Palau’s Marine Spatial Plan will provide a framework for managing ocean and coastal resources. Credit: SPC

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Apr 28 2023 (IPS)

Growing up in Palau in the western Pacific Ocean, Surangel Whipps Jr. played on the reefs and spearfished on an island teeming with birds, giant clams, fish, and turtles.

Today that has all changed as a result of growing sea level rise. Half of the turtle eggs nesting on beaches are not surviving because they are laid in the tidal zone and swallowed by the sea.

During the United Nations Ocean Conference in Portugal in June 2022, Whipps Jr., the President of Palau, emphasized the interconnectedness of the fate of the turtles, their homes, culture, and people, drawing global attention to the dire impact of climate change on this island nation that relies heavily on the ocean for its livelihood.

Protecting Palau’s Marine Treasures

The Pacific Ocean is the lifeblood of Palau, supporting its social, cultural, and economic development. Palau is an archipelago of over 576 islands in the western tropical Pacific Ocean. Its rich marine biota includes approximately 400 species of hard corals, 300 species of soft corals, 1400 species of reef fishes, and the world’s most isolated colony of dugongs and Micronesia’s only saltwater crocodiles.

Worried that the island would have no future under the sea, Palau has launched an ambitious Marine Spatial Plan (MSP) initiative for its marine ecosystems that are vulnerable to climate change and impacted by human activities such as tourism, fishing, aquaculture, and shipping. It will provide a framework for managing ocean and coastal resources in a way that balances economic, social, and environmental objectives. It also aims to minimize conflicts between different users of the ocean and coastal areas and promotes their sustainable use.

Marino-O-Te-Au Wichman, a fisheries scientist with the Pacific Community (SPC) and a member of the Palau MSP Steering Committee, explains that the initiative is particularly important for Palau due to the country’s dependence on the marine ecosystem for food security, livelihoods, and cultural identity.

“We recognize the critical role that MSP plays in the development of maritime sectors with high potential for sustaining jobs and economic growth,” Wichman said, emphasizing that SPC was committed to supporting country-driven MSP processes with the best scientific advice and capacity development support.

“The MSP can help balance ecological and economic considerations in the management of marine resources, ensuring that these resources are used in a sustainable way.  Some of the key ecological considerations that MSP can help address include the conservation of biodiversity, restoration of habitats, and the management of invasive species. While on the economic front, MSP can help promote the sustainable use of marine resources: and promote low-impact economic activities such as ecotourism,” Wichman observed.

Climate Informed Decision Making

As climate change continues to impact ocean conditions, the redistribution of marine ecosystem services and benefits will affect maritime activities and societal value chains. Mainstreaming climate change into MSP can improve preparedness and response while also reducing the vulnerability of marine ecosystems.

Palau’s rich marine biota includes approximately 400 species of hard corals, 300 species of soft corals, 1400 species of reef fishes, and the world’s most isolated colony of dugongs and Micronesia’s only saltwater crocodiles. Credit: SPC

“MSP can inform policy making in Pacific Island countries in several ways to support sustainable development, particularly in the face of climate change impacts. The MSP initiative launched by Palau encompasses a Climate Resilient Marine Spatial Planning project that is grounded in the most reliable scientific data, including climate change scenarios and climate risk models,” said Wichman, noting that the plan can help identify areas that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as sea level rise, ocean acidification, movement of key tuna stocks and increased storm intensity.

Increasing the knowledge base on the impacts of a changing climate is necessary for policymakers to ensure the protection of ecologically important areas and the implementation of sustainable development strategies. This includes building strong evidence that takes into account the potential spatial relocation of uses in MSP, the knowledge of conservation priority species and keystone ecosystem components, and their inclusion in sectoral analyses to promote sustainability and resilience.

Although progress has been made in understanding the impacts of climate change and its effects on marine ecosystems, there is still a need for thorough scientific research to guide management decisions.

“At SPC, we are dedicated to supporting countries in advancing their knowledge of ocean science. Our joint efforts have paid off, as Palau has made significant strides in improving their understanding of the ocean and safeguarding its well-being. Through the Pacific Community Centre for Ocean Science (PCCOS), Palau and other Pacific countries are given support to continue promoting predictive and sustainable ocean practices in the region,” explained Pierre-Yves Charpentier, Project Management Advisor for the Pacific Community Centre for Ocean Science.

A Long-Term Commitment To Protect the Ocean  

In 2015, Palau voted to establish the Palau National Marine Sanctuary, one of the world’s largest marine protected areas, with a planned five-year phase-in. On January 1, 2020, Palau fully protected 80% of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), prohibiting all forms of extractive activities, including mining and all types of fishing.

A Palauan legend is told of a fisherman from the village of Ngerchemai. One day the fisherman went out fishing in his canoe and came upon a large turtle and hastily jumped into the water after it. Surfacing for a breath, the fisherman realized his canoe wasn’t anchored and was drifting away. He then looked at the turtle, and it was swimming away. He could not decide which one he should pursue. In doing so, he lost both the canoe and the turtle.

Unlike the fisherman, Palau cannot afford to be indecisive about protecting its marine treasures, Whipps Jr. said: “Ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development is our collective responsibility.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Pacific Community-led regional initiative aims to assist countries in the region with mitigating the impacts of climate change-induced tuna migration. Credit: Pacific Community/SPC

By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Apr 19 2023 (IPS)

Climate change and warming ocean waters are causing tuna fisheries to migrate to international waters, away from a country’s jurisdiction, thereby putting the food and economic security of many Pacific Island countries and territories at risk.

Now a Pacific Community (SPC) led regional initiative will help ensure that these countries are equipped to cope with climate change-induced tuna migration.

“All the climate change projections indicate that there will be a redistribution of tuna from the western and central Pacific to the more eastern and towards the polar regions, that is not Antarctica or the Arctic, but to regions outside of the equatorial zones where they primarily occur at the moment,” says SPC’s Principal Fisheries Scientist, Dr Simon Nicol.

“This has really important implications for the Pacific Island countries. Our projections suggest that about one-fifth or about USD 100 million of the income derived from the tuna industry directly is likely to be lost by 2050 by these countries,” Nicol tells IPS.

The total annual catch of tuna in the western and central Pacific Ocean represents around 55 percent of global tuna production. Approximately half of this catch is from the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of Pacific Island countries.

The recent USD15.5 million [NZD25 million] funding by New Zealand for SPC’s ‘Climate Science for Ensuring Pacific Tuna Access’ programme will enable Pacific Island countries to prepare and adapt the region’s tuna fisheries to meet the challenges posed by climate change.

Nicol says that the investment that New Zealand has provided for the programme will allow for more rigorous and timely monitoring of the types of changes that are occurring, both due to the impacts of fishing and climate change, at a very fine resolution. Secondly, it will also provide the additional resources that are needed to increase the ocean monitoring capacity to remove the anomalies and biases to particular local conditions, which often occur in global climate models.

“We have noted, for example, that the boundary of the warm pool in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Nauru can have an element of bias associated with it. It’s an important oceanographic feature in the western Pacific equatorial zone, which moves in association with the El Nino Southern Oscillation. Sometimes its eastern boundary is right next to Papua New Guinea, and at other times, it extends all the way past Nauru. It is a key driver of recruitment for skipjack tuna, so we need to be quite precise where that boundary is for any prediction of skipjack recruitment that occurs in any given year,” he tells IPS.

Several Pacific Island countries and territories find their food and economic security at risk due to the climate-change-induced migration of tuna into international waters. Credit: Pacific Community (SPC)

The analysis at the ocean basin scale does not provide EEZ scale information for particular countries, and it is often not precise in predicting when the impact of climate change is going to manifest itself.

Under the programme, a Pacific-owned advanced warning system will be developed by SPC to help countries forecast, monitor and manage tuna migration, which is set to become more pronounced in the coming decades.

“The advanced warning system will allow us to zoom in on what the likely changes are in each particular country’s EEZ and also zoom in more accurately and precisely on when those changes are likely to occur, which is particularly important from a Pacific Island country perspective,” Nicol tells IPS.

Whilst Pacific Island countries manage the tuna resource collectively to ensure its biological sustainability, the income that they derive is very much a national-level enterprise. A recent study in Nature Sustainability estimates that the movement of tuna stocks could cause a fall of up to 17 percent in the annual government revenue of some of these countries.

The study notes that more than 95 percent of all tuna caught from the jurisdictions of the 22 Pacific Island countries and territories comes from the combined EEZs of 10 Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) – Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tokelau and Tuvalu. On average, they derive 37 percent (ranging from 4 percent for Papua New Guinea to 84 percent for Tokelau) of all government revenue from tuna-fishing access fees paid by foreign industrial fishing fleets.

“The advanced warning system would allow for more refined predictions of the changes in tuna stock, abundance, distribution and the fisheries around them. This is very important to what each country gets as access fees, which relates to how much tuna is typically caught in their EEZ,” says Dr Meryl Williams, Vice Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation.

“Access fees usually form part of the general consolidated revenue that the government has to spend on hospitals, education and infrastructure, and hence it is a very important source of revenue for people’s economic development in many of the Pacific Island countries,” she adds.

Currently, the program is focused only on the four dominant tuna species – Skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis), Yellowfin (Thunnus albacares), Bigeye (Thunnus obesus) and the South Pacific Albacore (Thunnus alalunga) – caught in the Pacific Island countries.

SPC’s Director of Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability, Coral Pasisi says, “Without successful global action to mitigate climate change, the latest ecosystem modelling predicts a significant decrease in the availability of tropical tuna species (tuna biomass) in the Western Pacific due to a shifting of their biomass to the east and some declines in overall biomass. Negative impacts on coastal fish stocks important for local food security are also predicted”.

Curbing greenhouse gas emissions in line with The Paris Agreement could help limit tuna migration away from the region. “We have to ensure sustainable fishing levels for the Pacific Islands. To reach this goal, developed countries should act quickly and increase their ambition to stay below 1.5 degrees centigrade, and Pacific countries should maintain sustainable management of their fisheries resources,” Pasisi tells IPS.

She says the future of the Pacific region’s marine resources will be secured through nearshore fish aggregating devices, sustainable coastal fisheries management plans, and aquaculture.

“We must also complete the work on delineating all Exclusive Economic Zone boundaries to ensure sovereignty over the resources. We need and seek international recognition for the permanency of these. We also must work with all fishing nations in the Pacific to ensure that sustainable management of tuna fisheries continues, even if there is a shift into international waters,” Pasisi adds.

The programme will work with Pacific Island countries and territories to develop and implement new technologies and innovative approaches to enable the long-term sustainability of the region’s tuna fisheries.

There is a need to also recognise the more direct fisheries benefits that people, including women, receive from their contributions to the tuna industry, says Williams, who is also the founder and immediate past Chair of the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries section of the Asian Fisheries Society.

“Looking at the whole of employment in small-scale and industrial fisheries tuna value chains, not just fishing but also processing, trading, work in offices and in fisheries management etc., we estimate that women probably make up at least half, if not more than half, of the labour force in the tuna industry. Hence, their role is very important in sustainably managing the tuna stock in Pacific Island countries,” she tells IPS.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Karen Mapusua, SPC’s Director of the Land Resources Division, would like to see food high up on the loss and damage fund if it is agreed to. Credit Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
SHARM EL SHEIKH, Nov 18 2022 (IPS)

Food is everything to the culture and identity of the Pacific island countries.

Climate change impacts of rising sea levels and higher temperatures threaten islanders’ food security, which is largely dependent on fisheries and subsistence agriculture. Almost 70 percent of islanders rely on agriculture for their livelihood.

Pacific island countries at the COP27 summit, taking place at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, say agriculture is high on their agenda, with parties to the UNFCCC calling for a decision to protect food security through the mobilisation of climate finance for adaptation.

Activists at the COP27 summit demand food and agriculture remain on the negotiation’s agenda. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

At the COP negotiations, agriculture features on many levels, including during discussions on the ongoing Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) – a formal process established to highlight the potential of food and agriculture in tackling climate change. However, there has been no progress in countries making commitments to placing agriculture and food systems in the final text.

The agriculture sector accounts for 37% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with land seen as a potential major carbon sink that can be considered for capturing emissions.

Could agriculture be off the menu?

“Not yet,” says Karen Mapusua, Pacific Community’s (SPC) Director of the Land Resources Division. “Unless the parties can come together and through their work demonstrate the value of the Koronivia work programme and a clear way forward for it, then that is a risk.”

She explains that it was critical to keep the Koronivia plan alive and secure a global strategy for agriculture and food systems to be considered solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

“Agriculture contributes 30 percent of emissions, and everybody has to eat, and if we do not take this seriously, then we are in trouble,” said Mapusua, who is also the President of IFOAM Organics International, a global organisation specialising in changing agricultural practices.

Pacific countries are very low emitters of harmful carbon emissions – except for a few high-input industries like sugar production in Fiji and the commercial production of exotic horticulture for export.

“We are losing productive land to sea level rise, inundation and salination of soils near the coast,” she said. Farmers have experienced increased pests and diseases due to a change in temperatures and weather conditions. For example, the islands have been hit by an infestation of the coconut rhinoceros beetle, an invasive pest that can destroy coconut plantations.

Farmers are also experiencing changes in fruiting patterns for major crops. Farmers are relocating their vanilla plantations in Vanuatu because it no longer flowers in the area where it was once most productive.

Developing countries are also pushing for the establishment of a loss and damage facility where they can be compensated for damage caused by climate change, particularly to infrastructure. However, no decision has been reached on this demand.

“There will be a lot of competition on what goes in the loss and damage fund, but I am hopeful that because food is so essential, it will be higher up the priority list when it comes to accessing finance through such a facility, if it is agreed on,” Mapusua, told IPS.

Fish eaters but threatened fisheries

Islanders are also dependent on fisheries for food security. This sector has also been affected by rising sea levels and high temperatures, which have led to the bleaching of coral reefs, which are a key habitat for fish.

Scientific research projects a decline in coastal fisheries of up to 20 percent by 2050 in the western Pacific and up to 10 percent by 2050 in the eastern Pacific, which would impact heavily on the diet of islanders who, on average, consume 58 kg of fish annually.

Mapusua said the island countries were building aquaculture at a local level and poultry to compensate for the projected loss of fisheries.

In Vanuatu, the government was deploying fish aggregating devices (FADS), which are offshore floating objects to attract fish. The project has enabled farmers to harvest fish from the locations where the devices have been installed without travelling far from the coast to fish. In addition, a fishponds system has been promoted at the household level, encouraging families to build their own fishponds to harvest fish.

Nelson Kalo, a Senior Mitigation Officer in the Ministry of Climate Change in Vanuatu, adds there are other projects too.

“Vanuatu is also promoting climate resilience projects working with the United Nations Development Programme to replicate climate resilient root crops that communities when climate condition change.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

This photo was taken a month after Cyclone Pam hit Tuvalu. It shows the main square of Nui Island was still underwater. The tropical storm went onto Vanuatu, impacting nearly half the island's inhabitants. Credit: Silke von Brockhausen/UNDP

By Busani Bafana
SHARM EL SHEIKH, Nov 15 2022 (IPS)

Pacific island countries are highly vulnerable to climate change, and several have disappeared – and more could sink under the sea owing to a rise in water levels.

According to UN figures, severe climate-change-induced weather conditions are already leading to the displacement of about 50 000 people each year. Urgent assistance is needed to help them adapt and lessen its impacts.

COP27 opened with an impassioned plea by Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano, who called for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty at COP27. Addressing the world leaders, he said: “Tuvalu has joined Vanuatu and other nations in calling for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to steer our development model to pursue renewables and a just transition away from fossil fuels.”

A losing battle against climate damage

In 2015, the Island of Vanuatu was hit by a category five cyclone that killed residents, displaced thousands and damaged infrastructure. It was not to be the last. Another severe cyclone hit the island in 2020 after buffeting the neighbouring Solomon Islands.

Vanuatu is one of 20 countries that make up the Pacific Islands. They have a population of more than 2 million whose livelihoods are tied to the sea. The island nations face a future underwater if they cannot cope with the impacts of climate change and repair the damage it has already caused.

Nelson Kalo, a Senior Mitigation Officer in the Ministry of Climate change in Vanuatu, says resources are needed to build adaptive capacity. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

“In Vanuatu, adaptation is a core issue to ensure we build resilience; otherwise, we will continue to see Vanuatu destroyed by cyclones and going under the sea,” says Nelson Kalo, a Senior Mitigation Officer in the Ministry of Climate change in Vanuatu, on the sidelines of COP27.

Kalo says climate change-induced natural disasters are impacting the area.

“We need resources to build our adaptive capacity so that in the future, we will be resilient to climate change,” he said.

Sea level rise, increasing temperatures and frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones, and storm surges are some of the climate change impacts facing island nations, some of which are in low-lying areas of just 5 meters above sea level at the highest point.

“In the Pacific Islands, the people are dependent on primary sectors, particularly agriculture and fishing, for their livelihoods, and we are seeing a variety of climate change effects across the region which are having impacts on livelihoods,” says Dirk Snyman, Coordinator of the Climate Finance Unit at the Pacific Community (SPC). The SPC is an international scientific and technical organization in the region that supports the rights and well-being of Pacific islanders through science and knowledge.

Ocean acidification and warming are affecting fisheries and causing the bleaching of coral reefs, which provide habitat for fish, a key source of food for islanders.

“In the Pacific islands, climate change is not some predicted future scenario based on projected models; it is a daily lived reality,” Snyman tells IPS. “It is becoming more and more difficult, particularly with crops and drinking water, for people to meet their daily needs that they now rely on imported food and drinking water, which come at a high cost.”

Snyman said the island nations had incurred economic and non-economic losses, such as cultural losses, and that a loss and damage facility is a timely intervention for them. The issue of loss and damage fund has made it on the agenda of the COP27 negotiations, which intensify this week in Egypt.

Mitigation

Pacific island countries have very low emissions and emit less than 1 percent of global emissions as a region. But despite these low emissions, the countries have developed ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement to be fully renewable in terms of energy by 2030.

“Compare that to any NDCs throughout the world … (Yet) Pacific island countries are struggling to get money for transitioning to renewable energy because the argument is always that they are too small or they have too little emission reduction, so they are not receiving the money to finance their NDCs,” Snyman said.

The climate financing needs for the Pacific Islands are estimated at between 6.5 and 9 percent of GDP per year, which is around 1 billion US dollars per year.

Snyman said current estimates of approved financing are around 220 million US dollars annually, which is only 20 percent of the 1 billion US dollars needed. He said multilateral mechanisms take up to five years to get financing, by which time countries would have experienced the worst impacts of climate change.

“Pacific countries feel very strongly that money should be made for loss and damage to compensate for these economic and non-economic losses that are unavoidable and that they cannot adapt to and that will continue to affect communities for decades,” said Snyman.

Espen Ronneberg, Senior Adviser, Multilateral Climate Change Agreements at SPC, says loss and damage will occur without ambitious mitigation action and reductions in GHG emissions.

Espen Ronneberg, Senior Adviser, Multilateral Climate Change Agreements at SPC, ambitious mitigation action and reductions in GHG emissions are needed. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

“We are already experiencing some of these things to a certain extent in that the impacts are being felt right now, but we are also looking into the future and how those impacts will get much worse unless mitigation is ramped up and unless technical assistance, finance, for instance, are also ramped up,” said Ronneberg, who explained that available resources were not fit-for-purpose in addressing the current impacts of climate change in pacific island countries.

Ronneberg said Pacific island countries were ambitious regarding mitigation as they have some of the world’s highest energy costs due to fuel and natural gas importation costs. They have looked at energy efficiency through solar voltaic technology and are exploring wind and wave power.

“We have to look at the slow onset of impacts like sea level rise and changes in rainfall patterns. There may be opportunities for adaptation, but there is a point where you can no longer adapt – where an island becomes unliveable because of conditions,” he said.

Anne-Claire Goarant, Manager of the Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Division at the SPC, said adaptation was vital for implementing the NDCs in the Pacific islands but that there is a need to focus on robust mitigation programmes.

“We need the flexibility to describe the adaptation objectives to reflect the reality on the ground, and at this stage, we need transformative action,” Goarant told IPS. “We have to speed up the scale and amount of money that is available to implement action that will deliver some results in the short and long terms, for example, planting trees on a massive scale along the shores.”

“It is not just a small dot of adaptation action; we really need a global goal that can be implemented at a local level by local communities because the work will be done locally by the people who need to understand what climate change is and why it is important to adapt and how they can be supported.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Climate activist Taren Chilia knows firsthand the impact of climate change on the island of Vanuatu. Cyclone Pam hit the South Pacific Ocean island in 2015, displacing nearly half of its 270 000 people. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
SHARM EL SHEIK, Nov 14 2022 (IPS)

The only thing Taren Chilia remembers about Cyclone Pam was that it flattened his school in Vanuatu, washing away books, equipment, and – well, almost his dreams too.

Cyclone Pam – a category 5 cyclone, was one of the worst to hit the South Pacific Ocean island in 2015, displacing about 45 percent of its 270 000 people. It also left several people dead and destroyed property, houses, and crops. Scientists say human-induced climate change is warming ocean temperatures, fuelling tropical storms driven by warm, moist air.

In Vanuatu, the cyclone tore through the Efate Island in Shefa Province, close to Port Vila’s capital.

Chilia, now 20, from Mele village, recalls fleeing rising water as the storm swept through his village.

“I was at home with mum and dad, and the school was closed, and everyone was in the house. We could not go outside, but we could hear the wind howling and the thunder strike when my neighbour came to fetch us to leave our house, which was not safe from the storm,” Chilia, who was then in his primary school, narrated to IPS on sidelines of the COP27 summit.

On the agenda of the global meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the issue of loss and damage and how developing countries can be compensated for the losses as a result of the severe impacts of climate change.

“As we rushed out of our house, I heard a loud roaring wave, and our village was flooded. The school was washed away, just like everything else around,” said Chilia, who was chosen to lay the first brick to rebuild the first block of classrooms in his village after the devastating Cyclone Pam.

With donations by well-wishers in Australia after Cyclone Pam hit, villagers were challenged to rebuild Chilia’s school within three days, and they did.

“We used big white tents donated by UNICEF as classrooms until we built the school. The whole village pitched in to build on day one (which was) on a Friday. On the second day, we painted the school, and on the third day, we celebrated as we opened the school. On Monday, we were back to school,” he said.

Climate Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

Chilia believes that Pacific Islands like Vanuatu need to be compensated to repair and restore infrastructure lost to the impacts of climate change. He says developed countries responsible for high carbon emissions that have led to global warming should take responsibility for their action and pay up.

“I am calling on all countries of the world to step up on climate justice for the Pacific Islands by supporting (the creation of) a loss and damage facility at this COP27,” Chilia told IPS. He explained that the Vanuatu government should seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice in settling the issue of payments for loss and damage caused by climate change.

Developing countries arguing that they have suffered the impacts of climate change to which they have not contributed are pushing for a loss and damage fund to compensate them for climate impacts.

Espen Ronneberg, Senior Adviser, Multilateral Climate Change Agreements for the Pacific Community (SPC), says loss and damage will continue without ambitious mitigation action and reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. He says the impacts of climate change are already being experienced.

“We are also looking into the future and how those impacts will get much worse unless mitigation is ramped up and unless technical assistance, finance, for instance, are also ramped up,” said Ronneberg, who explained that available resources were not fit-for-purpose in addressing the current impacts of climate change in pacific island countries.

“The type of loss and damage that we are seeing now and that we are anticipating given the different scenarios is not really going to address those impacts. We know there is humanitarian assistance available, there is the Green Fund and the Adaptation Fund, but these do not meet the needs we are seeing,” he said.

“The loss and damage facility is a key to the Pacific Islands, but there are a lot of unknowns at the moment. We know what we do not want. This has to be worked out in common with our development partners, and everyone has to be on the same page regarding loss and damage issues. We are not quite there yet.”

For Chilia, the impact of climate change is real.

“Climate change has hit me personally and has impacted human rights,” Chilia said. “My mother used to be a tourism sales lady, but she is back home because the cyclone destroyed her stall.”

Chilia says he now supports his family.

“I am the breadwinner of the house with seven of us in the family, and I work the one job at the restaurant and bar just to feed the family.”

Chilia could not complete his secondary school after he was forced to drop out when his mother lost her tourism business. His father is unable to work after developing a painful back. He used to take on seasonal jobs picking apples in Australia and New Zealand.

He said coming to COP27 was his first opportunity to travel, but the experience left him enriched. He had learnt so much about climate change and could not wait to tell his village about restoring lost coral reefs.

“I love snorkelling, and when I go snorkelling, I do not see any coloured reefs anymore, but we can do a lot to restore our coral reefs that we are losing because of climate change.”

The Island of Vanuatu relies on coral ecosystems for their economic, livelihood, and coastal protection benefits. A rise in ocean temperatures has led to coral bleaching, while acidification has reduced the availability of calcium minerals in the water that corals need to grow and repair themselves.

“I have a dream – even though my dream has been broken because I did not get to finish my year 10 at school and had to get a job to help my family,” said Chilia. “But I want to bring (the world’s) attention to climate change,” said Chilia, who believes that his activism as a member of Greenpeace Australia Pacific will help make a difference.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Excerpt:

Corals and coral reefs are found around the islands and atolls of the Pacific. In Vanuatu, the government, with the support of SPC, implemented a coral reef climate change adaptation project based on coral gardening. Photo credit: SPC

By Catherine Wilson
Sydney, Nov 5 2022 (IPS)

Today, the window of opportunity for scaled-up global climate action to prevent disastrous global warming and build resilience in the most vulnerable nations is closing fast. And a major impediment to reducing emissions and accelerating climate adaptation is both lack of financial investment and major bureaucratic hurdles to accessing those funds that are available.

For Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS), the failure of the international community to provide US$100 billion per year to address climate change impacts in the developing world, a pledge made thirteen years ago, has grave consequences. And it will be a major issue for Pacific leaders at the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference due to start in Egypt on Sunday.

On Kadavu and Ra Islands in Fiji, SPC supported the implementation of an Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) and climate change resilience project. Photo credit: SPC

“The Pacific is at the frontline of the impacts of climate change. Climate finance is critical to allow mitigation and adaptation actions, yet the region is suffering from a lack of access to the climate finance already committed to global mechanisms like the Green Climate Fund. Due to global priority setting or global priorities, it is not flowing to where it is needed most,” Dr Stuart Minchin, Director-General of the regional development organization, Pacific Community, in Noumea, New Caledonia, told IPS. “It seems the polluters are setting the rules, and consequently, the flow of climate finance is more like a drip feed than the torrent that is required to meet the challenges of the region.”

Island nations scattered across the Pacific Ocean are among the world’s most exposed to climate extremes, such as rising air temperatures, ocean acidification, more damaging cyclones, heatwaves and the critical loss of biodiversity, water and food security, the IPCC reported this year. The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat estimates that the region needs US$1 billion per year to implement its climate adaptation goals and US$5.2 billion annually by 2030.

“Without global funding, Pacific Island countries and territories will not be able to identify and implement climate solutions,” Anne-Claire Goarant, Programme Manager for the Pacific Community’s Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Programme in Noumea told IPS, adding that the costs will be high. “Already climate-induced disasters are causing economic costs of 0.5 percent to 6.6 percent of annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Pacific Island countries. This trend will continue in the future in the absence of urgent climate action. Without adaptation measures, a high island, such as Viti Levu in Fiji, could experience damages of US$23-52 million per year by 2050.”

The unique characteristics of islands, such as small land areas, the very close proximity of many communities, infrastructure and economic activities to coastlines and precarious economies, means that severe weather events can have disastrous impacts. Fifty-five percent of the Pacific Islanders live less than 1 kilometre from the sea, and every year more villages face relocation as their existence is endangered by flooding and sea erosion.  Excessive heat, drought and rainfall are predicted to threaten crop and food production, and by the end of the century, important revenues from Pacific tourism could plummet by 27-34 percent.

The costs of climate adaptation could reach more than 25 percent of GDP in Kiribati, 15 percent of GDP in Tuvalu and more than 10 percent of GDP in Vanuatu. Yet Pacific Island nations are ‘among the least equipped to adapt, putting their economic development and macroeconomic stability at risk,’ reports the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

One of the two largest global sources of climate finance is the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which has the mandate to focus on the needs of developing countries, and another, the Adaptation Fund, supports tangible adaptation projects. However, most of the global funding tracked by Oxfam in 2017-2018 did not reach the most fragile nations. Only 20.5 percent of reported finance was allocated to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and 3 percent to Small Island Developing States.

“On financing adaptation in developing countries, what’s happened thus far is not good enough. We need to scale up quite dramatically the ambition within the multilateral development banks and bilateral donors. And we need to work on blended finance, where some public finance leverages private finance, and there is a proper sharing of risks between the private and public sectors,” Mark Carney, the United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Finance, has stated.

The Pacific Community is working closely with nations across the region to develop and submit climate funding proposals and support them in implementing projects once finance is approved. In Fiji, Nauru, Tonga and the Solomon Islands, for example, it is supporting projects on the ground to build climate resilience expertise and capacity among smallholder farmers with a Euro 4.6 million grant from the multi-donor Kiwa Initiative.

But many countries in the region are experiencing limited success with funding applications. In the Federated States of Micronesia, financial support is needed for increasing resilience in health, protecting coastal areas, lifeline access roads, and critical infrastructure from climate destruction and improving water security, Belinda Hadley, Team Leader in FSM’s National Designated Authority for the Green Climate Fund explained. But funding remains elusive as the island states struggle with overly difficult and resource-intensive application processes.

“The processes to apply for multilateral climate finance are heavy and complex. This makes accessing climate finance a slow and onerous process. In-country capacities within governments and other institutions are insufficient in the face of such complex processes. Many countries don’t have enough sufficient personnel to meet the burdensome requirements set by the donors,” Dirk Snyman, Co-ordinator of the Pacific Community’s Climate Finance Unit told IPS. “Even after project approval, disbursement of funds can still take one to two years. This does not allow countries to implement their adaptation and mitigation actions within the timeframes required.”

Funders need “to facilitate faster and easier access to climate finance in such a manner that the climate change priorities of Pacific communities, rather than the priorities and policies of the donors, are driving the regional portfolio of climate change projects,” Maëva Tesan, Communications and Knowledge Management Officer for the Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Programme emphasized.

Snyman said that the situation could be improved if multilateral finance providers made application procedures more streamlined and flexible, changed the current compliance-based approach to a focus on positive project impacts and a dedicated climate fund was established for losses and damages in the region.

These views are echoed by the IMF, which recommends that climate finance providers should recognize ‘the shrinking window of opportunity to address the climate crisis’ and ‘consider further efforts to rebalance the risks to shareholders with the urgency of climate adaptation needs of small and fragile countries.’

The COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on 6-18 November.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

The Pacific Community’s Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees gene bank conserves more than 2,000 varieties of trees and crops in the Pacific Islands. Credit: Pacific Community

By Catherine Wilson
SYDNEY, Sep 22 2022 (IPS)

Safeguarding plentiful, nutritious supplies of food for the present generation of Pacific Islanders and those who come in the future is a frontline goal in the wake of the pandemic and the continual threat of climate extremes to island farming. But the region, where 50 to 70 percent of people depend on agriculture and fisheries for sustenance and income, is now one step ahead in that objective. The region’s agricultural gene bank, established by the development organisation, Pacific Community (SPC), is now acclaimed as world-class and a leader in building future food supplies.

The Pacific Community’s Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees manages the major research centre for plant genetic biodiversity and repository of seeds, tissue culture, and DNA. The gene bank, which currently conserves more than 2,000 varieties of trees and crops in the Pacific Islands, was the winner of the Innovative Island Research Award at this year’s global Island Innovation Awards in April. The new award program was launched last year by former President Bill Clinton and is supported by his New York-based Clinton Global Initiative.

“We won the award because of our strong research programs and our use of tissue culture to conserve plant genetic material. Through research, we are developing tissue culture as a means to sustainably conserve genetic material in the long term. Through tissue culture, we can also improve mass propagation and multiply genetic resources to meet a high level of demand. Tissue culture is also better for the safe distribution and exchange of plant materials across national borders,” Logotonu Waqainabele, Program Leader for the Pacific Community’s Genetic Resources in Fiji, told IPS.

The awards aim to reward and raise the profile of individuals and organisations who are leading positive change in people’s lives in island nations and communities around the world. They are also part of the Clinton Foundation’s mission to mobilise innovative and effective solutions to some of the most urgent challenges facing the world. This year, the twenty judges included Anote Tong, former President of the Republic of Kiribati, and James Michel, former President of the Republic of the Seychelles, along with Peter Thompson, the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, and Maria Concepcion, Program Manager for Oxfam America.

Pacific Community’s Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees gene bank won the Innovative Island Research Award at this year’s global Island Innovation Awards in April. The award program was launched last year by former President Bill Clinton and is supported by his New York-based Clinton Global Initiative. Credit: Pacific Community

Karen Mapusua, Director of the Pacific Community’s Land Resources Division in Fiji, believes the accolade will also bring greater certainty to the future of its work. “I think one of the important benefits will be funding and the sustainability of operations for the gene bank. To move to an increasingly sustainable funding model, we need more investment. And increased awareness of what we can provide, so that people know what we hold in the Pacific, the material, and its availability, for the world to see as well,” she told IPS.

“The broadening of our partnership base and attracting of other partners who are willing to support our programs, research and distribution will help us to achieve full food security, added Waqainebele.

The gene bank’s services are global: it supplies tissue culture, seeds, and planting materials to countries in all regions. These include all 22 Pacific Island states, but also African nations, including Ghana, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, the Caribbean and, in the Asian region, the Philippines, India and Indonesia, among others.

This year, the Pacific Community opened two new facilities to support its international distribution. A molecular laboratory, which provides pathogen testing of genetic material to international standards, and a quarantine greenhouse, which will be a reception centre for new plant imports.

Pacific Community’s Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees gene bank supplies tissue culture, seeds, and planting materials to countries in all regions, including 22 Pacific Island states, several African nations, the Caribbean, and, in the Asian region, the Philippines, India, and Indonesia, among others. Credit: Pacific Community

“A key role of the gene bank is to provide material that is safe and clean. Our molecular laboratory screens gene material, so that it is safe to send to other countries without diseases,” Mapusua explained.

The importance of SPC’s work in genetic resources cannot be overestimated. There is no food without seeds. And, looking to the future, ‘crop improvement and the delivery of high-quality seeds and planting materials of selected varieties to growers is necessary for ensuring improved crop production and meeting growing environmental challenges,’ reports the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The Cook Islands is one of the gene bank’s beneficiaries. It’s vital to the “long-term conservation of important genetic resources of the Cook Islands. There are more than 50 clones of taro, bananas or plantain and sweet potatoes from the Cook Islands at the Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees for long-term conservation and future breeding work to improve crop genetic resources in the Pacific and other parts of the world,” William Wigmore, Director of Crops Research at the Cook Islands’ Ministry of Agriculture, told IPS.

“We also receive [from the gene bank] new varieties with higher yielding potential and better adaptability, pest, and climate tolerance. These are important food crops for food security,” he added.

Technicians at the Pacific Community’s Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees gene bank bag and test samples. The centre is gaining world recognition for food innovation. Credit: Pacific Community

Now, as the Pacific Islands strive to overcome the economic and social impacts of the pandemic, the reliable provision of seeds for food growing is even more critical. Unemployment and inflation have risen, incomes plummeted, and food supply networks widely disrupted. A World Bank survey in Papua New Guinea in 2020 found that about 25 percent of people who were employed before the onset of the virus had lost their jobs, and 28 percent of households had reduced their food consumption. In the Solomon Islands, the survey revealed that 60 percent of households with children under 5 years had cut back on their intake of essential foods.

In response, many Pacific Island governments have placed a high priority on encouraging the growing of food staples by families. For instance, in Tuvalu, workshops were organised by the government to train youths in agriculture, such as taro planting, and Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture launched a program to provide seedlings direct to households.

“It is critical to provide the planting materials for recovery. It’s very important for maintaining food security in the region,” Mapusua told IPS. “It was very difficult during the pandemic as we had to fly these planting materials to different countries, but we were still able to sustain the collection and deliver these materials to countries.”

But, even before COVID-19 emerged, island nations were confronting numerous threats to agricultural productivity, such as high exposure to extreme climate, natural disasters, pests and diseases and a trend toward greater consumption of imported processed foods. According to the latest findings of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Pacific Island nations are among the ‘most vulnerable and exposed to climate change impacts,’ which include more frequent and extreme tropical cyclones, heatwaves and droughts, increasing water and food insecurity and the loss of marine and terrestrial biodiversity.

To address all these challenges, the Pacific Community has a long-term vision and action plan which starts with investing in plant research and crop development for the century ahead. “Our role is conservation for the future, but also the development of new varieties. For the future, climate change, food security and nutrition are the biggest issues. So, we have a big focus on conserving our plant diversity to help us develop new varieties which have a high climate resilience,” Waqainabele emphasised.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

By External Source
Aug 9 2022 (IPS-Partners)

Holothurians, also known as sea cucumbers, are an important source of income for coastal communities in the Pacific. Their exploitation has grown over the past decades, targeting international markets. In some parts of the world, they are considered a delicacy where they can fetch very high prices consequently, they are being overfished in some areas of the Pacific region.

In 2021 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) added two of the highest value sea cucumber species to its Appendix 2 list, which means that exporting countries are now required to prove that these species are fished in a sustainable way otherwise exporting them is prohibited.

Organised by the Pacific Community (SPC), in the framework of the PROTEGE project, two training sessions on the identification of sea cucumbers, and particularly of the two CITES-listed species, were organised for New-Caledonian local authorities on 18 and 19 July, with representatives of the Fiji Ministry of Fisheries assisting with the training.

The training included a presentation of the provisions of the environment code relating to sea cucumber fishing in New Caledonia, explanations by the Veterinary, Food and Phytosanitary Inspection Service (SIVAP) about the implications of a CITES listing of species, and a step-by-step process to correctly identify 14 species of sea cucumbers, in their live and processed forms. The training is one of the actions held by SPC’s Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability (CCES) and Fisheries Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems (FAME) Divisions to promote sustainable ecosystems management.

The training was held at a local exporter’s processing plant, which allowed participants to handle and observe the sea cucumber species they should be able to identify. To further assist, an identification guide produced by SPC for New Caledonia was distributed to each participant. A test to validate the knowledge acquired was organised at the end of the day. Its success rate reached 100%!

Sea cucumbers are vital to many communities in the Pacific Islands region, providing a rare opportunity for cash income, particularly in remote areas. They also play a critical role in the health of the marine environment by cleaning the sediments from which they extract their food. They support the development of seagrass beds, which are refuge and food for marine organisms such as fish, dugongs and turtles. For all these reasons, the proper management of this resource is of paramount importance.

The Pacific Community will organise other training sessions in New Caledonia in September and will develop similar trainings for the region in coming months.

Know more about holothurians of commercial interest in the tropical Pacific: https://bit.ly/3oEWVHw

Would you like to learn more about how to identify holothurians? Watch these video tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cWawjqWVLU

About PROTÉGÉ

PROTEGE (“Pacific Territories Regional Project for Sustainable Ecosystem Management” or “protect” in French) is an initiative designed to promote sustainable and climate-change-resilient economic development in the European Pacific overseas countries and territories (OCT) by emphasising biodiversity and renewable resources. Implemented by the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), PROTEGE is a regional cooperation project that supports the public policies of the four Pacific OCTs, i.e. New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and Pitcairn.

On the airwaves - DJ Ulu, Mama Nessa and Mama Trina (left to right).

By External Source
TONGA, Aug 8 2022 (IPS-Partners)

Tonga was still picking up the pieces after the Hunga volcanic eruption and tsunami waves when the pandemic reached its shores.

The volcano’s ashfall had damaged roads, polluted water and destroyed crops. The tsunami waves battered homes and strewn debris inland. The telecommunications services connecting people to their families were just coming back online as news of the first COVID-19 cases broke.

A lockdown was swiftly announced to curb an uncontrolled spread of the virus. Though a critical public health intervention, it was an additional blow to the island nation – compounding the issues for many people already struggling to rebuild after Hunga.

In response, the Talitha Project – an NGO committed to empower young women ages 10 to 24 to make informed decisions through informal education, lifeskills and development programmes in Tonga – took to the airwaves.

The new radio programme Tui ha’o Sei ‘Amanaki Lelei (Positive Sei) aims to support young people through this challenging time. A significant 55% of the population of Tonga – more than half are young people under 25.[1]

“We saw that the people’s confidence was low because they were traumatised by these unpredictable crises,” explained Vanessa Heleta, Founder and Director of the Talitha Project in Tonga. “We decided to create a radio programme particularly targeting youths to direct their focus to find positiveness in the midst of all the chaos.”

“It’s a part of our recovery process that, even though we had these major climate disasters and now a health crisis, we need to realise that life has to go on with a positive direction. Even if it’s a little step, we have to reboot and reorder because there are so many great things ahead and we really want to see our young people become the best version of themselves.”

Vanessa, Katrina and Alokoulu

“It’s been great to hear from youth and also parents who say ‘we love your show its real, authentic and you talk from the heart’,” shared Katrina. “Feedback like this continues to remind us about our purpose as agents of change.”

“The show has helped lift the morale and self-esteem of youth. With the circumstances we are in – from natural disasters to pandemic – it’s times like this, we need to uplift each other and support each other which is what the show is all about”.

To date, the hosts have discussed a range of issues including the importance of cultivating a positive attitude, healthy relationships and making the right choices. Many of these topics have been listener requests – a positive sign, according to the team, as they want to ensure that the programme is engaging for young people.

Although there have been calls for a daily radio spot, Tui ha’o Sei ‘Amanaki Lelei has been a weekly, one-hour show since it started on 22 February. Vanessa hopes to see the radio programme continue as long as it is needed.

“We are in lockdown and people are recovering at different stages,” she said. “We have been supporting one another at this time and need to continue doing so. This lockdown can be a blessing as well for families to reconnect and also taking into account the different abuses in households during this time. “

The Tui ha’o Sei ‘Amanaki Lelei programme is airs Wednesdays from 8 to 9pm on 88.6FM and livestreamed on the Talitha Project’s Facebook page.

The Talitha Project is supported by the Pacific Girl programme – funded by Australia and managed through the Pacific Community (SPC) Pacific Women Lead.

[1] 55,270 of Tonga’s 100,651 population (55%) according to the Tonga 2016 Census of Population and Housing. This figure is the sum total of: Less than 1 year of age; Children aged 1-14; and Youth aged 15-24.

Pacific Community health experts conduct laboratory training for COVID-19 testing with their healthcare colleagues in Nuku'alofa, Tonga. Credit: Pacific Community (SPC)

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia , May 3 2022 (IPS)

Before the pandemic emerged in 2020, health services in many Pacific Island countries were under-resourced, under-funded and under-staffed. Now following recent outbreaks of COVID-19, advancing the capacity and development of health and medical services in vulnerable nations, such as Tonga and Kiribati, is increasingly urgent.

In the central Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati, virus cases have skyrocketed from zero to more than 3,000 since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, the Polynesian kingdom of Tonga was hit early this year by a devastating submarine volcanic eruption and then a spike in COVID-19 cases.

“Ashfall and a tsunami from the volcanic eruption affected an estimated 84 percent of the population covering the whole of Tonga,” Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni’s office announced in late January.

In Kiribati, Margaret Leong, SPC’s Infection Prevention and Control Adviser, conducted training in the use of PPE with local healthcare staff. Credit: Pacific Community (SPC)

The deployment of health and medical experts to Tonga and Kiribati in February by the regional development organization, Pacific Community, have proven to be crucial support missions.

“Tonga is in a unique and unprecedented scenario. It is contending with a triple event: the volcanic eruption, the tsunami and COVID-19 outbreak. They are all related to one another. We are in Tonga in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, helping to ensure the quality of COVID-19 testing is maintained, aspiring to zero contamination, to support infection prevention and control,” Dr Sunia Soakai, Deputy Director of the Pacific Community’s Public Health Division told IPS from Tonga.

Tonga, an archipelago nation of 104,494 people in the southern Pacific Ocean, managed, for a long time, to stave off the pandemic, recording its first COVID-19 case only in October last year. Then on the 15 January, the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai underwater volcano, located 65 kilometres northeast of the country’s main island of Tongatapu, erupted violently, propelling massive amounts of volcanic ash into the atmosphere and triggering far-reaching tsunami waves. Many islanders were affected, either by health problems, such as breathing and cardiovascular difficulties, the loss of food sources or forced displacement.

But, as the world reached out to help, disaster recovery efforts were complicated by a spike in the pandemic. As of 20 April, Tonga recorded 9,220 cases of COVID-19 and 11 related deaths.

While Tongans receive free public healthcare, the island nation has limited health infrastructure and human resources. “We are providing support to three hospitals located on Tonga’s outer islands to boost their capacities for COVID-19 testing. That involves assisting them to collect samples and, if needed, transporting them to locations where equipment for testing is available…We’ve also been asked to conduct a thorough review of the country’s health protocols and procedures, such as handling of the deceased, quarantine requirements and procedures related to health care workers returning to work after positive diagnosis of COVID-19,” Dr Soakai described. “And we are working to ensure that other health services continue to be available to non-COVID patients.”

Local nurses dedicated to working in COVID-19 patient hospital wards in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati. Credit: Pacific Community (SPC)

SPC is a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO)-led multi-agency Joint Incident Management Team and provides a wide spectrum of support services, including building the capacities of health systems, improving training and qualifications of healthcare workers across the region and commissioning new medical research.

“The team that was recently deployed to Tonga was very timely. They came when there was a lot of demand in our laboratory to do tests. This was before Rapid Antigen Tests were widely used for testing. We were sending up to 500 swabs per day and this was a challenge to our laboratory,” Dr Ana Akau’ola, Medical Superintendent of the main Vaiola Hospital in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, told IPS.

Earlier in the year, Elisiva Na’ati, a dietitian from the Pacific Community arrived in the country to aid recovery efforts following the volcanic disaster. “She came when there was a need to develop nutritional proposals for the islanders who had been displaced after the tsunami,” Dr Akau’ola added.

Across the vast Pacific Ocean, containing 22 island nations and territories with a total population of about 11.9 million, the role of the Pacific Community during the pandemic is, for many islanders, the difference between life and death. Many national governments work with constrained budgets and, therefore, funding and resources for health, with specialist and full hospital services often only available in main urban centres.

Only 12 of 21 Pacific Island countries have met the global goal of 4.5 healthcare workers per 1,000 people and national health expenditure per capita in 10 Pacific nations is US$500 or less, compared to the world average of US$1,000, WHO reports. It is not just islanders suffering from the virus, but also those afflicted with other serious illnesses, such as Tuberculosis, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, who are experiencing over-burdened health clinics and hospitals.

Since the pandemic emerged, the Pacific Community has provided countries with laboratories, medical technology and skills for the testing of COVID-19, assisted vaccination initiatives, upskilled the capabilities of nurses for greater responsibility and strengthened national capabilities to monitor emerging public health threats.

In the atolls of Kiribati, home to about 119,940 people, SPC’s medical and health professionals worked alongside local health staff, patients and international partners, such as UNICEF, WHO and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which provided funding.

The country managed to keep COVID-19 from crossing its borders until January when its first case was identified in an incoming traveller. By April 20, 2022, Kiribati had diagnosed 3,076 virus cases in the country with 13 fatalities.

“We went into the country at the peak. We came to assist with preparing the wards, to support the training of PPE use. We set up isolation centres for patients in the community because the hospital beds were all full. We also worked with airport and border control staff, helping them to use practical and effective PPE, such as disposable gowns,” Margaret Leong, the Pacific Community’s Infection Prevention and Control Adviser, who was deployed to Kiribati in February, told IPS.

“Some of the issues and challenges they had were healthcare worker fatigue and psychological stress. Staff were getting sick, so there were insufficient numbers of healthcare workers at the peak. This put stress on the remaining healthcare workers,” Leong continued.

Laboratory training conducted by the Pacific Community-led health and medical mission in February and March boosted the capacity of Kiribati health services to cope with the pressures of a surge in COVID-19 cases. Credit: Pacific Community (SPC)

At the same time, Dr Lamour Hansell led the SPC’s Clinical Care Services part of the mission, helping to manage COVID patients in intensive care. “We started up a new hospital for COVID patients, supplying new infrastructure. An old hotel was found [in Nuku’alofa] and turned into a critical care facility. The Intensive Care Unit was located in the main hotel lobby and it was one of the best I have worked in,” Dr Hansell told IPS.

The work was relentless, round the clock and demanding, but Dr Hansell had only praise for his local colleagues, who, he said, were flexible and adaptable in the face of enormous professional and personal pressures. He witnessed many moments of courage and strength in his co-workers, remembering “one of the clinicians who had to treat and manage her own grandmother who had COVID-19. It was a very humbling thing to see, very humbling and inspiring,” he emphasised.

The number of new virus cases has slowed in both countries since the beginning of April, but internal lockdown restrictions remain in place. While the Pacific Community’s in-country missions responded to the peak of the crisis, the organization is accessible throughout the year to provide virtual, logistical support and mentoring to Pacific Island nations whenever it’s needed.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Pacific Islanders depend on coastal fisheries for food and commercial livelihoods. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia , Feb 28 2022 (IPS)

Oceans play a pivotal role in regulating the world’s climate and maintaining the conditions for human life on earth. And they are a crucial source of sustenance and economic wellbeing in many developing countries, including small island developing states. But Pacific Islanders are deeply concerned about the fate of the oceans if world leaders fail to secure the pledges needed to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 Degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels at the next COP27 climate change summit in November.

“We all need to do more. The target has been set. In the coming year, in the lead-up to the next climate change conference, there is a huge emissions gap. We are not translating that into tangible commitments on the ground that enable us, as humanity, to say we are on the right trajectory,” Cameron Diver, Head of the Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Programme at the regional development organisation, Pacific Community (SPC), in Noumea, New Caledonia, told IPS.

The Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest and covers one-third of the planet’s surface. It’s a major carbon sink. Oceans absorb nearly one-quarter of all carbon emissions associated with human activities every year. But, after mid-century, continuing high emissions will generate a decline in the capacity of oceans to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, reports the IPCC. And this will compromise their role in regulating climate and weather extremes.

The socioeconomic impacts of climate change in this scenario “could be catastrophic. It will have a massive impact on people who ultimately live their lives with the ocean,” Diver emphasised. He elaborated that sea-level rise would diminish arable land and lead to population displacement, while higher levels of ocean acidification will threaten coral reefs and coastal fisheries. Food insecurity is a very real risk, given that 70 percent of Pacific Islanders derive their protein from inshore fisheries.

In the Polynesian atoll nation of Tuvalu in the Central Pacific Ocean, “all communities in Tuvalu live around the coast. We are surrounded by the sea, and coastal erosion is a great issue impacting on our food, especially inundating our pulaka pits,” Teuleala Manuella-Morris, Country Manager for the Live and Learn environmental non-governmental organisation, told IPS. “Pulaka is a root crop and is grown in pits dug down to reach the rainwater trapped in the water pan. However, these can become salty during droughts or cyclones when the waves manage to get into the pulaka pits.” Sea surges and cyclones are destroying many of these crops, she said.

Pacific Islanders have emerged as some of the world’s strongest campaigners for the conservation and sustainable development of the sea, a role that is driven by their dependence on the ‘Blue Continent’.

“All Pacific Islands have a reliance on tuna and other marine resources for government income, food security, livelihoods, and ecosystem services. In terms of income, this is particularly notable for many Pacific small island developing states and territories where there are limited resources to provide alternative revenue streams, such as in Tokelau and Kiribati,” Dr Graham Pilling, Deputy Director of the Pacific Community’s Oceanic Fisheries Programme told IPS.

The Pacific is the world’s largest ocean and plays a vital role in regulating the earth’s climate. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

It’s not just the Pacific but the world’s oceans that will be threatened if carbon emissions continue to rise. And this would have serious consequences for the more than 260 million people across the globe with livelihoods that rely on marine fisheries and developing countries which benefit from the US$80 billion which the sector generates in export revenues.

Over time, rising greenhouse gases lead to greater acidification and depletion of oxygen in the seas and changes in the circulation of sea currents. Rising temperatures are boosting thermal stress on coral reefs. Mass coral bleaching would lead to the deterioration and mortality of corals and the marine life they support.

The breakdown of reef and coastal marine ecosystems will have repercussions for coastal populations which depend on coastal fisheries and tourism for food and incomes. By 2050, only an estimated 15 percent of coral reefs worldwide will be capable of sustainable coral growth, according to the sustainable development organisation, Pacific Environment (SPREP).

Meanwhile, offshore fisheries, especially the tuna industry, provide essential government revenues and tens of thousands of jobs across the Pacific Islands. The tuna market is a global one, and the western and central Pacific Ocean is the source of 60 percent of the world’s tuna catch. Two-thirds of all tuna caught is acquired by foreign fishing vessels, with 90 percent taken by other countries for processing, reports the Pacific Islands Forum. The main nations that ply Pacific waters include Japan, the United States, Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Fishing access fees, for example, amount to US$128.3 million or 70.6 percent of government revenue per year in Kiribati and US$31 million or 47.8 percent of government revenue in the Marshall Islands.

However, a recent study by a group of international scientists, including several such as Steven R. Hare, Dr Graham Pilling, Dr Simon Nicol and Coral Pasisi, from the Pacific Community, highlights the serious consequences of global warming for the future of the region’s tuna fisheries. Changes in the ocean are projected to drive tuna populations away from tropical waters.

“Modelling results suggest that overall, climate change may lead to reduced abundance of tuna in the waters of many Pacific Island countries and territories, and key tuna resources are likely to move further east into the high seas outside the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of Pacific Islands,” Dr Simon Nicol, Principal Fisheries Scientist in the Pacific Community’s Fisheries Division told IPS. “Given the contribution of tuna to annual GDPs of Pacific nations, reduced abundances and greater variability in annual catches will enforce ‘Global Financial Crisis’ type stressors on government services provided by the Pacific Islands on a regular basis.”

The study, published in the Nature Sustainability journal, concludes that, by 2050, the purse-seine catch of tuna in 10 Pacific Island nations could decline by an average of 20 percent, leading to a loss of US$90 million in foreign fishing fees per year. The broader effects on islanders’ lives could be more precarious economies, food insecurity and higher unemployment.

The repercussions of climate change on the oceans will be experienced not only in the Pacific but also in nations dependent on the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. This could affect the lives of more than 775 million people worldwide who rely on marine resources for socioeconomic survival and jeopardise the global market for marine and coastal resources and industries, which is currently valued at about US$3 trillion every year.

Last year, Pacific Island Forum countries’ leaders issued a statement calling for meaningful global action. We “note with significant concern that based on current trends, we will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius as early as 2030 unless urgent action is taken, with significant adverse impacts on the ocean.”

Diver also emphasised that climate pledges had to be embraced not only by world leaders but by everyone. “We need a whole of society approach. We need the whole of society to meet their obligations. We can’t just rely on the public sector to do this; it has to go right across every sector. An integrated approach is needed,” he said.

COP27 will be held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on 7-18 November 2022.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Tuvalu’s farmers have watched their crops destroyed by extreme tropical weather. They are now using Funafala 'food cubes' to have greater control over their harvests.

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia , Oct 13 2021 (IPS)

Tuvalu, a small atoll island nation in the Central Pacific Ocean, is one of few countries in the world to have so far evaded the pandemic. But, while it has achieved a milestone with no recorded cases of COVID-19, its population of about 11,931 continues to battle food uncertainties and poor nutrition. These challenges, present long before the pandemic emerged, have been exacerbated by lockdown restrictions and economic hardships during the past year and a half.

In the low-lying island country, people have strived to grow food with “lack of access to land, lack of compost for growing food and, more so, with high tides and cyclones flooding the land with seawater,” Teuleala Manuella-Morris, Country Manager for the environmental and development organization, Live & Learn, in the capital, Funafuti, told IPS.

For years the islanders have watched their food gardens destroyed by extreme tropical weather and disasters, such as cyclones and tidal surges. These factors have contributed to their increasing consumption of imported foods.  But now, the future is looking more certain with the introduction of an innovative farming system on Funafala, an islet situated close to the main Funafuti Island.

The new farming method is based on a modular structure of specially designed boxes, known as ‘food cubes’, which give local food growers greater control over their harvests.

“Tuvalu, as an atoll nation, has a range of agricultural production challenges and also relies on imported food. The pandemic has also affected food supply chains. So, considering such challenges, there was a shift in policy in trying to strengthen food security programs. In the meantime, we were already piloting the food cube system in Tuvalu. It fits perfectly well with the shift in policy focus for food security for the country,” Gibson Susumu, Head of Sustainable Agriculture in the Land Resources Division of the regional development organization, Pacific Community, which is guiding the project’s implementation, told IPS.

Issues of declining agricultural production and persistent malnutrition have existed across the Pacific Islands for decades. Before the pandemic in 2019, 49.6 percent of Oceania’s population of an estimated 11.9 million endured moderate to severe food insecurity, reports the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).  Although stunting afflicts 10 percent of children under five years in Tuvalu, which is well below the regional average, the country carries a heavy burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). Eighty percent of men and 83.8 percent of women were classified as overweight in Tuvalu in 2016, cites the Global Nutrition Report, while diabetes afflicts 23.1 percent of adults, according to the World Health Organization.

It is anticipated that the use of food cubes will assist with food security on the atoll island of Tuvalu.

On Funafala, a vast interlocking array of boxes, raised above the ground, creates a patchwork field of green abundance. The ‘field’ contains 80-100 cubes spread over an area of 1.2 acres in which fruit and vegetables are being grown for more than 16 local households. Each ‘food cube’, which is one-metre square and 30 centimetres deep, is manufactured from 80 percent recycled food-grade plastic and designed with features that expose the plants grown within to oxygen and controlled irrigation.

“The Funafala garden has showcased the growing of local foods, like pulaka (giant swamp taro), taro, local figs, cassava, dwarf bananas and dwarf pawpaw trees…It is not only providing more food for the community but has also proven that the food cubes are another way of growing food in areas being flooded with seawater while maintaining soil fertility for more planting. At the same time, it saves water,” Manuella-Morris told IPS.

The ‘food cube’ was designed and produced by Biofilta, an Australian company developing modular urban farming systems six years ago. In 2017, the business won a worldwide competition called LAUNCH Food, commissioned by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to reward new solutions to the global issue of poor nutrition.

“To put it into a food security context, I think those food cubes will be able to produce up to 150 kilograms of vegetables and greens for a year, and that is sufficient to meet the green vegetable requirements for the member households,” Susumu said.

Biofilta claims that the system is “raised, so there is no risk of saltwater inundation, and our wicking technology is extremely water-efficient, using only a fraction of the water needed in conventional agriculture.” These are important features, as Tuvalu possesses no renewable water resources and its point of highest elevation above sea level is only 5 metres. Further, the farm uses compost, specifically tailored to the country’s soil needs by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), which also draws on ingredients from the island’s green waste treatment facility.

Another key partner, Live & Learn, has expanded trials of the farming system on other islands in Tuvalu. The long-term goal is better health outcomes and longer productive lives for islanders. “Because of agricultural challenges, the diet diversity is very low…So, with the diversification of the production systems, it means that the households have more access to healthy diets, and if the surpluses can be marketed, it also supports the income side of the households,” Susumu explained.

The Pacific Community also plans to consult with the government, local communities, and farmers to determine appropriate prices for the commercial sale of surplus fresh produce from the farms so that healthy food remains affordable to everyone.

More widely, the initiative is responding to calls from organizations, such as the FAO, to rethink food systems around the world so that smarter production leads to increased supplies of quality food, reduced pressures on finite natural resources, such as land and water, and the lower impact of agricultural practices on global warming.

The success of the ‘food cubes’ in Tuvalu has sparked enthusiasm by other Pacific Island countries, such as the Cook Islands and Fiji, where it’s also being trialled.

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

By External Source
SUVA, Fiji, Sep 3 2021 (IPS-Partners)

The Pacific has been battling the spread of the Coconut Rhinoceros Beetles (CRB) for years and is now challenged by the invasion of a new CRB biotype, the CRB-Guam strain, that has spread to seven Pacific Island countries in just a decade leaving thousands of dead palms in its wake. The Guam strain, together with much more established biotype CRB-S has hampered the success of renovation programmes for mature tall palms as well as newly emergent, high-value coconut product industries (such as virgin oil and coconut water) that offer economic opportunities for communities in the region.

To control the spread of this new strain in the Pacific, The Coconut rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros): A manual for control and management of the pest in Pacific Island countries and territories was compiled and included knowledge from the experience of staff from the Pacific Community (SPC) who have worked to control and manage the pest over the years.

Approximately 600 training manuals on Coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB) control and management have been published and distributed to Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea under the Pacific Awareness and Response to Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle (PARC) project implemented by the SPC’s Land Resources Division (LRD).

“The manual draws from extensive literature on CRB, particularly in relation to the Pacific Island countries and Territories (PICTs),” said LRD Director, Karen Mapusua.

“The Pacific Community is guiding the CRB management efforts through the PARC project, working closely with Vanuatu, PNG and Solomon Islands biosecurity. We hope this manual which is aimed at the new generation of scientists, technicians and extension officers will help control such invasive species and promote local agricultural initiatives.”

Mark Ero, Project Manager for PARC said the manual comprehensively captures all the required information about the pest ranging from its bio-ecology, possible high risk spread pathways, surveillance and monitoring procedures. These include delimiting survey procedures, emergency response plan, management options, guidelines for field collection, and tissue preparation for DNA analysis for biotype confirmation.

The manual is divided into three sections. The first section provides a brief review of CRB in the Pacific and an update on its current status. The second provides information on CRB recognition and assessment of the damage it causes, as well as methods for its collection and handling after it has been identified. Relevant contacts are also provided to facilitate access to expert assistance. Methods for further diagnostics are also outlined. Section three covers control actions for CRB region-wide and draws on the experiences of colleagues in the CRB Action Task Force – particularly those working in Guam, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea – on how to control the invasive CRB-G biotype.

SPC’s Pest and Disease Management Advisor Fereti Atumurirava says the emergence of CRB-G as an invasive pest underpins the need for a revision of data and a revitalisation of the CRB Integrated Pest Management (IPM) system to protect coconut and oil palm production.

“All governments and stakeholders in the region now have the tools through this manual to react and proactively liaise with SPC-LRD to provide the necessary guidance in preventing arrival, avoiding further spread within existing sites and containing this pest,” said Atumurirava.

The Pacific Awareness and Response to CRB (PARC) is funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and implemented by SPC. It aims to support control efforts of the CRB infestation in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu, including the new CRB Guam strain.

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

Many families in the Solomon Islands and across the Pacific Islands region struggle to keep their children in school due to COVID-19 related economic hardship. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia , Aug 27 2021 (IPS)

Before the pandemic, many Pacific Island countries grappled with low numbers of students completing secondary education. Now experts in the region are concerned that the closure of schools to contain the spread of COVID-19, and the economic downturn, will lead to even more students dropping out of education early.

It’s an issue that has consequences for the region’s future development, given its large youth population. The Pacific Islands is home to about 11.9 million people, more than half aged below 23 years. And 90 percent of Pacific Islanders reside in the southwest Melanesian countries of Fiji, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Solomon Islands.

“Many factors affect education retention in the Pacific region, and COVID-19-related disruptions to education have added to the list. It is very possible that, in instances where families are responsible for some or all of the fees for secondary education, some students will not be able to continue their education for economic reasons,” Michelle Belisle, Director of the Educational Quality and Assessment Program (EQAP) at the regional development organization, Pacific Community, in Fiji told IPS.

“The teenage years are an important time in a young person’s life and, unfortunately, experience has shown that students who leave school before the end of secondary are not likely to return to education until later in their adult life, if at all,” she continued.

Many families, now on lower incomes or affected by unemployment since the COVID-19 virus emerged in early 2020, are struggling to afford the costs of transport, fees, and educational materials for their children to attend schools where they are open.

In the Solomon Islands in the southwest Pacific, a nation of about 721,000 people scattered across more than 900 islands, less than half of all children finish primary school. Josephine Teakeni, President of Vois Blong Mere, a civil society organization in the capital, Honiara, told IPS that: “Some families have had to delay their children’s education while they find ways to get money to pay school fees…to send their children back to school in 2022. Some families have taken the risk of taking loans from formal and informal financial institutions to pay for school fees or support income-generating initiatives to pay school fees.”

For years, many Pacific Island countries had strived and successfully boosted universal education. But, while net primary enrolment is high across the region, the numbers of students starting school have not been matched by those completing it. In the Cook Islands, 100 percent of youths aged 10-14 years are enrolled in education, but this declines to 57 percent of those aged 15-19 years. Similarly, 93 percent of people aged 10-14 years are in school in the Solomon Islands, in contrast to 68 percent of the older age group.

Now, the closure of schools, as part of national lockdown restrictions, is exacerbating the loss of learning. UNICEF, which is working with Pacific Island governments to retain students in education, advocates that ‘with the COVID-19 pandemic now well into its second year, safely reopening schools has become an urgent priority. School attendance is critical for children’s education and lifetime prospects.’ It claims that extending school closures in the Asia Pacific region could result in losses of up to US$1.25 trillion in future productivity and lifetime earnings for the current generation.

As of 12 August, a total of 93,346 cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the Pacific Islands. The majority were located in Fiji, where there were 38,812 cases and PNG with 17,806.

In both nations, education institutions have shut for periods since the beginning of last year. In PNG, primary and secondary schools closed their doors from March to May 2020, and then again in March 2021, as virus cases rapidly rose. Restrictions were lifted in May, but the Pacific Community reports that many schools have chosen not to reopen because of ongoing fears about infection. Meanwhile, the lockdown in Fiji, which began on 20 April, is into its fourth month, and students are being encouraged to turn to online learning.

However, while about 50 percent of Fiji’s population has access to the internet, this drops to 11 percent in PNG. In the region’s most populous nation of about 9 million people, one-third of women and one-quarter of men aged six years and over never attended school prior to the pandemic. Many students, especially in rural areas, have faced significant barriers to participating in tuition being offered via radio, television, and the internet.

“There are lessons provided on TV and radio. Unfortunately, for most children, these lessons cannot be accessed due to radio stations in the provinces having poor signals and connections. Similarly, with TV. If electricity is not provided, lessons on TV are useless,” Dr Kilala Devette-Chee, Leader of the Universal Basic Education Research Program at PNG’s National Research Institute, told IPS. She added that high rates of illiteracy in rural communities also reduced the ability of many parents to support their children with home-based learning.

A rapid assessment by the PNG Government last year revealed that less than half of students in more than 72 percent of schools across the country had electricity at home. Only 22 percent of schools reported that most of their students had radios.

Children celebrate Youth Day this month, however, there is concern that COVID-19 lockdowns impacted on the education of children in the Pacific region. Credit: Pacific Community

“The lack of accessible alternate learning pathways for students outside of formal secondary education completion [across the region] leaves school leavers in many areas with no options for continuing and completing their education,” Belisle said. The digital divide could increase inequality in education outcomes, with rural and remotely located students the most vulnerable.

As a development organization with the capacity to draw from expertise across the region, the Pacific Community plays a vital role during this crisis. It’s providing governments and educational institutions with research, data, and insights into how the pandemic affects educational practices and outcomes, supporting informed decisions and response plans at the national level.

The organization’s gathering and analysis of student learning data, literacy and numeracy assessments and the performance of students in relation to their curriculum “is a priority to understand how the COVID-19 disruption is impacting learners differently and to assess risk factors for different segments of the population,” Belisle explained.

“In a post-COVID-19 environment, understanding the challenges of adapting teaching and support of students around disruptions to classroom-based learning, and how to support students learning at home for extended periods, will be critical to maintaining equitable access to quality education for all students.”

The work of the Pacific Community’s EQAP program, which receives major donor funding from Australia and New Zealand, also includes ensuring the quality and recognition of job-related skills training programs, which lead to micro qualifications, in fields ranging from business management to the sports professions. These initiatives aim to upskill Pacific Islanders to adapt to the changing landscape of work opportunities and build their resilience in times of economic setbacks.

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Fourteen Pacific Island Countries have enacted specific legislation to address domestic violence. While these laws have been developed to respond to domestic violence, implementation continues to be a challenge. It is affected by various factors that include practical social, cultural, religious, political, environmental and economic challenges.

Polotu Fakafanua-Paunga

The 2nd Regional Working Group on Family Protection and Domestic Violence (RWG) meeting will be held on 23-26 August, 2021. The meeting will focus on Pacific Island countries sharing experiences, reflecting on good practices, challenges, and learnings to date on the implementation of Domestic Violence (DV) legislation, particularly in the key priority areas (advisory committees, counselling and data collection) within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic environment and natural disasters.

This feature focuses on the Kingdom of Tonga, reflecting on their journey and their experiences in the implementation of the DV legislation. We spoke to Polotu Fakafanua-Paunga, Deputy CEO, Women Affairs Division, Ministry of Internal Affairs.

1. Where are you at in terms of the implementation of DV legislation in the Kingdom of Tonga? Please include any specific activities and timelines that was carried out to help in the implementation of DV legislation.

There has been significant progress in Tonga’s implementation of DV Legislation. In 2013, Tonga passed the Family Protection Act in 2013 to ensure the safety and protection of all persons including children who experience or witness domestic violence. The act was implemented the following year also leading to the establishment of the Family Protection Advisory Council (FPAC).

In 2016, we established the FPAC Counselling sub-committee. In 2018 the Family Protection Act Trust Fund for Gender Based Violence service providers was implemented. The Tonga Family Protection Legal Aid Center was established following that and work began on consolidating Domestic Violence administrative data from frontline agencies. The year 2019 saw momentous developments with the development of the Tonga Family Protection Counselling Framework and the establishment of the Tonga Police Domestic Violence Unit.

In addition, these four sub-committees was established: Family Protection Advisory Council (FPAC) Referral sub-committee, FPAC Data sub-committee and FPAC Faith Based Organization & GBV sub-committee. The Tonga National Service Delivery Protocol began its development and 2019 also saw the completion of the 5-year review of the Tonga Family Protection Act, 2013 and the Inclusion of Domestic Violence module at Tonga MICS survey2013.

Last year, Tonga’s first Family Protection Act (FPA) Panel of Counsellors was registered. This year, we have thus far launched Tonga’s National Service Delivery Protocol, progressed the national validation of the Tonga SDP and consequently rolled out the Training of Trainers of Service Delivery Protocol.

2. Has there been any significant progress with the implementation process of the DV legislation in Tonga?

Yes, there has certainly been substantial progress in the last few years with the establishment of a Family Unit Protection Legal Aid Center and the Tonga Police Domestic Violence Unit. Progress has been made with the empowerment of Police officers to issue Police Safety Order especially in outer islands where there are few resident magistrates. We have seen that the Coordination and collaborations between GBV stakeholders have improved tremendously. It is also encouraging to see stakeholders that have or are in the process of developing their own Referral Protocol aligning with the National Protocol (Tonga Leitis Association (LGBTQI) & Health System).

3. What are some challenges faced with the implementation process of the DV legislation in Tonga?

Some of the challenges of the implementation of the Domestic Violence legislation include the following: i) there is no standard legal age or child protection act in Tonga. ii) Health services require commitment especially on performing their roles under the FPA. iii) Women unable to own land (perpetrators are the landowners so it is a challenge to remove them legally from the homes during domestic violence incidents). iv) Tonga only have 5 key services available (legal, police, health, social and temporary shelter).

Legal and social services are not recognized as essential services and thus hinder access of survivors to assistance and response from service providers during emergencies such as the COVID 19 pandemic or natural disasters). v)There is also the lack of perpetrators’ rehabilitation programs.

4. What are some gaps in the implementation process of DV legislation in Tonga that you feel needs to be addressed at the RWG meeting?

There is lack of allocated resources both financial and human resources. There is need for improvement in the legal & health systems to go hand in hand with the FPA. There is need for trainings & awareness on GBV and related issues especially with our government service providers (Police, Health, Education & Local Government). We also see that the need to decentralise services to other parts of the islands. Majority of service providers are located in Tongatapu and majority of resources are used in the main island with less to no resources available to develop outer islands’ services.

5. Provide any other additional information that you wish to add or be relevant to Tonga on DV legislation implementation.

We have more activities scheduled for late 2021-2022 period, these include: development of a standard referral form, MOUs, establish case management committees in outer islands, increase service providers in outer islands, development of resource booklet and directory for GBV service providers etc.

Background

In 2018, the Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT) of the Pacific Community (SPC) – now formally called the Human Rights and Social Development Division – convened a “Regional Consultation on the Implementation of Domestic Violence Legislation: from Law to Practice”. The regional consultation brought together senior government officials from the Government Ministries / Departments responsible for the implementation of their country’s domestic violence legislation and provided a platform for reflections on progress against implementation of the domestic violence legislation in the region.

A key outcome from the consultation was the establishment of the Regional Working Group on Family Protection and Domestic Violence (RWG). The first meeting of the RWG was held in May 2019 with representation from Cook Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Federated States of Micronesia (Kosrae & Pohnpei), Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Vanuatu and Tonga. The RWG agreed to two annual meetings (one face-to-face and another virtually). These meetings would provide a space for the RWG to update on the implementation of their legislation, highlight key areas of need from regional organisations that support countries on responding to domestic violence, and recommend important work needing technical and/or financial support.

The Human Rights and Social Development Division (formerly RRRT) is the Secretariat of the Regional Working Group and works closely with the Chair and Deputy Chair to develop the program for the meetings, coordinate financial support and coordination of the meetings. The next annual meeting is scheduled for August 2021.

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

By External Source
New Caledonia, Jul 22 2021 (IPS-Partners)

Abundant with diverse coral and fish species, the South-West Pacific reefs play a critical role in the marine ecosystems and economies of Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs). While there is no question that climate change is affecting coral, the level and type of impact is not uniform. To help us better understand why these differences exist, a team of marine scientists from New Caledonia set off on a scientific mission to sample coral species around the mainland of this Pacific Island nation.

It is no surprise that coral reefs are often called the rainforests of the ocean. While covering less than 0.2 % of the ocean floor, Scleractinian corals (hard corals) are essential for the sustainability of up to one third of all marine wildlife. They are a magnet for fisheries and tourism as well as a key resource for Pacific Island people.

When the monthly mean sea surface temperature rises about 1°C above normal for an extended period, coral bleaching occurs leading to starvation and even the death of the coral. Restoring coral reefs by planting fragments of corals onto the reefs is a solution, but the transplanted corals still face the same threats.

However, some corals in certain areas appear to have developed mechanisms to cope with increases in temperature. Today scientists around the globe are examining the genomes of these corals to learn how they have adapted. Coral reef research is attempting to find the molecular markers which indicate which corals are resistant and which are sensitive to heat stress. Such resistance markers will pave the way for selective replanting in areas of coral destruction and could provide new tools for conservation and management actions.

The New Caledonian lagoon, the largest of the world, harbours various environmental conditions, especially with regard to the water temperature. Scientists have taken advantage of this unique ecosystem to identify genetic markers associated with thermal tolerance in corals.

In June 2021, a team of scientists from the Institute of Research for Development (IRD), the French National Centre for Scientific research (CNRS) and the Pacific Community (SPC) embarked on a ten-day research cruise on the Alis vessel* around the New Caledonia mainland (Grande Terre) to identify and sample three coral species at ten sites for various morphological and life traits – Acropora digitifera, Tubastrea coccinea, massive Porites species.

“We had carefully described the environmental conditions prior to this trip through analysis of remote sensing data, measuring variables such as sea surface temperature, salinity, chlorophyl, and current to select the most contrasted sites especially with regard to coral bleaching alert frequencies,” said Dr Véronique Berteaux-Lecellier, the project’s lead investigator at CNRS. “Through coral DNA sequencing and analysis at each site, we hope to uncover coral heat resistance molecular markers to understand if and how they have adapted to local conditions.”

Although the ways in which cells respond to heat-stress have been well-studied, what triggers these responses is not so well-understood. By mapping the genetic characteristics of the coral against the environmental conditions in which they grow, we can start to shed some light on what enables them to be relatively resistant to heat stress.

“This collaborative cruise is definitely boosting our work at SPC and is really promising for marine conservation,” said Pauline Bosserelle, the SPC scientist participating in this research cruise.

The next steps include measuring the range of temperatures these corals with adapted genotypes will tolerate in comparison to the non-adapted coral colonies, and compare that information with projections of sea temperature changes in the coming years. “These adapted colonies could be used to reseed areas which have already been depleted,” Dr Berteaux-Lecellier explained, “regenerating the dependent ecosystems and revitalising the reefs.”

If successful, the information from New Caledonia reefs will provide new coral preservation tools, not only for this Pacific Island, but for coral reef protection efforts around the world.

* Flotte Océanographique Française. ReefAdapt mission.

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

By External Source
Tonga, Jun 30 2021 (IPS-Partners)

Last week, the Tonga Laboratory Services completed the installation of a 4 module GeneXpert testing equipment used for diagnosis of COVID-19 infection and to increase SARS-coV-2 testing capacity.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, each Pacific Island Country and Territory (PICT) had one or two GeneXpert equipment for diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) and sexually transmitted infections (STI), supported by Global Fund. The same equipment had been used for COVID-19 testing in the last 12 months.

The progressive increase in demand for COVID-19 testing in PICTs over the past months resulted in frequent equipment downtime due to repair and maintenance affecting not only COVID-19 testing but also TB and STI testing. Therefore, the need to have a dedicated equipment for COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 testing was critical.

Telesia Apikotoa, Laboratory Manager at Tonga Laboratory Services, said this equipment will help them prepare for the worst should an outbreak occur. “This equipment will strengthen our COVID-19 testing capabilities and receiving 4 additional modules for testing is of great help to us. We acknowledge the support received since the beginning of this pandemic to improve our laboratory’s services and capabilities”.

Dr Eka Buadromo, Senior Laboratory Advisor at the Pacific Community’s (SPC) Public Health Division, said that SPC continues to provide technical support to Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) during this COVID-19 pandemic through the provision of polymerase chain reaction testing facilities, equipment, consumables, and reagents required for SARS-CoV-2 testing.

“The deployment of GeneXpert equipment to PICTs specifically to test for SARS-CoV-2 will improve diagnostic accuracy, turnaround time of test results and also lengthen the life-span of the instrument”.

This has been made possible by the Pacific Community (SPC) with financial support from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) Grant and European Union (EU), while purchased through the UNICEF-procurement system for COVID-19 emergency supplies.

So far, 12 PICTs have received GeneXpert equipment and SPC continues to work with the Joint Pacific COVID-19 Incident Management Team and other donor partners to support the supply of GeneXpert testing cartridges and further ensure that PICTs are well prepared to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

Robby Nena's small house, made of concrete and tin roof, is built on reclaimed land at the edge of the Finkol river, about 200 meters from the Pacific Ocean within the Utwe Biosphere Reserve Transition Zone in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Climate change impact means that his home is frequently inundated with saltwater during high tide. Courtesy: Kosrae Conservation & Safety Organisation (KCSO)

By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Australia, Jun 28 2021 (IPS)

Robby Nena is one of the many farmers and fishermen on the frontline of climate change in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), where coastal flooding and erosion, variable and heavy rainfall, increased temperature, droughts and other extreme weather events are becoming all too common.

FSM is one of the 22 Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs). These nations contribute less than 0.03 percent of the world’s total CO2 and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Yet, they are amongst the most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming, climate change and sea level rise. A quarter of Pacific people live within 1 km of the coast.

“Every time it rains, our home and farm get flooded, destroying our crops, damaging infrastructure and posing a major health hazard. Our tapioca and taro crops were completely destroyed in the major flooding event last month,” Nena tells IPS from Utwe village in FSM’s Kosrae state via a choppy Messenger call.

His small house, made of concrete and tin roof, is built on reclaimed land at the edge of the Finkol river, about 200 meters from the Pacific Ocean within the Utwe Biosphere Reserve Transition Zone.

“The river and ocean meet here so we also get frequently inundated with saltwater during high tide,” says Nena, who lives with his mother, teacher wife and two children.

The already evident and worsening impacts of climate change on food security and livelihoods in PICTs are being exacerbated by lack of timely access to climate finance for mitigation and adaptation, say climate advocates.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF), part of the financial mechanism of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is currently the world’s largest dedicated multilateral climate fund and the main multilateral financing mechanism to support developing countries in achieving a reduction of their GHG emissions and boost their ability to respond to climate change.

Belinda Hadley, Team Leader of FSM’s National Designated Authority (NDA) for the GCF, says that currently FSM doesn’t have the technical, financial and human capacity to access climate finance for mitigation, adaptation and resilience projects, which are much needed for the growing climate change challenges.

“It is difficult to make our proposals bankable because of all the requirements. English is the language for climate finance applications, and to most people in FSM, articulating needs, challenges and activities into proposals is no easy feat as various islands have their own distinct indigenous languages,” Hadley tells IPS.

GCF proposals, in order to be successful, need a strong and robust explanation of the climate impacts and risks to be addressed. The climate rationale description, as requested in the GCF proposal template, requires access to sound climate science and data.

Consequently, not having climate data disaggregated from development data thus makes it difficult to demonstrate climate change impacts separately from other sustainable development issues.

“This requirement of separate data for climate change makes it difficult for us. We have climate change and development data consolidated and integrated into one because of our small population and dispersed geography,” says Hadley.

FSM comprises of more than 600 islands spread across the four states of Kosrae, Yap, Chuuk and Pohnpei. This geographical spread makes disaster preparedness and response a challenge and financially costly.

The pandemic has added another layer to the hard realities of climate change for the people of FSM. 

“We were working on accessing climate financing to begin our adaptation efforts and move forward with our national adaptation plan, but we have not been able to conduct state consultations and meet stakeholders. All attention and resources have been focused on COVID-19 preparedness measures. Everything else has been pushed to the backburner,” Hadley tells IPS.

GCF operates through a network of accredited Direct Access Entities (DAE) and delivery partners, who work directly with developing countries for project design and implementation.

Robby Nena (centre) farms and fishes for subsistence. Fish are a mainstay of food security in most Pacific Island Countries and Territories and subsistence fishing still provides the majority of dietary animal protein in the region. Courtesy: Kosrae Conservation & Safety Organisation (KCSO)

The Pacific Community (SPC), which supports PICTs with overall coordination and capacity building for their engagement with climate finance mechanisms such as the GCF, is the delivery partner for FSM’s NDA. It supported the Micronesia Conservation Trust (MCT) to become an accredited DAE and to develop FSM’s first full-sized GCF project on food security, which was approved for funding in March 2021.

MCT’s Deputy Executive Director Lisa Ranahan Andon tells IPS, “This very first GCF grant to the FSM is going to the people who most need this intervention – and those are the most vulnerable farmers and fishers.”

“We are confident that our approach, integrating disparate one-off projects into a cohesive national approach, will increase the positive impacts on communities. We are in the process of fulfilling the pre-disbursement requirements and anticipate a first disbursement and project initiation in January 2022,” she adds.

Andon feels that this first award should help pave the way for other PICTs and national DAE in the region to secure GCF financing.

FSM accounts for only 0.003 percent of global CO2 and other GHG emissions, yet it has set an ambitious target of 35 percent emission reduction by 2025.

Besides the GCF, the country has been receiving some climate financing from the Adaptation Fund, European Union, Global Environment Facility, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and others, mainly for food and water security, renewable energy, coastal protection and disaster risk reduction.

Kosrae Conservation & Safety Organisation (KCSO), a small non-profit organisation supports and implements climate adaptation and mitigation projects in the local communities of Kosrae through climate finance from amongst others, the MCT. Under one of its 2018 grants, they controlled and collected Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTS), which is an invasive species that destroys coral in FSM, to experiment the use of COTS as a green fertiliser.

“The farmers we distributed it to all claim that the COTS were a good natural fertiliser. We repeated the COTS collection this year and supplied it to four farmers in different villages. Nena is one of them. Three of the four farmers are seeing very good results,” KCSO’s Executive Director Andy George tells IPS.

“If these farmers planted 50 plants and they can eat off it, then that is a success for us. Apart from helping them become self-sufficient in meeting their subsistence requirements, we also educate them towards climate adaptation and mitigation,” he adds.

A lot of farmers like Nena only do farming and fishing for subsistence. Local produce includes eggplant, sweet potato, taro, banana, sugarcane, coconut and citrus plants. Fish are a mainstay of food security in most PICTs and subsistence fishing still provides the majority of dietary animal protein in the region.

While PICTs have small populations and land mass, SPC’s Deputy Director General in Noumea (New Caledonia), Cameron Diver tells IPS, “They are the custodians of significant resources such as tuna stocks, which countries around the globe rely on for food security. If these nations cannot access the level of climate finance required to address climate change impacts on these resources, then this could threaten food security for global populations well beyond the region.”

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

By External Source
SUVA, Fiji, Jun 24 2021 (IPS-Partners)

In April 2021, the Pacific Community (SPC) coordinated the 14th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women and the 7th Meeting of the Pacific Ministers for Women, hosted by the Government of French Polynesia. The conference brought together decision-makers, development partners, research institutions and civil society organisations. Following this landmark event, SPC will continue to publish portraits of inspiring gender champions who are at the heart of Pacific development programmes.

One woman who isn’t afraid to engage herself in these ocean spaces is Ivanancy Vunikura, an ocean defender and sailor.

Ivanancy is one of the few women in the world who can claim that she has sailed the vast Pacific ocean on a traditional Vaka.

She started her sailing career with the Uto Ni Yalo, a Fiji-based association whose role is to promote sustainable, reciprocal relationship with nature by encouraging solutions for a healthy ocean – and gathering trash on the remote islands it visits. In 2011, traditional boats from Uto Ni Yalo sailed from the South Pacific to the USA, creating history and reclaiming the ocean.

This sail led her to work for the Okeanos Foundation where she currently advocates for sustainable sea transportation and the revival of traditional sailing in the Pacific.

Her sailing journey hasn’t always been smooth. Ivanancy had to fight storms, rough seas, and sometimes adverse cultural beliefs.

“I remember visiting a community where it was a taboo for women to sail with men, so we had to ask for permission from the chief upon arrival’, she recalls.

“We were granted permission, but it was hard to work with men from the community who joined our sailing cruise, since they were not used to share the Vaka with women. However, this didn’t deter me, and eventually, we all managed to work together.”

Ivanancy said that, because of their education, many women in the Pacific think they are not worthy enough, and not brave enough to stand up and have their voices heard. But winds are now changing, and Ivanancy believes that “Women also have a place at the helm of the Pacific Vaka”.

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

By External Source
Nauru, Jun 18 2021 (IPS-Partners)

Policymakers worldwide consistently rank water scarcity among the greatest risks faced by humanity. In Pacific island countries and territories, where water resources are limited, it has become essential to reassess and adapt water planning and decision-making processes taking into account the current and future impacts of climate change.

In the Republic of Nauru, one of the smallest low-lying island nations in the world, where climate change undermines water security , the government has recently launched the review of its 2017 Nauru Water and Sanitation Master Plan (NWSMP), which focuses on the existing water and sanitation status and provides an infrastructure investment programme over a 20-year planning landscape, to cater for current and future water services’ needs.

The review of this Plan benefited from the support and guidance of the Pacific Community’s Geoscience, Energy and Maritime Division, channeled through the Regional Pacific (NDC) Hub. This support is part of SPC’s effort to leverage its resources and expertise to provide Pacific Island Countries and Territories with the tools they need to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and combat climate change.Indeed, Nauru’s NDC has a strong emphasis on building resilience to climate change through strengthening water security.

“The objective of the peer review of the NWSMP is to allow the Government to consider different options for its water and sanitation needs, using forecasted climate impacts for the next 20 years, balanced against the water and sanitation supply needs and ambitions of Nauru.” said Peter Sinclair, Water Resources Monitoring and Assessment Coordinator, Disaster and Community Resilience Programme at the Pacific Community (SPC).

“The review assesses the current Master Plan’s proposal, with a focus on the technical, institutional, and governance challenges specific to Nauru, to identify if the proposed actions are still relevant, or if alternative options should be considered. The recommendations provided are aimed at improving the quality of water and sanitation services, using a combination of harvested rainwater, groundwater, and desalinated water through improved infrastructure”, he added.

A review of the NWSMP investment proposal was also conducted to assist the Government, international agencies and donor partners in mobilizing support for the implementation of the Plan until 2035.

The Government of Nauru warmly acknowledged the support provided by SPC and its guidance on integrating water services security and climate resilience into development planning and investment decision-making processes for water services provision.

“Water security is one of the greatest challenges we face today, yet the situation has never looked more perilous. The review of the NWSMP provides us with the opportunity to mobilize targeted finance for water infrastructure in Nauru”, indicated Reagan Moses, Secretary, Nauru Department of Climate Change and National Resilience.

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

Degraded land in Labasa, Fiji

By Jamie Kemsey and Jalesi Mateboto
SUVA, Fiji, Jun 17 2021 (IPS-Partners)

As the UN and communities worldwide mark Desertification and Drought Day, the Pacific Community’s Land Resources Division (LRD) is strengthening its support for the sustainable restoration and management of Pacific countries’ landscapes, keeping in line with this year’s theme “turning degraded land into healthy land”.

This year’s Desertification and Drought Day takes on increasing significance as the region and countries worldwide recover from COVID-19. The goal is to demonstrate that investing in healthy land as part of a green recovery is a smart economic decision – not just in terms of creating jobs and rebuilding livelihoods, but also for insulating economies against future crises caused by health pandemics such as COVID-19, as well as climate change and nature loss. Healthy land initiatives can act to accelerate progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals as well.

In the Pacific, Desertification Day is an opportunity to promote awareness on efforts to tackle land degradation. We must remind everyone that reversing land degradation is achievable. It will require landscape approaches that recognise the importance of sustainable systems and practices, community engagement and the participation and cooperation of all those that work the land and depend on it for ecosystem services such as food, medicine and climate regulation.

Soil erosion and sedimentation are major problems in the Pacific. The steep land topography on most islands, in addition to highly erosive rainfall, contribute to high natural erosion rates. The past 30-50 years have seen substantial areas of sloping land converted to agricultural production. This extension of agriculture, as well as increased logging of rainforests, has caused considerable erosion.

The effects of this erosion are destructive, including land degradation and decreased productivity, sediment deposition in rivers with a subsequent increase in flooding, and damage to coastal ecosystems by transported sediment. The land tenure system, increasing demands for cash income, and the lack of awareness and commitment to protection and conservation contribute to the continuing problems of soil erosion and sedimentation.

The Land Resources Division, in collaboration with development partners including the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), German International Co-operation (GIZ), European Union (EU), Land Care NZ and Land care Australia, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), has worked with other regional organisations such as the University of the South Pacific’s (USP) Institute of Applied Sciences (IAS), the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to assist member countries and territories to restore their landscapes. LRD provides support through technical expertise and research assistance in the agriculture, livestock and forestry sectors.

As LRD advances its focus on this year’s Desertification and Drought Day theme, we should keep in mind the statement from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification that success in this arena will bring economic resilience, create jobs, raise incomes, and increase food security. It will also help biodiversity to recover and lock away atmospheric carbon warming the Earth, slowing climate change.

In launching the 2021 theme, UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw said “Land restoration can contribute greatly to post-COVID19 economic recovery. Investing in land restoration creates jobs and generates economic benefits and could provide livelihoods at a time when hundreds of millions of jobs are being lost.” Desertification and Drought Day is important for the Pacific as well, as land restoration is essential to building thriving societies for all in the region. Let’s increase our respect and stewardship for our amazing, yet fragile, land. It is the key to our future.

Jamie Kemsey, Information Communications and Knowledge Management Adviser, Land Resources Division (LRD) at SPC

Jalesi Mateboto, Natural Resource Management Adviser, Land Resources Division (LRD), SPC

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

By External Source
Apr 27 2021 (IPS-Partners)

A renowned Pacific gender equality champion and Technical Advisor of Shifting the Power Coalition, Sharon Bhagwan Rolls, believes that gender equality is about men and women working together and this can be achieved by diversifying media content to break gender stereotypes.

She highlighted this while speaking on Women and the Media, which is one of the 12 priority areas of concern in the Beijing Platform for Action (BPA) on Gender Equality. The BPA is a resolution adopted by the United Nations at the end of the Fourth World Conference on Women on 15 September 1995. The resolution adopted to promulgate a set of principles concerning the equality of men and women.

Bhagwan Rolls said the recent global media monitoring project is a useful tool to gauge ways in which women are included or not included in media content.

“It’s really important to note that gender issues are not only about women, or simply adding women to the mix. To get better at promoting gender equality through the media, we need to start looking at diversification of content; how we make the linkages with gender equality commitments to all areas of society, and promoting women’s leadership in all her diversity,” she stated.

Bhagwan Rolls said government ministers need to help break the gender stereotypes by reviewing ways their government initiative stories are produced.

“There needs to be greater cohesive action and collaboration to produce stories that aren’t just promoting what the government is doing, but actually having conversations with women from different sectors. Even if it is simply promoting women working within government ministries, profile these women, show the public how these women are contributing to moving the agenda forward,” she explained.

Prior to the BPA, in 1994, at the 6th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women and 1st Meeting of Pacific Ministers for Women, and in preparation for the Fourth World Conference for Women, held in Beijing, China in 1995, delegates from 22 Pacific Island countries and territories met in Noumea and endorsed a set of principles and a plan of action to advance gender equality in the region – The Pacific Platform for Action on the Advancement of Women and Gender Equality (PPA).

The PPA was a landmark achievement for the region, and a remarkable one as it emerged prior to the globally negotiated and endorsed BPA, and its 13 critical issues mirrored most of the critical areas of the BPA.

For Pacific Island Countries and Territories, BPA implementation from 1995 was twinned with actioning the PPA. The PPA has been central to accelerating implementation of the BPA in the region.

The 14th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women (27-29 April), will see the launch of the Pacific Beijing +25 Report, which takes stock of progress, recommendations, and what must be done to achieve full and equal participation and inclusion of all women and girls of all diversities.

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

By External Source
Apr 22 2021 (IPS-Partners)

SPC hosted the first triennial conference of Pacific women more than 40 years ago with the purpose to create a space where Pacific women could meet, share their experiences and identify measures for the advancement of women.

The Triennial Conference of Pacific Women plays a key role in linking to other intergovernmental fora due to its convening of National Women’s Machineries and women’s rights organizations. In the past, the Triennial has provided space for some preparations for the Commission on the Status of Women, as well as reflecting on progress towards gender equality commitments including the Pacific Leaders Gender Equality Declaration (PLGED) as well as the Beijing Declaration.

Watch the video below for more information about the Triennial Conference of Pacific Women and the journey in progressing gender equality in the region.

The 14th Triennial this year will focus on three key priority areas received from the Pacific Island Countries and Territories including: gender responsive climate justice, women’s economic empowerment and gender-based violence. The conference will take place from 27 – 29 April (Fiji-Time). A few pre-triennial side-events are scheduled to take place from 22-23 April in the lead up to the main conference next week. #PacificWomenTriennial #PacificPeoples

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

A tourist handicraft market in Port Vila, capital of Vanuatu, prior to the pandemic. The price for Pacific countries maintaining strict border closures to protect their small highly vulnerable populations is the decimation of the tourism industry. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia, Feb 18 2021 (IPS)

While Pacific Island countries have, so far, been spared a catastrophic spread of COVID-19, their economies have been devastated by the effects of border closures, internal lockdowns and the demise of international tourism and trade. With the global pandemic far from over, Pacific Islanders are looking to their local and regional economies to drive resilience and recovery.

In Fiji, the pandemic has led to one in three people losing their jobs. In Vanuatu, in the southwest Pacific, the combined economic losses of COVID-19 and Tropical Cyclone Harold, which descended on the Melanesian nation in April last year, are predicted to reach 68.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Meanwhile, extreme poverty across the region could rise to 40 percent, forecasts the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University.

“The development and support of existing and new domestic industries and the private sector is critical to help affected families get through the economic downturn and to maintain income,” Mia Rimon, Regional Manager for Melanesia at the regional development organisation, Pacific Community, in Vanuatu told IPS.

The Pacific Islands region, with a total of 27,215 reported cases of coronavirus, as of Feb. 18, represents a fraction of the more than 100 million cases worldwide. However, the price for countries in the region of maintaining strict border closures to protect their small highly vulnerable populations is the decimation of the tourism industry.  The sector is of huge importance to island countries, such as Vanuatu, where it accounts for 46 percent of GDP, and in Fiji 39 percent of GDP. Between April and September last year, the pandemic caused monthly tourist arrivals in the Pacific Islands to plummet by 99-100 percent.

Trade in the region has also been hit. During the first half of 2020, exports from Tonga dropped by 28.3 percent and from Tuvalu by 71 percent.

Pacific Island governments have, accordingly, seen a decline in revenues. Most governments introduced stimulus packages to support households and businesses during the worst of the crisis, but, in the current economic climate, these costs will be unsustainable over a long or indefinite period.

With the prospect of a ‘travel bubble’ between Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island countries unlikely to occur soon, the region will struggle to grow by 1.3 percent this year, forecasts the Asian Development Bank. But output levels in highly exposed Pacific Island countries are unlikely to recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2022 or beyond, reports the World Bank.

Pacific leaders are now looking to the economic potential within the region. At a virtual meeting in August last year, Pacific Islands Forum Economic Ministers concluded that the crisis offered ‘the opportunity to assert a regional economy that supports Pacific priorities and to consider investments, policies and partnerships required to secure the region’s economic resilience and the wellbeing of its people now and into the future.’

Dr Neelesh Gounder of the School of Accounting, Finance and Economics at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, told IPS that the private sector will be important to recovery, but added that “governments will need to support the private sector with policies and incentives that will reduce the cost of doing business and provide incentives for expansion and growth.”

Some local entrepreneurs are already manoeuvring to gain new skills and adapt their enterprises for a local, rather than international market.

Workers at South Pacific Mozuku cleaning seaweed in Nuku’alofa, Tonga. Photo credit: South Pacific Mozuku

In the Polynesian Kingdom of Tonga, a local business, South Pacific Mozuku (SPM), specialised in a luxury range of cosmetics and skincare products incorporating a seaweed, known as ‘Mozuku’, which grows in the waters around Tonga. It was a perfect fit for the international tourist market. Before the pandemic, Tonga received up to 5,000 cruise ship visitors per day. The business also exported raw seaweed to international buyers, mostly in Japan. But then the pandemic hit, tourist visitors evaporated and the export market declined.

“We lost 60 percent of our orders during lockdown in March and April 2020,” Managing Director, Masa Kawaguchi, told IPS. After a strategic rethink, he is now pivoting the business to make fresh food products, still using ‘Mozuku’ seaweed, which possesses nutritious and anti-oxidising properties, as an ingredient. They are now sold through local supermarkets and distributors.

It is a sector of natural strength and expertise in the region. “Almost all Pacific people are coastal people and have their lives entwined with the sea. Significant livelihood opportunities are marine-based. Hence, it is important to continue upskilling to meet changing demands and resources,” Avinash Singh, the Pacific Community’s Aquaculture Officer, told IPS.

SPM, which employs 25 local Tongans, is delivering further benefits to local communities. Its partnership with the Tonga Youth Employment Entrepreneurship (TYEE) scheme has led to local youths being involved in promoting public awareness of ‘Mozuku’ seaweed as a health food and organising tasting events in shops and restaurants in the capital, Nuku’alofa. And ‘Mozuku’ is now on the menu for patients, doctors and nurses at the Vaiola Hospital, also situated in the capital.

Further west in Vanuatu, youths, women and islanders with disabilities are being mobilized in a new income generating initiative, called the 300 Coconut Bag Project, in the main city of Port Vila.

“The impacts of COVID-19 on the lives of Ni-Vanuatu is really sad as people get laid off from their jobs, young people who are recruited in tourism sectors and other trades have to go back home due to limited hours of operation as there are no more tourists,” Project Manager, Sethy Melenamu, told IPS.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) reports that ‘the pandemic is inflicting a triple shock on young people: destroying their employment, disrupting education and training and placing major obstacles in the way of those seeking to enter the labour market.’ These issues are of importance in the Pacific Islands, which is experiencing a youth bulge. Currently half the region’s population of about 11.9 million are aged under 23 years.

The making of recycled and reusable coconut bags is generating employment and incomes for youths, women and disabled people affected by the pandemic in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Photo credit: 300 Coconut Bag Project

In Port Vila, about 30 young people are being employed to collect discarded waste plastic, which is then crafted and sewn by local women and disabled people into large reusable carry bags. Each bag, which is designed to hold six heavy coconuts, features an inner lining of recycled plastic and an outer layer of aesthetically woven pandanus leaves.

It is envisaged that, following production, the bags, which are being promoted as waterproof, reversible and fashionable, will be on sale in March in local fresh produce markets, retail shops and online.

The project, which is supported by the Pacific Community in partnership with the Vanuatu Office for Ocean and Maritime Affairs, intends to outlive the pandemic.

“The project is long-term; there will be more prototypes of products to be tested and modified. Also, the beneficiaries will see it as an alternative source of income for the vulnerable. I would like to make it a sustainable social enterprise in the future,” Melenamu said.

The distinctive fashionable and sustainable coconut carry bags will be sold at public venues in Port Vila, such as fresh produce markets, Vanuatu. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

By External Source
Feb 12 2021 (IPS-Partners)

“Working in Science, like any other career, is fit for women too… Just go for it, nobody can stop you”, Valérie Allain, Senior Fisheries Scientist at the Pacific Community (SPC).

By Michelle Belisle
NOUMEA, New Caledonia, Jan 25 2021 (IPS)

In 2019, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 24 January as International Day of Education, in celebration of the role of education for peace and development. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4 challenges all nations to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by the year 2030. As we think about this in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the emerging post-COVID-19 environment, what does inclusive and equitable education look like and how do we ensure that lifelong learning opportunities are benefitted by all?

EQAP Director Michelle Belise

At the senior secondary level, student results for the South Pacific Form Seven Certificate (SPFSC) have shown similar trends in recent years. Higher-order questions requiring students to apply their knowledge and problem solve in subjects across the spectrum, but particularly in the sciences and maths, are challenging. Students are generally able to respond to questions by applying recall or direct application of skills and knowledge, but struggle when asked to inter-relate multiple concepts, to address real-world situations or to extend their thinking into a more abstract use of skills and knowledge.

“…traditional education has frequently focused on problems that already have solutions…”

How do we equip learners for the demands of lifelong learning in an ever more rapidly changing world? Traditional education has focused on skills and facts, the kind of education many of us have experienced and the kind of education that has long been a staple of formal education systems around the world. It has frequently focused on problems that already have solutions and in supporting students in getting to those solutions. In recent years there has been increasing recognition that if learning is a lifelong effort, education needs to provide learners with skills that will allow them to solve problems that don’t yet have solutions.

Learning in the twenty-first century should be less focused on facts and figures, which are far more readily available than was the case in past centuries. Instead, education for lifelong learning must emphasise the importance of critical thinking, problem solving, reasoning, analysis, interpretation, synthesizing information, as well as collaboration and digital literacy skills. Gaining these skills, however, involves different ways of engaging in learning that are often not as readily available in large classrooms or in settings where students are not encouraged, or perhaps even overtly discouraged, from questioning what the teacher is saying. The efforts to develop the many skills needed by learners are complicated by the added challenge of disruptions to learning caused by the pandemic and efforts to fill the gaps with distance learning and virtual gatherings.

As we navigate the COVID crisis, we have a unique opportunity to reset standards in education, by providing the tools to ensure future generations embrace critical thinking both here in the Pacific, and globally.

Michelle Belisle Director, Educational Quality and Assessment Programme Pacific Community (SPC)

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Excerpt:

Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva Ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan. Credit: Fiji Department of Information

By Miles Young and Ashley Bowe
SUVA, Fiji, Jan 22 2021 (IPS-Partners)

On Friday, 15 January, Ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan, Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, was elected the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council for 2021. As the first Pacific islander to hold this position, the President has a unique opportunity to enhance the protection and promotion of human rights in Fiji and the Pacific, and to amplify Pacific voices on human rights issues at the global level. The presidency reflects the Pacific’s growing presence on the international human rights stage and comes at a time of increasing marginalisation, social exclusion and poverty arising out of COVID-19; opening the door for the President (and Fiji) to promote a human rights-based and people-centred approach to ‘building back better’.

The growing influence of the Pacific

Over the past few years, the Pacific has experienced positive developments in the area of human rights. As the recent ‘Human Rights in the Pacific: A Situational Analysis’ (SPC & OHCHR, 2021) highlights, there have been 14 ratifications/accessions of the core nine human rights treaties among Pacific Island Countries (PICs) over 2016-2020. Fiji is one of the first countries in the world to become party to all nine. While impressive, the challenge for PICs, including Fiji, is to convert these commitments into actual benefits for their people, through the realisation of the rights set out in the treaties.

There have been encouraging signs. For example, the Pacific has long considered climate change through the human rights lens. In 2020, Samoa hosted the 84th Outreach Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (‘CRC84’), the first time any of the UN treaty bodies has held a regional session outside of Geneva or New York, despite repeated attempts for decades to do so. CRC84 showed the tangible benefits that come from a UN treaty body meeting directly with the very people they are meant to serve. In 2019, PICs agreed to the ‘Pacific Principles of National Mechanisms for Implementation, Reporting & Following-up (‘NMIRFs’). The principles ensure more effective implementation, reporting and tracking of human rights commitments and obligations, and enhance public transparency in this area (Fiji had pledged to establish such a mechanism in its bid for the presidency). Countries across the globe have expressed interest in adopting and adapting these principles for their own NMIRFs. Samoa currently has one of the most comprehensive rights and development tracking tools, and the open-source software on which it is built is being used or considered in countries across the world.

We have also seen a greater Pacific presence in Geneva, where the UN Human Rights Office is headquartered, with Fiji and the Republic of the Marshall Islands becoming members of the Human Rights in 2018 and 2020, respectively. Having assumed the presidency of the Council against this backdrop of increasing Pacific standing on the global human rights stage and growing political support and leadership for implementation, it is incumbent upon Fiji to build on this momentum.

What is the Human Rights Council?

The Human Rights Council was established by the United Nations in 2006, and consists of 47 member states, elected by secret ballot, to protect and promote human rights. The Council can investigate alleged violations of human rights and examine thematic or systemic issues. Members are elected by the UN General Assembly (all UN member states), with consideration given to equitable geographical representation as well as the human rights record of candidates and their voluntary pledges to protect and promote human rights.

While not a perfect system, the Council has significantly improved the UN’s effectiveness in respect of its human rights mandate since its establishment in 2016, not least through the creation of the Universal Periodic Review – a peer review of each country’s human rights record every five years with recommendations for improvements and the monitoring of and technical support for implementation. Unlike the UN Security Council, there is no veto and members have equal voting rights, enabling the Council to be more responsive and nimble in responding to human rights issues and contributing to its growing influence and credibility.

Role of President, Human Rights Council

The presidency of the Human Rights Council rotates on a yearly basis between the five regional groups of the UN. The President is required to set the agenda for the Council and play a role in the appointment of independent experts to the special procedures. The President is able to build consensus and make statements seeking solutions to specific problems – these are then adopted by the Council and given the same authority as regular resolutions.

Convention dictates the appointment of each new President is through informal diplomatic channels, with one agreed candidate proposed to the Council. This looked to continue for the 2021 presidency until an 11th hour bid by Bahrain (and later Uzbekistan) led to an unprecedented secret ballot, with Ambassador Khan receiving 29 of the 47 votes. The fact that the 2021 presidency was so fiercely contested demonstrates increasing recognition of the importance of this role.

What this means for the Pacific

While the context and nature of the presidency offers multiple opportunities for the Pacific, it also entails a significant degree of national and regional responsibility. Foremost, this is an opportunity to amplify Pacific voices within the Human Rights Council so as to raise awareness and stimulate action on priority human rights issues for the region, including on climate change. Prime Minister of Fiji, Honourable Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, highlighted this when he said, “(Fiji’s) leadership comes at a critical time for humanity, as the climate emergency threatens human rights on a global and generational scale.” The proposal for a Special Rapporteur on Climate Change is likely to come before the Council during Ambassador Khan’s tenure and she will be critical to whether such a role is established. Coinciding with Fiji’s presidency will be the United States’ re-engagement in the climate change agenda and its timely return to the Paris Agreement.

The Pacific is chronically under-represented on the global stage; consequently, our voices are seldom heard and our issues rarely prioritised. The presidency can bring the Pacific experiences, issues and expertise to the fore. An area which deserves highlighting is how the Pacific’s values and diverse cultures are an enabler of human rights. In our region, human rights are often seen as a foreign import, an externally imposed system and framework. However human rights are written into the constitutions and legislation of every Pacific island nation, including one which pre-dates the UN Declaration on Human Rights. The principles underpinning the international human rights system, such as dignity, respect, protection and community, are central to Pacific communities.

Contextualising human rights enhances community understanding and ownership. The aim of contextualisation is not to find a middle ground, but to harness the vast power of traditional knowledge to communicate human rights standards, find solutions to human rights issues, and generate local understanding and ownership of implementation. Contextualisation of human rights is difficult – hard conversations are necessary around how a society wishes to move forward. Fiji’s presidency has the opportunity to open up these conversations and, in doing so, unlock the vast potential of Pacific culture to enable and uphold international human rights and further demonstrate to the world what this region can offer as a leader in this field.

Looking ahead

Naturally, the presidency will place Fiji and its human rights record under the spotlight. Membership of the Council requires a state to uphold high human rights standards (General Assembly resolution 60/251) and the presidency further elevates that responsibility. Work undertaken as President in Geneva must not distract from domestic efforts to give effect to the rights contained within the human rights treaties and the constitution to which Fiji is bound. The ‘Human Rights in the Pacific: A Situational Analysis’ (SPC & OHCHR, 2021) documents areas of concern and the public will play close attention to how Fiji addresses these domestic matters during its tenure as President of the Council.

While the presidency is an historic occasion, of greater importance is the opportunity it presents to show the world that the recent achievements and commitments in the Pacific are not anomalies but an indication of the unique role the region can play when it comes to human rights.

Miles Young and Ashley Bowe, Director and Advisor, respectively, of the Human Rights & Social Development Division of the Pacific Community (SPC). SPC is an international development organisation owned and governed by its 26 members, including 22 Pacific island countries and territories. The HRSD Division supports SPC members in the areas of human rights, gender equality and social inclusion, youth and culture.

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

School children in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

By Cameron Diver
NEW CALEDONIA, Dec 9 2020 (IPS)

Climate change and human rights are two key issues in international development and their interaction is increasingly in need of focus at national, regional and international levels. In the Pacific, where the 22 Pacific Island countries and territories are on the front line of both climate ambition and the ongoing effects of the climate crisis, climate change is recognised as the region’s single greatest threat. Urgent climate action is consistently called upon to protect the interests of youth and the most vulnerable populations, together with preserving the ‘shared needs and interests, potential and survival of our Blue Pacific and this great Blue Planet’.

At the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum in October 2020, member countries endorsed the proposal to seek the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change by the June 2021 session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Small island developing states, including many members of the Pacific Community, are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to their reliance on the ocean for resources, transportation and livelihoods. Shifts in biodiversity distribution as a result of climate change can have a devastating impact on coastal communities who are unable to adapt their way of living to compensate for the diminished resources and opportunities. For atoll nations, where thousands of people live on land that rises to a maximum of four metres above sea level, a rising ocean threatens their very existence. In this context, climate change has a profound impact on a wide variety of human rights, including the rights to life, self-determination, development, food, health, water, sanitation and housing, while also disproportionately affecting already marginalised groups. It is then, no surprise that the first intergovernmental statement to explicitly recognise that ‘climate change has clear and immediate implications for the full enjoyment of human rights’ was adopted in a small island developing state, the Seychelles, in 2007.

Cameron Diver

The interface between climate change, human rights and migration would appear to require an integrated approach taking into account, among others, political, social, cultural, environmental and legal aspects. In the context of the climate crisis, it requires a whole-of-society approach, together with strong international cooperation, to identify and implement solutions that protect the rights of all persons, regardless of nationality. For both displaced populations and those that welcome them, these solutions will need to anticipate preservation of rights such as those related to culture, identity, freedom of religion, access to employment, land and resources, or self-determination. Should island countries become uninhabitable, they will need to anticipate the extreme hypothesis of a State in climate-enforced exile and the complex ramifications for sovereignty, nationhood and issues such as sovereign rights over land-based and marine natural resources.

Due to their particular vulnerability to global warming, Pacific Island countries and territories are regarded by some as ‘a barometer for the early impacts of climate change’, with studies projecting that between 665,000 and 1.7 million individuals could be displaced due to the ongoing effects of climate change by 2050. In other words, this many people in the Pacific Islands alone, through no fault of their own, may be driven from their ancestral homes, their sacred places, the land and oceanscapes to which they are so deeply bound and of which they are the traditional custodians.

While developing legal frameworks to recognise the status and protect the rights of those individuals remains essential, it should not be seen as the panacea. In reality, there must be a global understanding of the fact that greater mitigation and adaptation efforts are not only critical to stem the tide of biodiversity loss, keep global warming under 1.5°C, or improve the health of the ocean. They will also very directly enable populations in the Pacific region, small island developing states around the globe and many others to remain on their islands, on their land, in their homes and with their families. Personally, I can think of no better way to respect and protect their human rights, cultures, identities and sovereignty.

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Excerpt:

Technical experts measure the salinity of groundwater wells on Vaitupu Island, Tuvalu. This month work will begin on building the network of tanks and pipes which will eventually convey clean water from the north of Vaitupu Island to the 1,500 people who live in the villages of Tumaseu and Asau in the south. Courtesy: Pacific Community

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Nov 18 2020 (IPS)

Rural communities on one of the nine islands that make up the Polynesian nation of Tuvalu are anticipating how life will change when they are connected to piped clean water for the first time. Despite being surrounded by millions of square kilometres of ocean, just over half of the 12 million people who live in the Pacific Islands region have access to clean water, the lowest of any region in the world. In remote island communities in Tuvalu, and across the region, the deficit of clean water is a major obstacle to disease prevention, lifelong health and development progress. Pisi Seleganiu, whose family live in villages on Vaitupu Island, which is located about 120 kilometres northwest of Tuvalu’s main Funafuti Atoll, told IPS: “It very much affects their daily lives. The only source is rainwater; the issue is when it becomes dry there is no supplementary water supply. People use a lot of fuel to drive to the far end of the island to get water and bring it back to the villages.” This month work will begin on building the network of tanks and pipes which will eventually convey groundwater from wells in the north of Vaitupu Island to the 1,500 people who live in the villages of Tumaseu and Asau in the south. It’s the culmination of years of consultation between the island’s customary leaders and the regional development organisation, Pacific Community, which is headquartered in New Caledonia, about traditional knowledge of water resources.

Located in the Central Pacific Ocean between Kiribati to the northeast and Fiji to the south, Tuvalu’s estimated population of 10,580 people reside on low lying islands; the highest elevation is 4.6 metres. Surface sources of freshwater are very scarce. There are no rivers, for instance, and islanders are overwhelmingly reliant on capturing rainwater for drinking, cooking and hygiene.

“Tuvalu is blessed to have plenty of rain annually…rainwater harvesting with adequate storage is the only sustainable means to maintain supply for the population,” Uatea Salesa, project manager at the Pacific Community for the Vaitupu Water Security Project, told IPS. But he added that, during times of drought, even the rainwater wasn’t enough.

The atoll nation is highly vulnerable to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate phenomenon, an alternating pattern of changes in the water temperature of the tropical Pacific Ocean, known as El Niño and La Niña, that, in turn, drive warm and cool atmospheric changes and fluctuating periods of rainfall. In 2011 Tuvalu experienced a severe drought, attributed to La Niña, following months without rain, which led to the government announcing a state of emergency and supplies of freshwater being airlifted into the country by international donors.

Population growth has also increased pressures on the country’s water resources. Tuvalu has a total land area of only 26 square kilometres and a population density of 408 people per square kilometre, resulting in a huge demand for consumption of a fragile natural resource.

Boosting the country’s water security is a major priority for the Tuvalu government and, to this end, desalination has been explored.

“Desalination was installed to supplement the water supply by the government on Funafuti Island [where the capital is located] and on some of the northern islands as a backup during periods of low rainfall and during drought,” Salesa said. “But desalination is an expensive technology and will not be sustainable if it becomes an alternative source of water supply.”

Staff of Tuvalu’s Public Works Dept conduct geophysical surveys to identify the thickness of underlying freshwater lens to determine the potential for groundwater development. Courtesy: Pacific Community

Soseala Tinilau, the Tuvalu government’s director of the Department of Environment, told IPS that the challenges of managing and supplying water also included the low capacity of households to store clean water and continually maintain guttering and water tanks.

The importance of clean water for life and human, as well as national development, was stressed by Dr Stuart Minchin, director general of the Pacific Community, on World Water Day, Mar. 22, this year.

“Lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation poses a serious health risk, particularly to children, and a fundamental development constraint for Pacific nations….While access to potable water and sanitation is a basic human right that many of us take for granted, it is a right currently denied to over two thirds of Pacific Islanders, especially those in rural areas, informal communities on the fringes of the region’s growing urban areas and on the hundreds of small islands scattered across the Pacific,” Minchin stated.

Clean freshwater is an essential agent, at the moment, in the battle against COVID-19, but also in reducing the prevalence of waterborne diseases in the Pacific Islands, such as diarrhoea and cholera, which are fatal illnesses for young children. And, in an island state, such as Tuvalu, which is increasingly linked to the fortunes of climate change, it’s an imperative for continued human habitation.

“Water is an issue of survival for people in Tuvalu, water is life,” Tinilau told IPS.

And in the Pacific, it’s an issue of greater magnitude in rural communities, where only 44 percent of people have access to water, compared to 92 percent in towns and cities. In Tumaseu and Asau on Vaitupu Island, villagers whose livelihoods are mostly associated with fishing, have access to health clinics and sanitation, but life is challenging without a consistently reliable source of water in the communities.

This is now set to change after technical experts from the Pacific Community drew on the traditional knowledge held by village elders of where sources of well water were located and carried out scientific investigations in 2014. It resulted in the groundwater potential on Vaitupu Island being mapped and quantified for the first time.

“We checked out where they said the location would be, the possible sites. We used technology where we passed electrical signals down to the ground and then we knew exactly where the water was, the level of the water….it was great to see the science behind the assessment actually proving the local knowledge,” Salesa told IPS.

As the elders had said, the most expansive groundwater lens was in the far north of the island, near the coast. The island council then led successful applications to secure funding from the New Zealand Government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the construction of overhead tanks at the well site and pipes to convey water direct to the villages. Clean water is expected to be on tap in Tumaseu and Asau by June 2022.

“It will be so beneficial to implement this project. It will help to improve the status of living of people in both communities. It will make a big difference to health issues,” Seleganiu said, adding that villagers will also have more time to devote to income earning and community development activities, without the time-consuming labour of transporting supplies of water by road.

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau   

Coastal fisheries provide vital food security and household incomes throughout the Pacific Islands. The fish market, Auki, Malaita Province, Solomon Islands. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia, Oct 13 2020 (IPS)

Coastal fisheries in the Pacific Islands have become a food and livelihood lifeline to many people who have lost jobs, especially in urban centres and tourism, following COVID-19 lockdowns and border closures. Now governments and development organisations are trying to meet the crisis-driven survival needs of here and now, while also considering the long-term consequences on near shore marine resources and habitats.

“In Vanuatu, we don’t have any cases of COVID-19. But around us the world is in lockdown and the incomes indigenous people usually get from tourism have all gone, they have completely come to a halt,” Leias Cullwick, Executive Director of the Vanuatu National Council of Women in Port Vila, told IPS.  Tourism accounts for an estimated 40 percent of Vanuatu’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“But we still have our own land to plant crops and we can get fish from the sea,” she continued.

Subsistence and small-scale commercial fisheries in coastal areas are a crucial source of nutrition and incomes to communities throughout the Pacific Islands. Fifty percent of coastal households in the region gain a primary or secondary income from fishing, while 89 percent of households generally consume seafood on a weekly basis, according to the regional development organisation, the Pacific Community (SPC).

The COVID-19 induced economic downturn has only increased the importance of traditional livelihoods and sources of food. At a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency in August, the Director General, Dr. Manu Tupou-Roosen emphasised that “it is crucial for fisheries to continue operating at this time, providing much needed income to support the economic recovery, as well as to enhance contribution to the food security of our people”.

However, the increased movement of urban residents back to rural villages and to their extended family networks has, in some areas, had consequences. Dr Andrew Smith, Deputy Director (Coastal Fisheries) at the SPC in Noumea, New Caledonia, told IPS of some of the impacts, .

“What we have been seeing are cases where people who are not familiar with the areas, or not familiar with fishing methods, are either harvesting protected species or under-sized species or the wrong species. There have been reports of fishers going into marine managed areas or into other people’s traditional fishing zones,” he said, adding that: “There is also, in some cases, increased conflicts occurring because people are fishing in the wrong places and catching the wrong fish, both from a national fisheries perspective and the laws, but also from traditional cultural perspectives.”

In surveys conducted in 43 rural villages in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu prior to July by WorldFish, national fisheries agencies in the Pacific Islands and the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, 46 percent and 55 percent of people respectively claimed that there was a shortage of food in communities.

Neither Pacific Island country has recorded any COVID-19 cases to date. However, restrictions on large gatherings and border closures across the region, to prevent any spread of the virus, have diminished shipping and trade. Vanuatu, for example, is under an extended State of Emergency until the 31 December and the government promotes social distancing and enhanced hygiene practices. 

“When COVID-19 first emerged, our country went into stopping main markets, they were stopped for a couple of months. It has now been lifted. People can go out fishing, but it is very difficult for people to sell fish because people are on lower incomes,” Cullwick said.

Coastal fishing, in the zone between the shore and outer reefs, includes species, such as finfish, trochus, lobsters and crabs. The vast majority of the coastal catch is for subsistence. In Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, subsistence fishing makes up 71 percent and 75 percent respectively of the total coastal catch each year. And there is evidence this year that greater hardship has led to increased fishing for food.

This is an additional pressure on coastal resources in the Pacific, which are already being affected by climate change, greater exploitation due to growing populations and the environmental degradation of marine habitats by factors, including pollution, urbanisation and natural disasters.

“The region is a little bit more used to dealing with tropical cyclones, that are always devastating, but are disasters that happen relatively frequently, but they are usually more localised, and the initial impact shorter. Whereas COVID-19 has had an immediate impact, but will have a very long term effect across the region, more of a slow burn disaster, and then you’ve got climate change, which is impacting now, but it is an even slower burn. So you’ve got these multiple stressors on both the resources and the habitats,” Smith told IPS.

According to the development organisation, which is consulting extensively with national governments throughout the region on responding to the present crisis, but a major challenge is achieving a balance between meeting short-term survival needs and managing the long-term repercussions.

One strategy to address immediate food security is encouraging more households to take up aquaculture and establish fish farms.  The Vanuatu Government is supporting this initiative by providing free tilapia fingerlings and feed to families who have taken the first step in building a fish pond.  This is a way of both boosting nutrition and alleviating further over-fishing near to shore. The Pacific Community is also assisting countries to set up near shore fish aggregating devices, which are easily accessible by local fishers.

One positive outcome is that the COVID-19 crisis has driven more discussion at the national and regional levels about the key role of community-based fisheries management. Smith says that there is “clear recognition by the heads of fisheries, as well as at the ministerial level, of how important having effectively managed community-based fisheries are.”

The cornerstone of this approach is increasing the capacity of coastal communities to manage their fishing practices and take the lead on ensuring the future of their marine resources, supported by governments and development organisations. It’s an important element of the 2015 Noumea Strategy, also known as ‘A New Song for Coastal Fisheries,’ a regional vision of sustainably managing fisheries for the future.

By External Source
Oct 5 2020 (IPS-Partners)

As COVID-19 shapes and re-shapes the “new normal” in the Pacific, organic food and products will be a key to community adaptation and resiliency in the region’s economies and livelihoods, with the opportunity to advance a more inclusive gender and people centred approach.

The POETCom initiative, under the SPC’s Land Resources Division, has recognized this by taking the next step in its Building Prosperity for Women Producers, Processors, and Women Owned Businesses through Organic Value Chains (BPWP) project, a collaboration with the Australian Government. The project seeks to empower women for greater access to sustainable livelihoods through participation in organic value chains.

POETCom has developed a toolkit for organic value chain assessment as part of the BPWP project. The kit was trialled in September 2020 at a workshop in Suva. Due to travel restrictions as a result of COVID-19, the project is trialling its toolkits in Fiji before implementing with partners in project countries.

Cicia Organic Monitoring Agency representative and POETCom member Petero Ratucove concluded, “This workshop helped recognize and act on the importance of designing implementations and interventions that account for the roles of women that would have otherwise been neglected in the overall economic development of any community. We need to communicate the importance of gender equity and ensure that we have more equitable distribution of ownership levels of engagement in decision making processes.”

The toolkit will help POETCom staff and partners deepen their knowledge and skills in gender and social inclusion mainstreaming, while guiding them to apply a gender lens to an organic value chain analysis or assessment.

The project works with individuals, families, producers and vendors, as well as organic governance structures. The four expected outcomes are:

• Women have increased financial independence and influence in decision-making within the household.
• Women are increasingly participating in organic value chains, including decision making processes.
• Women and men benefit from viable organic value chains that meet market needs and increase food security.
• The Pacific organic sector has more gender equitable policies and practices.

Building Prosperity for Women Producers, Processors, and Women Owned Businesses through Organic Value Chains launched in October 2018 and is being implemented in three phases over four years; initially working in the Republic of Marshall Islands and Palau with later activities planned for Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia

The workshop feedback is helping the POETCom team revise and finalise the working version of toolkit. The kit will then be applied by POETCom members to ensure challenges, opportunities and entry-points for women are identified and developed to secure equitable and equal benefits from organic agriculture. POETCom hopes to launch the finalised version of the project toolkit later in 2021 after trials in project countries.

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

Credit: SPC technical and geodetic surveying team at the Majuro tide gauge station in the Marshall Islands (RMI)

By External Source
Sep 29 2020 (IPS-Partners)

As the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO) reported earlier this year, COVID-19 has caused massive disruptions to ocean observing systems around the globe, as research cruises, maintenance visits, and sensor deployments have been postponed or cancelled.

According to IOC-UNESCO, “COVID-19 created an ocean data blindspot that could disrupt weather forecasts and hamper our understanding of climate change.”

When borders closed around the Pacific in March as part of COVID-19 restrictions, it provided an opportunity to test the agility of the infrastructure maintenance program supporting 13 permanent sea level observation stations across the Pacific.

These stations form the backbone of one of the world’s most important ocean-monitoring networks. They provide an indispensable record and near-real time data for meteorological agencies, emergency services, shipping operators, and all coastal communities concerned with the rate of sea-level rise and climate change.

Pacific sea level monitoring

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) manages the tide gauges in partnership with the Pacific Community (SPC) and Geoscience Australia (GA) through the Pacific Sea Level and Geodetic Monitoring (PSLGM) project. As one of the region’s oldest continuing aid investments, this project has provided continuous, high-quality climate, sea-level, and land movement data since 1991, and currently operates under the Climate and Oceans Support Program in the Pacific (COSPPac).

Pre-COVID-19, technicians from BOM, SPC, or GA would travel monthly throughout the region to undertake maintenance, calibration, or levelling of each sea-level monitoring site and attend to any emergency issues that might arise.

But COVID-19 has accelerated a process already underway to build in-country capacity to maintain and troubleshoot these sites. Following are a few success stories that have emerged from the project over the last six months.

6-monthly infrastructure maintenance

SPC team members have trained in-country technicians to conduct routine maintenance of the sea level monitoring stations over the last two years.

“The maintenance of this essential measurement equipment is a crucial component for the continuity of quality data collection,” said Adrien Laurenceau-Moineau, the Technical Team Leader at SPC’s Geoscience, Energy and Maritime Division.

Once trained, technical staff of the Meteorological Office and Lands and Survey Department conduct this basic maintenance every six months, following a purpose-designed checklist. Sea-level observing stations and sensors are cleaned and any damage or deterioration are noted and reported to SPC and BoM.

Fiji Met Service technician, Amori Nabanivalu, at the Lautoka tide gauge station, Fiji.

Since March, maintenance has been completed at ten sites in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

In August 2020, the Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS) technical team worked alongside SPC to perform the 6-monthly maintenance check at the sea-level observing station at the Queen’s wharf in Lautoka.

FMS technician, Amori Nabanivalu said, “the tide gauge station provides valuable data for the work we do at FMS and it was a great opportunity to work with the SPC team to better understand the maintenance of the equipment and the processes involved.”

Return to Service

When Tropical Cyclone Harold struck Tonga in April 2020, the old tide gauge on the Queen Salote wharf in Nuku’alofa was damaged by waves. At the new station on Vuna Wharf, waves washed away the gravel protecting the station conduits and the station was off-line due to a power and communication failures.

The technical team in Tonga repaired the tide gauge station conduits at Vuna Wharf, Nuku’alofa, damaged during TC Harold in April

The in-country teams took the lead to implement established Return to Service procedures set up under the project.

Viliami Folau of Tonga’s Land and Survey Department conducted a site visit and provided BoM with pictures, updating the status of both tide stations in Nuku’alofa.

“Post-disaster assessment of the tide gauges is critical. It documents damages, if any, to the infrastructure and ensures the quick return to service of this important source of real-time data collection,” he noted.

Tonga Meteorological Service technician, Enisi Maea, was assisted remotely by BoM to investigate and identify the fault causing the system to go offline. In partnership with Tonga Power and the Ports Authority, Enisi was able to resolve the issue and bring the station back online.

Similarly, Solomon Islands Met Service technical officer, Barnabas Tahoo, took the lead in getting the Honiara tide gauge station back online. Contractors had removed the main power to the station for a wharf extension project back in March when the contractors were suddenly required to return to Australia due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Barnabas worked with BoM to troubleshoot a solution and was able to install a temporary power extension from a nearby shed until the permanent main can be restored.

Station upgrades

Inspecting the upgrade work conducted at the Port Vila tide station, Vanuatu

Inspite of COVID-19 challenges, planned upgrades to a number of stations have been able to go ahead as planned with remote support and supervision.

In Port Vila and Rarotonga a dual radar sensor platform was installed by local contractors with assistance from the Vanuatu Meteorological Service and the Cook Islands Meteorological service with remote oversight from BoM. The new platform will provide the stations with an additional sensor to monitor the sea level as well as a GNSS receiver antenna.

Likewise, the Suva and Lautoka stations in Fiji were refurbished and a dual sea level radar sensor mount was installed by local contractors and SPC supervision.

Remote capacity building

While the situation presents many challenges, Jeff Aquilina, the PSLGM Team Leader at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has embraced the shift to remote support for the project where feasible. He notes, “This infrastructure maintenance work is building a stronger relationship between us and the technical staff of the Pacific Island countries, building equipment knowledge, technical capacity and a sense of ownership of the tide station in each country.”

“This is a positive outcome of the investment in training, mentoring, in-country visits and the establishment of strong networks in the Pacific,” adds Jeff. “At the end of the day, the aim is to ensure the stations are fully operational, recording crucial datasets.”

“This really drives home the importance of investing in local capacity building,” says Molly Powers-Tora, COSPPac Coordinator and Team Leader for Ocean Intelligence at SPC. “And the fact that overworked national staff are committed to the upkeep of these stations is a reflection of just how valuable this data is to the Pacific.”

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

Come to the table, with a willingness to share and be vulnerable: This video is the second in a 3 part series hearing directly from Monitoring Evaluation and Learning practitioners within the Pacific region and their experience of using Pacific approaches in their work. In this video we hear from Associate Professor Cresantia Frances Koya – Vaka’uta who works with the University of the South Pacific, the regionally owned provider of tertiary education in the Pacific region and an international centre of excellence for teaching, research consulting and training on all aspects of Pacific culture, environment and human resource development needs.

We asked Professor Koya-Vaka’uta to share her experiences using Pacific approaches and what advice she would give to new or existing development partner working within the Pacific region. Frances was one of the stakeholders involved in a 12 month journey of talanoa to explore, assess and report on MEL capacity in the Pacific . The Pacific approaches used and he findings are found in the final report: The Pacific MEL Capacity Strengthening Rebbilib http://purl.org/spc/digilib/doc/vpukq

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

It is important to understand the needs of the Vanua, the culture, tradition and its’ protocols: This video is the first in a 3 part series hearing directly from Monitoring Evaluation and Learning practitioners within the Pacific region and their experience of using Pacific approaches in their work. In this video we hear from Mr. Eroni Wavu, the MEL Officer with the Ministry of i-Taukei Affairs in Fiji who are responsible for developing, implementing and monitoring government programs focussed on the governance and wellbeing of the iTaukei people.

We asked Eroni to share his experience in applying Pacific approaches and what advice he would give to new or existing development partners working across the Pacific region. Eroni was one of the stakeholders involved in a 12 month journey of talanoa to explore, assess and report on MEL capacity in the Pacific. The Pacific approaches used and he findings are found in the final report: The Pacific MEL Capacity Strengthening Rebbilib http://purl.org/spc/digilib/doc/vpukq

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)