namatakula village behind the eroded beach, in Namatakula, Coral Coast, Fiji July 9, 2022. REUTERS/Jill Gralow

NAMATAKULA, Fiji (Reuters) - The white sands of Namatakula have nurtured generations of world-class rugby talent but rising sea levels threaten to force the abandonment of the palm-fringed village on Fiji's Coral Coast within a few years.

The village is deemed "at risk" by Fiji's government and headman Josevata Nagausaukula contemplates a future in which children now honing their rugby skills have been shifted, with their families, to higher ground inland.