Involving the communities is key

Asterio Takesy
Biodiversity, our variety of life on earth, is the basis for Pacific livelihoods and cultural traditions. Our Pacific people need biodiversity for goods, shelter, coastal protection and traditional medicines. But there is a significant loss of this biodiversity across our region.

Growing urban development, increasing population, changing lifestyles, impacts of globalisation and mounting dependence on cash economies have resulted in the loss and damage of our natural ecosystems.

It is threatening the Pacific way of life: our island life.

We can define the future and identity of the Pacific islands by establishing and implementing effective conservation practices, including appropriate traditional approaches.

Every five years people from throughout the Pacific and the world gather in our region to discuss how we can better manage our biodiversity.

In October, the Milne Bay Province in Papua New Guinea (PNG) hosted the 8th Pacific Islands Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas.

Held at Alotau, this conference, brought together over 400 people from Pacific governments, non governmental organisations (NGOs), donor bodies, communities, specialists and experts to discuss a vision of conservation for the region, and practical mechanisms for implementation.

The sole purpose of the meeting was to better enable conservation action in countries through the development of the regional Action Strategy for Nature Conservation in the Pacific.

The conference was coordinated by the Government of PNG, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and The Roundtable for Nature Conservation in the Pacific Islands, the Pacific’s largest conservation network.

The PNG Government generously supported this important event through a contribution of K1 million, highlighting its commitment to working with key partners to conserve its unique biodiversity.

PNG is considered one of the most unique places on Earth. It is estimated that it is home to seven percent of the world’s terrestrial species. Less than five years ago approximately 858 species had a high probability of extinction in the medium-term future in the Pacific islands region.

The Pacific Ocean is home to more than 75 percent of the world’s reefs with the Western Pacific alone acknowledged as having the highest marine diversity in the world. Twenty years ago, Pacific reefs could boast of living coral on more than 60 percent of their surfaces, but today only one or two percent of the reefs in the ‘Indo-Pacific’ have coral cover close to the historical baseline.

Reports state that our native forest cover is removed at rates of up to four percent every year with less than 30 percent of the Pacific forest cover in their natural state.

Every society has a right to hope that what they enjoy today will be passed on to their children, and their grandchildren in a better way than it was found.

Here in the Pacific, we need to work collectively towards sustaining the livelihoods of our Pacific people through conserving our rich and natural heritage.

Conservation is about making sure that what we harvest today doesn’t impact our ability to harvest tomorrow and to make sure we do not damage anything in the process, to better manage our resources for future generations.

Around the world there is a developing acknowledgement of the significant role of communities in driving conservation efforts.

In the Pacific, it is understood that successful initiatives depend on participation from communities. Successful conservation of biodiversity in the Pacific is ultimately about people.

This was reflected in the theme of the conference ‘Conservation serving Communities in a Rapidly Changing World’ which highlighted the role of people in supporting conservation efforts in the Pacific. With most of the Pacific held in community tenure, working with landowners is key to ensuring conservation of natural resources.

The conference and the roundtable will be celebrating community achievements, as everyone plays an important role in strengthening our biodiversity.

Viwa Island in Fiji, a 60-hectare island with approximately 100 residents have supported a project which helps protect the endangered Fijian ground frog found on their island. Pacific rats, feral cats and dogs and the invasive cane toad have an impact on the Fijian ground frog. Viwa residents support the eradication of these pests to ensure the survival of the ground frog as well as benefit other endemic species on Viwa—seven other reptile species, several bird species and the banded iguana.

In the Cook Islands, a marine conservation initiative called ra’ui is at work. The traditional chiefs place a ban called ra’ui upon any harvesting of sea life from the reef to the shore. The Koutu Nui, a chiefly council, established the ra’ui that is lifted at certain times of the year for a set period to allow villagers to reap the abundant sea life.

The ra’ui requires no legal backing and is dependent upon the respect for cultural tradition, education, awareness and support for the traditional authority of the Rarotonga chiefs.

Within the Pacific, national governments also understand the important role they play in helping protect Pacific biodiversity and its use. Their achievements must be congratulated.

In 2006, the Leaders of Micronesia launched the Micronesia Challenge. It’s a commitment by the governments of Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marshall Islands, Palau and the Northern Mariana Islands to protect 20 percent of terrestrial and 30 percent of nearshore marine resources by 2020.

That same year, Kiribati announced the creation of the Phoenix Islands Protected Areas (PIPA), that will help safeguard more than 182,500 square kilometres of marine wilderness in the largest marine protected area in the Pacific islands and the third largest in the world.

The preservation of our biodiversity is a responsibility that falls upon the shoulders of all of us and it is through the Pacific Islands Conference for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas that we set priorities together, and together we better coordinate the plan of approach.

One way this is done is with the guidance of the roundtable for Nature Conservation and this year the Pacific celebrates its 10th anniversary. Taholo Kami of the IUCN World Conservation Union Oceania, based in Fiji, is the new chair of the roundtable.

SPREP recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the organisation that addresses conservation issues.

The former chair was Lionel Gibson of the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International (FSPI) and we thank him for his work over the past four years.

It is together that we can work to protect and manage our biodiversity. Our environment is strongly entwined in our culture and traditions that we inherited from our ancestors. It is also our responsibility to ensure we leave these gifts for our future generations.

• Asterio Takesy is the director of SPREP, based in Apia, Samoa.