Pacific at Rio+20

Rio+20 News

Pacific at Rio+20

This project providing you with coverage from the Rio+20 is supported by a partnership between the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme SPREP (www.sprep.org) and the Pacific Assistance Media Scheme PACMAS (www.pacmas.org) and Conservation International Pacific Island.

The high level statements start today.
To view the live webcasts, please visit www.webtv.un.org
We'll be bringing you more on our blog.

Headlines

* President of Kiribati appeals for global leadership on management of high seas
* Pacific leaders highlight key concerns
* Our aim for zero waste
* Q and A: Update on Rio+20
* Solomon Islands deals with climate refugees
For more articles and images visit www.climatepasifika.blogspot.com
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President of Kiribati appeals for global leadership on management of high seas
--Makereta Komai, PACNEWS Editor--
19 June 2012, Rio de Janeiro - The President of Kiribati, Anote Tong has urged Parties at the Rio+20 conference currently underway in the Brazilian city to show leadership on the management of the high seas, also known as areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ).

In addition, the Kiribati leader appealed to Parties to agree to negotiate an implementation agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to address the effective management of the high seas.

Key issues to be addressed in the implementation agreement include the creation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), access to marine genetic resources and environmental impact assessments.

President Tong said the world was watching to see if the Rio+20 Outcomes document will reflect the Pacific's concern and interests in managing areas beyond the region's exclusive economic zone.

"The high seas represent more than 60 percent of the planet's surface and are under threat. We as stewards of the Pacific Islands and ocean region, our interests transcend the limits of EEZs. We look to the global community to support effective management of high seas."

According to the draft text, now provisionally approved, all Parties recognise the importance of the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction. Parties commit to urgently address the issue of conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity through the development of an international instrument under UNCLOS.

The 'Future We Want' draft text was endorsed by Parties Tuesday, awaiting the final approval by Heads of States, who are now in Rio de Janeiro for the High Level Segment.

President Tong used the analogy of journey in a canoe to describe the regional initiative of Pacific Oceanscape.

"It is a journey whose time has come to ensure our ocean recovers and survives so that in turn we may do so, because our future is intrinsically linked to the health of our ocean."

"The Rio process might also be described as akin to a voyage - one that for twenty years has taken many of us all over the world, one that has weathered both fair and hard winds of change, and a voyage which traverses all oceans and called at all lands on our planet.

Looking back 20 years ago, President Tong said there are a lot to be proud of but there is much more to be learnt, to take stock of to guide us in our way forward.

"This coming week at Rio is an opportunity to adjust our course and re-equip this voyage for the planet's survival. Kiribati and my fellow Pacific Island states are here to do just that."

"Voyaging is a common heritage to Pacific Island peoples and can only be done with careful planning and understanding of the ocean, to ensure the right timing , to know and wait for the right winds, and to take advantage of the right currents to ensure we got to our destination."

"In preparing our 'te wa' we built the right canoe for the journey and selected carefully the supplies, tools and expertise needed and this is exactly how my government has approached designing the Pacific Oceanscape and in ensuring the support and ownership of this initiative from within the region"

The concept of a Pacific Oceanscape was first raised at the 40th Pacific Islands Forum in 2009. There, Pacific Leaders unanimously supported the idea based on integrated ocean management. Regional organisations, NGOs and experts worked helped develop a full framework for the Pacific Oceanscape.

"We drew expertise from across our region, peoples and cultures. We also engaged expertise and knowledge from the wider international community. We built this canoe from the foundations of our Pacific Plan, Ocean Policies and our national and regional institutions", said President Tong.

The six priority areas for the regional oceans initiative includes ocean governance, jurisdictional rights and responsibilities, integrated ocean management (including marine protected areas and high seas issues), responding to climate and environmental change, sustaining action and financing.

Kiribati has made its first commitment to the Pacific Oceanscape – declaring Phoenix Islands a marine protected known as Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPPA).

"We have learnt much in the voyage to design and establish our PIPA and we are proud to share this and to commit this site as a foundation site for the Pacific Oceanscape. We hope to expand our effort to join with the United States Phoenix Islands to foster a whole-of-archipelago approach for island and ocean conservation.

"We call this an Ocean Arc initiative and this forms a new basis for effective collaboration for protected area management at scale, said the Kiribati leader.

The ocean, President Tong said is 'our neighbour and this neighbourhood is shared with our states and the high seas.

"We need the support of the global community to sustainably manage our common neighbourhood. We welcome the recent signals of support such as the World Bank's Global Programme on Oceans.

"In our region 'the ocean unites and divides, connects and separates, sustains and threatens our very survival and influences every aspect of life.

"At Rio+20 we are seeing many issues that still "unite and divide us', 'connect and separate us' but I would urge you all that on the issues of the oceans and indeed more widely for the future we want - we must unite , we must connect, we must voyage together, said President Tong.

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Pacific leaders highlight key concerns
--Evan Wasuka, OneTelevision, Solomon Islands--
20 June 2012, Rio de Janeiro - Pacific leaders have highlighted their key areas of concerns at a Rio+20 side event.

Kiribati President Anote Tong, Vanuatu Prime Minister Sato Kilman, the President of the Federated States of Micronesia Emanuel Mori and the Ulu o Tokelau, Kerisiano Kalolo and Samoa's Minister of Natural Resources and Environment spoke on the theme "Pacific islands applying a green economy in a blue world."

Insert – Pacific leaders highlight key concerns from Wasuka Media on Vimeo

Pacific leaders highlight key concerns from Wasuka Media on Vimeo.

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Our aim for zero waste
-- Brianna Fruean, aged 14, Samoa--
20 June 2012, Rio de Janeiro - The challenge for zero waste was made at Rio20 at a a side event hosted by the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA). "Zero Waste Strategies and Actions toward Sustainability"

Waste is a problem for all countries. At the event it was revealed that most waste is taken to the landfill and less than 20% is recycled. In the world, more than 3.5million people dispose of their rubbish in nearby bodies of land or water. This problem of harmful disposal of waste is caused by the lack of waste collection.

"In the past we used to dump our waste in the sea but it's changed" said Mr David Newman, Vice President, and International Solid Waste Association (ISWA).

In the Pacific, rubbish is also a big problem. Especially since the Pacific Islands are so small, waste is very noticeable. Luckily we have initiatives like the Clean Pacific campaign which focuses on awareness and pollution prevention for the Pacific. The Clean Pacific reusable bags are showing a very bright presence at Rio+20.

This side event highlighted the fact that here in Rio+20, is the chance to create a Zero waste society. To do this, Governments have to set up more waste collections and by doing this, it also adds to jobs for a green economy.

Mr Anis Ismail, Secretary General, Solid Waste Exchange of Information promoted if Rio+20 is not successful people can still do their jobs of using the 3Rs; educe,Rreuse and Recycle, to do their part towards a Zero Waste Society.

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Q and A: Update on Rio+20
--Kathleen Leewai, SPREP--
20 June 2012, Rio de Janeiro - Q & A: Mr. Sefanaia Nawadra, Director of the Environmental Monitoring and Governance Division, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).

The provisional approval of a draft text proposed by the Brazilian Government came yesterday after the PrepCom meeting was extended another four days to resolve the text surrounding oceans issues.

The draft text will now be put before world leaders for the Brazil Dialogue Days, scheduled to last for three days, which will result in the final Rio+20 outcomes document.

Mr. Sefanaia Nawadra, Director of the Environmental Monitoring and Governance Division at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) talks about the how the Pacific issues were addressed in the draft text.

Nawadra: When we came to the meeting there were four major issues that we wanted looked at. These were the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) special case, oceans, energy, and health with regards to non-communicable diseases.

Each of these issues has been addressed in the text, some to our liking and others that could do with a bit more work, but in balance I believe we have achieved most of the things we wanted to have in the document.

Q: How have each of the issues been addressed within the text?
Nawadra: There are three paragraphs in the document that specifically retains the special case for SIDS. It encourages the move into implementation and also agrees to have the third International Conference on SIDS, the Barbados+20 as it will be called.

The oceans section takes up nineteen paragraphs out of almost three hundred paragraphs of text, so it's quite a big portion of the document and a lot of it focuses on the need to implement and to get oceans management right. Despite this, I think there was a bit more that could have been done on this issue.

With energy there are a lot of similarities to the original initiatives that we had, in particular the need to access the energy and the need for renewable energy, as well as the challenges with remoteness and transportation.

In terms of health, the reference to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is in there so that's a major step for us because NCDs is such a major issue for the Pacific, not only in terms of health alone, but also in terms of sustainable development in relation to the workforce.

Q. How does the draft text look from the perspective of a regional agency?
Nawadra: One of the things that is encouraging from a regional agency perspective is the call to strengthen the regional and subregional organizations In the previous declarations out of Johannesburg and the initial Rio conferences, the focus was more on the United Nations (UN) Regional Commissions.

Now the focus is on regional and subregional organizations giving more ownership to regions for the work that needs to be done. I think it also supports the call to the UN and other partners that many of the regions have their own organizations that need to used in implementation activities rather than forming new organizations at the UN level.

Q: How will the document affect the on-the-ground work of sustainable development in the Pacific?
Nawadra: A lot rides on what we do from now until the Barbados+20 meeting because I think the major challenge is to come up with a good implementation plan for SIDS.

It needs to be something that's not too ambitious, something that has very concrete and focused objectives and activities, and something that is very clear on roles and responsibilities and what should be done by different entities very clearly stated, with a good system of monitoring of how the implementation goes over the period of time.

Q. How was the Pacific side event yesterday at Riocentro?
Nawadra: Our intention for the Pacific side event was to provide a platform for the leaders to be able to address the global community and partners and highlight the various initiatives we have as a region and subregions.

We wanted to have the opportunity for our partners to have some dialogue with them and I think we achieved that.

I was very pleased with how the side event went, especially with the support from the leaders. We had 2 Presidents, one Prime Minister, one Head of a Territory, and a Senior Minister as panelists, plus another President and at least five or six ministers in the audience.

We also had good support from the Indian Ocean region, the Caribbean had one representative there and we had a good number of NGOs and development partners represented, so I think we achieved what we wanted from the side event.

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Solomon Islands deals with climate refugees
--Evan Wasuka, One Television, Solomon Islands--
20 June, 2012, Rio de Janeiro - The Solomon Islands government is assessing the relocation of communities living in low lying islands as part of its national plan to deal with rising sea levels.

The Solomon Islands Minister of Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology, John Moffat Fugui, says the communities on Lord Howe and Sikaiana Island have been identified for relocation.

In recent years the communities on the two islands have suffered from food shortages due to seawater inundation and severe storm surges.

Mr Fugui says funding would be made available in July, to allow his ministry to study its relocation options for the islanders.

Insert – John Moffat Fugui on Relocation from Wasuka Media on Vimeo

John Moffat Fugui on Relocation from Wasuka Media on Vimeo.

The Minister of Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology, says international events like the Rio+20 Conference allows Solomon Islands and other Pacific Island countries to make contacts and access funding to deal with climate change.

Insert - John Moffat Fugui on Rio+20 from Wasuka Media on Vimeo.

John Moffat Fugui on Rio+20 from Wasuka Media on Vimeo.

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