Nauru
Tyrone Deiye
Environment Policy Officer
Nauru
Q. What are the key issues for Nauru at the 10th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification?
For us mainly it is to keep abreast with the sustainable land management issues because at the moment we are finalising our National Action Plan for this. Land degradation is a big issue for Nauru due to the phosphate mining and we need to integrate this issue in the work that is being done by the environment service to put plans and policies in place for sustainable development.
Q. Why is it important for Nauru to be a party to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification?
A key objective of the Convention is to address land degradation. That is a big issue for us we need to keep informed of the connected issues and the ways to mobilize funds for us to address this a national level.
Q. What does Nauru hope to get out of this 10th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification?
We want to be more acquainted with the issues at this COP but we also want to unite with the Pacific and give our region a stronger voice at this meeting.
The Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands
Mr. Warwick Harris
Deputy Director
Office of Environmental Planning and Policy Coordination
Marshall Islands
Q. What are the key issues for the Marshall Islands at the 10th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification?
This is a fine opportunity to align our National Action Plan to the UNCCD ten year strategy, for which discussions are taking place on at this COP. Yesterday we met with the Global Mechanism and talked about the integrated finance strategy process. We would like to align our sustainable finance plan for the Micronesia Challenge with the ten year strategy and the integrated finance strategy of the UNCCD.
Q. Why is it important for the Marshall Islands to be a party to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification?
For the Marshall Islands one key cause of land degradation amongst others is coastal erosion and one of the reasons we are a party to this convention is to take advantage of every opportunity to develop our capacity to mitigate against droughts and coastal erosion.
Q. What does the Marshall Islands hope to get out of this 10th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification?
We'd like guidance as to how we can align our current sustainable finance plan under the Micronesia Challenge with the UNCCD Integrated Financial Strategy. I think that will be a start to us receiving financial support and assistance for this regional initiative under the UNCCD.
Notes:
The Micronesia Challenge is a shared commitment to conserve at least 30% of the near-shore marine resources and 20% of the terrestrial resources across Micronesia by 2020
The Global Mechanism (GM) is a specialised institution, dedicated to supporting developing countries to increase investments into Sustainable Land Management in order to help reverse, control and prevent land degradation and desertification.
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