2008 declared the Year of the Reef

Asterio Takesy
Navigating our journey ahead for 2008 is going to be an exciting challenge.

A New Year always holds potential and promise for an improved future and a better way of life.

At the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, we are excited by the continued opportunities to bring our Pacific family closer to living in a sustainable environment.
2008 sees our journey start with exciting new initiatives to enrich our Pacific. As always, it is our local communities that help guide us along our path.

This year, their companionship on this voyage is just as important and we ask you all to support and join us as we journey towards a better Pacific environment.
2008 Pacific Year of the Reef

The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) has designated 2008 as the International Year of the Coral Reef. Understanding the significant role the reef plays as protector and provider for our Pacific islands nations, SPREP member countries and territories have endorsed 2008 to be the Pacific Year of the Reef.

Combined, the Pacific has an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of over 30 million square kilometres. The Pacific Ocean is home to over 75 percent of the world’s reefs that are now under threat. From 1968 to 1995 our coral reefs in the Pacific have disappeared at the rate of one percent a year. This rate doubled from 1995 to 2004.

This year, we as owners of our Pacific reef, are being encouraged to strengthen and cultivate our reefs. The last Pacific Year of the Reef was in 1997 and at the time our main objective was to raise awareness of the coral reef. Now, 10 years later, we need to take this to the next level.

The Pacific Year of the Reef campaign will focus on promoting changes in behaviour to reduce our impact on the region’s reefs, and to strengthen its resilience in a climate of global change. The coral reef not only plays an important traditional role in helping to feed our people, it is also important in the context as a protector. Building a healthy coral reef can help protect us against the effects of climate change, one of the biggest threats in the Pacific.

This year, SPREP has designed a campaign that will encompass schoolchildren of the Pacific with several competitions. It is our children who will inherit our earth and SPREP appreciates the true value of their role in helping save our coral reefs. ‘Challengecoralreef’ will encourage school groups to take action to care for their local coral reefs through developing community-based Action Plans.

‘Legends of the reef’ will invite children aged between 5 and 12 from Pacific islands countries and territories to write a brief story about a legend from their country or community, and prepare a poster.

But please remember, the Pacific Year of the Reef is not limited to our future generations, all of us are important stakeholders. If you, in any way are able to work towards saving our coral reef, then please do so. As you plan your agenda and activities for our New Year ahead, please embrace the theme of 2008 being the Pacific Year of the Reef.

Climate Change Film Festival

The Pacific islands are among the most vulnerable nations in the world to climate change. Having recently finished the Conference of the Parties meeting on Climate Change in Bali last month, I am pleased to share with you, the very first Pacific Climate Change Film Festival.

This year, SPREP in partnership with the British High Commission in Suva are providing Pacific islanders with the opportunity to tell their story of climate change in our own Pasifika style.

Although the year has just begun, for the Pacific our voyage is on a productive path. This month will see the first of a three-phase programme that will culminate in the showing of Pacific Climate Change stories.
SPREP is the host of a climate change and documentary-making workshop to equip participants with climate change knowledge.

The training will also see Pacific islands participants armed with skills to make their own productions. ‘Knowledge is power’. With this in mind, SPREP will help our Pacific people so they can tell their stories of how climate change is affecting their people and their homeland, in their own style. Knowledge from the training will also be the open door that can share our stories of how climate change is impacting upon us and the strengths within the community to respond to these changes.

It is during the second phase that the Pacific participants will produce a short film in their homeland and the third phase is the Pacific Climate Change Film Festival. In March, these climate change stories will be shown in Suva, Fiji. This will be an important moment in our Pacific history and the invitation has been extended to other short filmmakers who have also produced a programme on climate change and how it has affected them. We in the Pacific have a strong voice and this is our opportunity to tell our compelling stories.

It’s going to be an exciting year ahead for SPREP with dynamic opportunities to bring us closer, to a more sustainable environment. The first month of 2008 has seen us cover ground towards that goal. We look forward to your company this year.

• Asterio Takesy is the director of the Apia-based Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme.