The creators of a floating community planned for French Polynesia hope to set up platforms to house just a few dozen people in the lagoon near Tahiti.
Photo: RNZI
French Polynesia signed a deal with the US based Seasteading Institute to collaborate on the pilot project to test out sustainable living on the sea earlier this month.
The institute's Executive Director Randolph Hencken said the design was yet to be worked out but the community could be sited near a reef break close to Tahiti's shore.
Mr Hencken said French Polynesia signed up because it wanted to boost its economy as well as resiliency against rising seas.
"They're looking for economic activity to keep their population engaged. Their biggest economic driver is tourism and they want us to bring in technologists and other research opportunities so the young people can be involved in modernity."
"The aim is to make people take better care of the ocean and he'd like to eventually see a thousand floating cities on the ocean," he said.