Island and Ocean Ecosystems
The 18th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation came to an end in Suva, Fiji, last week after two days of discussions under the theme – "Biodiversity for Sustainable Development."
The Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservationalso known as PIRT was formed 18 years ago in 1997 at the request of Pacific Island countries and territories. It is the mechanism for improving the collaboration and coordination of organisations working on nature conservation in the Pacific. The overall goal of which is to achieve effective conservation actionandhaltbiodiversity loss in the region.
"For close to two decades we have coordinated our efforts to collectively work together to save our Pacific biodiversity, the soul of our culture and livelihoods. It is our Pacific biodiversity that is at the core of our identity, it's worth fighting for," said Mr. Taholo Kami, the Director of IUCN Oceania, current Chair of the PIRT.
"We spent two days focusing on how we are implementing the Framework for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas across the Pacific region - we delved into our collective action plan that takes us through to 2020."
The Framework for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas 2014 - 2020 is the key document that all partners are working to. It was adopted at the 9th Pacific Islands Nature Conference and then subsequently endorsed at the 25th Meeting of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands in September, 2014.
Over the course of the two day meeting of the PIRT, the topics and issues discussed included critical and emerging issues, the critical role of conservation in achieving sustainable development, funding and financing opportunities to support the implementation of objectives of the Framework. There was also a sharing of information, experiences and lessons learntfrom local community, national and regional levels – such as the work undertaken by SPREP.
"Biodiversity and conservation is at the heart of SPREP's work," said Mr. David Sheppard, the Director-General of SPREP.
"Our Pacific region faces an uphill battle, we face the loss of our species such as Pacific birds of which we have the highest numbers of loss in the world, further to that our Pacific countries face major challenges when it comes to capacity development. We need all hands on deck to save our biodiversity together and this is the one of the key roles that PIRT plays."
He highlighted the Choiseul Integrated Climate Change programme in the Solomon Islands as a good example of multiple partners - organisations, government and non-government sectors working together to address the issue of biodiversity loss and ecosystem management.
"These models could be upscaled and applied throughout the region," said Mr. Sheppard.
The meeting produced key actionable outcomes to progress implementation of the Framework objectives. A key outcome of the event was the results of the mapping of PIRT members' activities, projects and initiatives both current and in the pipeline, against the objectives of the Framework. The information from this exercise provides a clear picture of progress and gaps towards implementing the regional framework and also towards meeting global biodiversity targets such as the global Aichi Biodiversity Targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Now, more than ever, it is crucial for the region to work together to protect and conserve our biodiversity, to help this, the meeting concluded with the signing of PIRT Membership Agreements by the following organisations: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF Pacific), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Society for Conservation Biology (Oceania) (SCBO) Inc., IUCN Oceania Regional Office (ORO), SeaWeb and SPREP.
The signing of these agreements signified agreement by these organisations to the mandate of the PIRT and commitment towards implementing the Framework for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas which includes the Principles for Nature Conservation - a code of conduct.
"Many of us who work with biodiversity conservation will know that the highest priority biodiversity sites in the Pacific are mostly within indigenous lands. These lands have extraordinary value - for their beauty, the ecosystem services they sustain, and for their biodiversity," said Ms. Elizabeth Erasito, the Director of the Nature Trust of the Fiji Islands in her keynote address at the opening of the Roundtable.
"Our indigenous cultures are strongly dependent on natural ecosystems for their livelihoods and keeping our natural landscapes intact is necessary to keeping our indigenous cultures intact."
The 18th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation was organised by SPREP as part of its role as Secretariat of the Roundtable working closely with the Chair and members of the Roundtable.
The 18th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation was preceded by the meeting of the PIRT Protected Areas Working Group on 2 – 3 July and the Pacific Islands Species Forum on 6 - 8 July.
For more information please email [email protected]
The Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservationalso known as PIRT was formed 18 years ago in 1997 at the request of Pacific Island countries and territories. It is the mechanism for improving the collaboration and coordination of organisations working on nature conservation in the Pacific. The overall goal of which is to achieve effective conservation actionandhaltbiodiversity loss in the region.
"We spent two days focusing on how we are implementing the Framework for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas across the Pacific region - we delved into our collective action plan that takes us through to 2020."
The Framework for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas 2014 - 2020 is the key document that all partners are working to. It was adopted at the 9th Pacific Islands Nature Conference and then subsequently endorsed at the 25th Meeting of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands in September, 2014.
Over the course of the two day meeting of the PIRT, the topics and issues discussed included critical and emerging issues, the critical role of conservation in achieving sustainable development, funding and financing opportunities to support the implementation of objectives of the Framework. There was also a sharing of information, experiences and lessons learntfrom local community, national and regional levels – such as the work undertaken by SPREP.
"Biodiversity and conservation is at the heart of SPREP's work," said Mr. David Sheppard, the Director-General of SPREP.
"Our Pacific region faces an uphill battle, we face the loss of our species such as Pacific birds of which we have the highest numbers of loss in the world, further to that our Pacific countries face major challenges when it comes to capacity development. We need all hands on deck to save our biodiversity together and this is the one of the key roles that PIRT plays."
He highlighted the Choiseul Integrated Climate Change programme in the Solomon Islands as a good example of multiple partners - organisations, government and non-government sectors working together to address the issue of biodiversity loss and ecosystem management.
"These models could be upscaled and applied throughout the region," said Mr. Sheppard.
The meeting produced key actionable outcomes to progress implementation of the Framework objectives. A key outcome of the event was the results of the mapping of PIRT members' activities, projects and initiatives both current and in the pipeline, against the objectives of the Framework. The information from this exercise provides a clear picture of progress and gaps towards implementing the regional framework and also towards meeting global biodiversity targets such as the global Aichi Biodiversity Targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Now, more than ever, it is crucial for the region to work together to protect and conserve our biodiversity, to help this, the meeting concluded with the signing of PIRT Membership Agreements by the following organisations: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF Pacific), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Society for Conservation Biology (Oceania) (SCBO) Inc., IUCN Oceania Regional Office (ORO), SeaWeb and SPREP.
The signing of these agreements signified agreement by these organisations to the mandate of the PIRT and commitment towards implementing the Framework for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas which includes the Principles for Nature Conservation - a code of conduct.
"Many of us who work with biodiversity conservation will know that the highest priority biodiversity sites in the Pacific are mostly within indigenous lands. These lands have extraordinary value - for their beauty, the ecosystem services they sustain, and for their biodiversity," said Ms. Elizabeth Erasito, the Director of the Nature Trust of the Fiji Islands in her keynote address at the opening of the Roundtable.
"Our indigenous cultures are strongly dependent on natural ecosystems for their livelihoods and keeping our natural landscapes intact is necessary to keeping our indigenous cultures intact."
The 18th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation was organised by SPREP as part of its role as Secretariat of the Roundtable working closely with the Chair and members of the Roundtable.
The 18th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation was preceded by the meeting of the PIRT Protected Areas Working Group on 2 – 3 July and the Pacific Islands Species Forum on 6 - 8 July.
For more information please email [email protected]