The following statement was delivered by Mr. Stuart Chape, the Programme Manager of Island Ecosystems at SPREP
Hon. Minister, thank you for the insightful, challenging and thought provoking points that you have presented in your opening remarks. You have raised some very important issues that are fundamental to the sustainability of our environment and societies. We are at a critical juncture where collectively as a region we must step back and assess how well we have managed and used our natural resources while trying to meet our every day needs and development aspirations. Recognising our strengths and achievements as well as our weaknesses and failures should help us to define a more robust and sustainable future as we plan our engagement at Rio+20 next year.
Reflecting on this, I would like to share these words with you:
"Economic development which is undertaken in accordance with ecological principles, paying due respect to the need to plan resource exploitation carefully and to limit the dispersal of wastes in the environment, is better development. In some cases, in simple economic terms, it may initially cost more. In the long term the economic, social and economic benefits will far outweigh these initial costs. Only an ecological approach to development now will enable us to hand on to future generations a carefully managed, relatively unpolluted land with adequate and comparatively natural resources."
These are not my words, they are a quote, not from a recent paper on the green economy but from Fiji's Development Plan 7 written 35 years ago in 1976 - 16 years before the first Rio Summit, the UN Conference on Environment and Development, in 1992. I'm sure you will agree that the statement has a global relevance made even more important by the passage of time.
Immediately following the 1992 Summit the then Prime Minister of Fiji addressed the 47th Session of the UN General Assembly, affirming Fiji's commitment to the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the CBD and the Declaration on Forest Principles. He noted that the Summit:
"...was a major step forward, but the next step may be more difficult. The spirit in which the various agreements were conceived and adopted needs to be matched by their speedy implementation".
I am sharing these quotes with you to highlight two things: firstly, global awareness of the critical positive links between ecology and economic development is now decades old - which should be no surprise when you consider that both the words and the concepts are derived from the one ancient Greek word oikos meaning household, house or family. How appropriate! Within the core meaning of these two words lies the very reason why, as functional concepts, they must be integrated and not polarised.
The second point, reflecting on the then PM's prophetic observation, is the need to take this awareness, expressed in the wide adoption of the 1992 international environment agreements, through to full speedy implementation. That unfortunately is where we have collectively fallen short.
As you have noted, Hon. Minister, while we have made significant advances here in the region in the way we value our terrestrial and marine environments and the ecological services they provide, this has not been enough. We do indeed need a different economic paradigm - but I would suggest that it is not necessarily a new paradigm. The 'green economy' or the 'blue/green economy' is a repackaging of the principles that we have known for decades that must be put into practice if we are to make sustainable development a reality.
However, if such repackaging can capture the imagination of decision-makers, bureaucrats and communities and move us closer to a sustainable future then it is indeed a worthwhile enterprise that must be carried forward to global implementation at the Rio+20 Summit and beyond.
I think we can be optimistic in the Pacific that the paradigm shift can be made - more than anything it is a question of will power: at all levels, from the highest political levels right through to communities.
We already have outstanding examples in the region: at the political level, the Micronesian Challenge initiated by former president Remengasau of Palau, and the establishment of the Phoenix Islands PA - currently the world's largest MPA - and the regional Oceanscape concept adopted by the PIF Leaders last year, both championed by President Anote Tong of Kiribati.
At the community level hundreds of conserved areas have been established, including the 120 km² Tetepare Island Conservation Area in the Solomon Islands established by the Tetepare Descendants Association, conserving the Pacific's largest uninhabited island, which is covered in high value lowland forest.
There are also excellent examples of private enterprise-community conservation partnerships, such as the Rivers Fiji-community partnership for protection and sustainable use of the upper Navua River Ramsar site, and the Namenalala Island conservation area in the Koro Sea protected under covenant between the Namena resort and the traditional land owners.
However, the level of change required to bring about the paradigm shift to a green economy needs to be driven at the highest levels of government - providing support for the changes needed at all levels of society and the economy. Above all we need champions. I have already referred to the initiatives championed by Micronesian leaders, and I should also mention that the Cook Islands PM Hon. Henry Puna is currently exploring with his government and people the establishment of what would be the largest MPA in the world within the Cook Islands territorial waters and EEZ. With such environmental champions at the highest levels of government we can go beyond the rhetoric and make environmental sustainability a reality.
Finally Hon. Minister, our annual Roundtable Meeting this week will focus on the 'green economy' and its relationship to nature. Clearly it will be a discussion of the converted - no-one here needs to be convinced of the need to link ecology and economy. However, the basis of the RT is partnership, and if the 'green economy' is to succeed not only do we need champions but we need to work together. This week I am sure that we will collectively focus on the issues and approaches that can make it work.
SPREP in its new Strategic Plan for 2011 – 2015 is committed to work closely with its country and territory Members and partners to continue to provide quality advice on protecting and managing island ecosystems as a basis for a sustainable future, including its achievement through the 'green economy'.
With those words, I wish us all a successful meeting.
Vinaka vaka levu.