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Nov 23, 2020 · Vanuatu is a sovereign island nation and a Melanesian archipelago comprising of a total of 83 large and small islands, located in the South Pacific Ocean. It is geographically positioned in the Southern and Eastern hemispheres of the Earth.
Vanuatu (English: / ˌ v ɑː n u ˈ ɑː t uː / ⓘ VAH-noo-AH-too or / v æ n ˈ w ɑː t uː / van-WAH-too; Bislama and French pronunciation), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (French: République de Vanuatu; Bislama: Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country in Melanesia, located in the South Pacific Ocean.
Nov 9, 2023 · Vanuatu is officially named the Republic of Vanuatu. It is an archipelago that consists of 82 islands and located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago is separated by some kilometers from New Caledonia in the northeast, the Solomon Islands in the southeast, northern Australia in the east, Fiji in the west and New Guinea in the east.
- 4,706 sq mi (12,189 sq km)
- Bislama, French, English.
- Port Vila
- ~ 340,000
- Overview
- Land
- People
- Economy
Vanuatu, country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, consisting of a chain of 13 principal and many smaller islands located about 500 miles (800 km) west of Fiji and 1,100 miles (1,770 km) east of Australia. The islands extend north-south for some 400 miles (650 km) in an irregular Y shape. The Torres Islands are the northernmost group. Southward from the Torres group, the main islands are Vanua Lava and Santa Maria (Gaua) in the Banks Islands group, Espiritu Santo, Aoba (Ambae), Maéwo, Pentecost, Malakula, Ambrym, Épi, Éfaté, Erromango, Tanna, and Anatom. Some 200 miles (320 km) to the southeast of Anatom, two uninhabited islands, Hunter and Matthew, are claimed by both Vanuatu and France (as part of New Caledonia).
Formerly the jointly administered Anglo-French condominium of the New Hebrides, Vanuatu achieved independence in 1980. The name Vanuatu means “Our Land Forever” in many of the locally used Melanesian languages. The capital, largest city, and commercial centre is Port-Vila (Vila), on Éfaté.
A diverse relief—ranging from rugged mountains and high plateaus to rolling hills and low plateaus, with coastal terraces and offshore coral reefs—characterizes the islands. Sedimentary and coral limestones and volcanic rock predominate; frequent earthquakes indicate structural instability. Active volcanoes are found on several islands, including S...
The indigenous population, called ni-Vanuatu, is overwhelmingly Melanesian, though some of the outlying islands have Polynesian populations. There are also small minorities of Europeans, Micronesians, Chinese, and Vietnamese. Roughly three-fourths of the population lives in rural areas, but since independence the urban centres of Luganville and Port-Vila have drawn a significant number of people attracted by better opportunities. More than 100 local Melanesian languages and dialects are spoken; Bislama, an English-based Melanesian pidgin, is the national language and, along with English and French, is one of three official languages.
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Some seven-tenths of the population is Protestant, Presbyterians constituting the largest denomination. Other religions include Roman Catholicism, traditional beliefs, and cargo cults.
Subsistence agriculture has traditionally been the economic base of Vanuatu, together with an elaborate exchange network within and between islands. Economic changes occurred with the development of European plantations in the island group after 1867: cotton was the initial crop, followed by corn (maize), coffee, cocoa beans, and coconuts (for copra). Cattle ranching was instituted later. By the 1880s French planters had reversed the initial British domination of the plantation sector, though they too found it increasingly difficult to compete with ni-Vanuatu producers, who could fall back on subsistence agriculture in times of economic downturn. French hopes of economic hegemony, based on high world prices for copra and the importation of Vietnamese labour in the 1920s, were dashed by the Great Depression of the 1930s. By 1948 most of the copra in the island group was being produced by the ni-Vanuatu themselves, though it was not until the development of cooperatives in the 1970s that they were finally able to assume control of the trade.
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Kava, beef, copra, timber, and cocoa are the most important exports; Australia, New Caledonia, Japan, and New Zealand are the main export destinations. Imports—mainly of machinery and transport equipment, food and live animals, and mineral fuels—come principally from Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, and Fiji. Because of its vulnerability to weather and commodity market fluctuations, Vanuatu is working toward supplementing large-scale agriculture with stronger extractive, manufacturing, and service sectors to foster its long-term economic growth.
Since independence, Vanuatu’s tourism and offshore financial services have emerged as the largest earners of foreign income. The growing lucre generated by tourism has attracted the attention of foreign companies seeking to develop land into resorts and other attractions. Although, according to the 1980 constitution, all land in Vanuatu is under ni-Vanuatu customary collective ownership and cannot be sold to foreigners, increasing interest from abroad in the late 20th and early 21st centuries prompted the government to allow land to be leased for 75-year periods. Such leases were often negotiated to the disadvantage of ni-Vanuatu, however; many included, for example, a provision that, at the end of the 75 years, the customary owners could regain their lands only by paying in full the cost of any development. In the early 21st century there was concern that such provisions would mean the permanent alienation of customarily owned lands.
Forestry, important in the islands’ early colonial history but later eclipsed by plantation agriculture, has also grown in importance. Much of the country is forested (including areas of sandalwood and other valuable tropical species). Because the majority of trees felled during the 1980s were exported as unsawn logs, in the early 1990s the government banned exports of roundwood and limited the annual harvest. Earnings from processed wood (mostly sawn on small portable mills) grew as a result, and wood products accounted for a small but significant proportion of exports in the early 21st century. The sale of commercial fishing rights is another important source of foreign revenue, and there is extensive small-scale fishing for local consumption. Mining of manganese ore on Éfaté ended in the 1970s, but later surveys identified a number of remaining deposits there as well as the likely existence of exploitable gold, copper, and petroleum reserves elsewhere in the islands.
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Location map of Vanuatu. Destination Vanuatu, this page is about the Melanesian archipelago that comprises about 80 islands, formerly known as the New Hebrides. The Republic of Vanuatu is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Caledonia, east of Australia and west of Fiji. The Y-shaped chain of fourteen main islands ...
A map showing the major islands of the Valuatu archipelago and a map showing part of the South Pacific Ocean and the Coral Sea with Vanuatu and nearby island countries labeled. A satellite image of the major islands.
Vanuatu is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Caledonia, east of Australia and west of Fiji. The archipelago has a population of 278,000 (in 2015), capital and largest city is Port Vila. Map is showing the Vanuatu archipelago with provincial boundaries, the national capital Port Vila on the island of Efate, provincial ...
