12 October 2011, Changwon, Korea - The Pacific region was highlighted during a special event at the 10th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification which focused on the South-South cooperation between Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific.
Sustainable Land Management and Finance was at the core of this discussion which had presentations made sharing experiences from each of the three regions.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme
(SPREP) shared experiences on Ecosystem based adaptation and mainstreaming land management projects from the Pacific in a joint presentation from Tepa Suaesi (pictured right) the Environment Impact Assessment Officer, SPREP and Bruce Jefferies the Terrestrial Ecosystems Management Officer, SPREP.
The Pacific was asked as to how they would recommend synergy at the sub-regional and regional level between all three Rio Conventions which focus on biodiversity, climate change and land.
"For the Pacific, the regional frameworks are in place, which cover environment and development. We have the Council of the Regional Organisations of the Pacific, we have a Pacific Plan document," answered Tepa Suaesi, the Environment Officer of SPREP.
"The challenge for our region is bringing the planning process from the regional and national level to the local level as we have the traditional structures in place, so we can increase the number of people with knowledge in the global context."
This side event was coordinated by the Global Mechanism, the organization tasked with resource mobilization for the UNCCD.
Read more about the UNCCD COP 10 on the Bionesian Blog.