‘As the world takes notice of Pacific Islands communities’ abilities to teach them a thing or two about conservation, there is no room for complacency.'


Geographical isolation and insularity have driven Pacific islanders to continually evolve innovative, practical survival strategies over the ages. Their culture, folklore and lifestyles, therefore, have integrated so well into their natural habitat, that for most communities, the concept of ‘conservation’ is really as much a part of their traditional lives as any other mundane activity. Many of the environmental problems they face today—the most serious among them being rising sea levels as a consequence of global warming—are not of their own making. Nonetheless, they are rising to the occasion with a combination of their natural survival skills, modern techniques and a quiet determination, which over the past couple of years, are consistently winning them global recognition for their many successful environmental and conservation projects.

On World Ocean Day, last month, Ratu Aisea Katonivere, the chief of Fiji’s Macuata province, received an international award in Washington for encouraging and motivating other chiefs and villagers to set up a 59 square kilometres protected aquatic zone in a traditional fishing area. This is consistent with Fiji’s 2005 pledge to protect 30 percent of its marine areas by 2020, which in turn brought forth several other Pacific islands states to make similar pledges. Katonivere said he persuaded the community to co-operate by convincing them that creating marine protected areas was the way forward, because “you preserve the fish, not only for our generation but those who are yet to be born.”

Katonivere and his Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase received the Global Ocean Conservation Award from a coalition of conservation groups, including Conservation International, WWF, Natural Resources Defense Council, Ocean Revolution, the World Conservation Union and the Marine Conservation Biology Institute.

Over in Papua New Guinea, Annie Kajir, a 32-year-old lawyer based in Port Moresby, has come to international attention for her precedent-setting court cases to protect the forests of PNG and their people from illegal logging. Her nine-year court battle against illegal logging, which she fought at considerable personal risk, won her the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize worth US$125,000. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called her a “real-life action hero”.

Across the Pacific islands, creative and innovative activities by committed islanders and communities have begun a slow but increasingly effective process of healing damaged ecosystems and giving a new lease of life to endangered species.

In Vanuatu, a local theatre group incorporated the story of a crab into one of its performances, sparking a growing interest within the community on the plight of some species of land crabs in the area. In other parts of the Pacific, communities are working with both global and regional development and environment organisations to monitor the quality of their marine environments, taking timely steps to stem activities that tend to pollute them.

As the world takes notice of Pacific Islands communities’ abilities to teach them a thing or two about conservation, there is no room for complacency. Increased tourism activity, industrial development and urbanisation—not to mention activities outside the control of islanders—are taking a toll on many fragile ecosystems. Worse, the sheer pressures of modern lifestyles, particularly the need to make money any which way, are driving people to endanger their environments.

There have been reports from Fiji’s Tailevu province that some local villagers have used a chemical compound that is manufactured for washing clothes to incapacitate crabs, to help catch them in larger numbers, thanks to their growing demand.

In February this year, there was a warning against eating shellfish from Suva harbour, which was believed to be contaminated with high levels of paint and rubbish that is dumped nearly untreated into natural waterways. On some atolls in Kiribati, untreated sewage dumped into the lagoons causes seasonal accumulation of algae on the beach, filling the air with a stench. For the same reason, islanders’ traditional foods like oysters, clams and mussels are increasingly being shunned because of health risks.

The allure of the tourism industry, which powers most of the economic growth in islands nations, often overshadows the need for resource planning and adequate investment to counter the effects of increased development on fragile environments.

While Pacific islands communities and individuals must be applauded for their recent achievements, more needs to be done.

There is an urgent need to work together to bring pressure on their political and administrative classes to accord top priority to formulating and implementing sustainable environmental and conservation policy while wooing multi-million dollar projects.

It would be an extreme pity to see such sterling efforts by Pacific islands communities and individuals come to naught just because of unsupportive and counter-productive policy framework at the governmental level.