Download A PACIFIC CALL GLOBAL ACTION

A PACIFIC CALL
for
GLOBAL
ACTION
Our drums are the voices of our
People. Our sails are flags of hope.
Our vakas (canoes) are symbols of
our communities who have lived as
one with nature.
We have adapted to the vast
expanses of the Pacific – harnessing
the energy of the wind, the sun and
the currents and, guided by nature
we travel with our message to the
world.
As Pacific people, we come with
our Pacific Promise to Sydney – A
Call for Global Action: The Mua
Message:
• Appreciate and value the global
significance of our Pacific
island space – in a climatechallenged planet, our hope lies
in protecting and managing our
large natural spaces that provide
life
sustaining
ecosystem
services.
• We
need
extraordinary
partnerships and commitments
to sustain the Pacific islands for
future generations and for the
health of the planet.
• Join us to protect and nurture
our environment in harmony
with our cultures. Nature, in
turn, will help restore our planet
– that is our Pacific Promise.
A PACIFIC CALL for GLOBAL ACTION
Our People
For thousands of years our people have lived and
enjoyed the beauty and provision of our beloved
island and ocean home. We are blessed with fertile
soils, tremendous biodiversity and an abundant
Pacific Ocean.
We are the people of the Pacific – scattered over
38 million square kilometres with a relatively small
but culturally rich and diverse people sharing some
1,500 languages (25% of the world’s total).
We have survived the strongest winds, the
battering of the tides and ridden the waves through
time – an inspired people, proud of our cultural
heritage, nurtured and guided by nature. The lush,
natural environment has weathered history thus far
due to the light and respectful touch of its sparse
population.
Long-standing cultural and spiritual foundations
link us with our islands, our coasts and vast marine
places. Most natural resources across the Pacific
are not only used, but owned and managed, by our
indigenous and local communities – at this scale it is a
globally unique situation.
Nature is sustenance. There is no separation
between nature conservation and sustenance or
between human and environmental health. We rely on
nature for food, fresh water, fuel, shelter, medicines.
Nature is a central element of island society and
culture. We do not look at the world merely for its
economic potential. Our environment is literally the
source of our identity, our life and our survival.
Our close relationship with the natural world leaves
us particularly vulnerable, yes. But we think value, not
vulnerability. We bring lessons from which others can
learn, offering our knowledge and our ways, not just
our resources. We are thoughtful and skilful partners
of the natural world who can help others reflect on
the way humanity is treating its natural surroundings.
Our traditional ways of life have proved highly
durable. We have used our resources without
depleting them. We use our intimate knowledge of
nature not to exploit, but to co-exist. “Island time’’ is
a positive metaphor for a way of thinking and living
that is not about voraciously, unsustainably using and
consuming resources.
Our vakas represent a deep desire shared by
Pacific people, and now sharing it with the world, to
acknowledge and protect our most cherished values
and places from disappearing.
• The Pacific Ocean
covers one third of
Earth’s surface
• 98% of the Pacific
Islands region is
ocean, 2% land
• Pacific Islands
countries and
territories have
a total EEZ of 38
million km2
• Only 10 million
people in 22 Island
countries and
territories
• The world’s most
culturally diverse
region
A PACIFIC CALL for GLOBAL ACTION
Our Ocean
The great ocean contains the ancestral pathways that
bind our Pacific people. The ocean embodies cultural and
traditional importance of extraordinary scale. It defines
who we are as people of the sea and guides our way of
life. This ocean has carved our identity and ingrained our
cultures with the respect for its strength, its abundance
and its life-giving qualities. It is a long-standing heritage
and one regenerating and re-emerging into a beautiful,
powerful oceanic region. Thousands of islands and
communities connected as guardians of this great Pacific
Ocean.
Our ocean home is under threat. We no longer see
the fish and other marine creatures in the size, diversity or
abundance of the past. We witness the change as foreign
fishing fleets ply our waters in a race to strip our resources.
Our ocean is in severe stress. As the world’s resources
dwindle, there is increasing interest in the natural and
mineral resources of the Pacific region. Our coral reefs, the
greatest in the world, are disappearing and our mangrove
and wetland spawning grounds are under threat.
Our Pacific feeds billions of people across the planet.
Our Climate
Rapid climate change is our reality.
We of the Pacific have done little to
contribute to the cause, less than
0.03% of current global greenhouse
gas emissions, and are leading by
example to mitigate this further. Yet
we are among the first to be affected
by climate change – it is an urgent,
present threat.
We are on the frontline as rising
sea levels, rising temperatures,
ocean acidification and more intense
storms combine to damage our crops,
threaten our food supplies, salinate
our fresh water tables and intrude
into our homes. Stronger and more
regular storms reduce our delicate
reefs to rubble with less time for
recovery, with recovery made harder
by sea warming and acidification.
The effects of climate change test
the resilience of our people and our
ocean environment. The threshold of
our resilience needs to be understood
as an alarm bell for the rest of
humanity.
This ocean is vast – but not limitless. It is showing signs
of overexploitation and is threatened by rises in sea
temperatures, ocean acidification and sea levels. The
unrestrained pursuit of economic growth, unsustainable
development and the demands of a growing global
population further degrade the ability of the ocean to
sustain our livelihoods. Plastics, sewage, oil and chemicals
are sadly now part of our ocean environment.
The world desperately needs a big, healthy Pacific
– an immense, irreplaceable, globally significant space
in a climate changing world. Urgent action is needed to
manage and control the exploitation of its ocean resources
to ensure their continuity to future generations and to
avoid catastrophic consequences to life on earth.
We are guardians of a living ocean. Our identity is
anchored in a vast sea where our ancestors sailed out to
explore the oceanic unknown and to make it their home,
our home, and now your home. It is our inherited honour
and responsibility to protect these immeasurably valuable
places. Without the oceans, humanity cannot survive.
We are fighting to save our land,
our resources, our identity, our
culture and our sovereignty – the very
heart of the Pacific way.
As the storms get stronger,
the changing climate brings new
challenges to our island communities.
Environmental degradation and the
loss of biodiversity are added risks.
We are resilient, bravely adapting,
armed with the traditional knowledge
of our ancestors and modern-day
technology. Yet is this enough?
In the face of climate change, the
value of oceans has never been so
significant. Without healthy oceans,
humanity cannot survive. We need
healthy oceans for the stability of
the global environment and climate,
to produce more than half of the
oxygen we breathe and to provide a
significant proportion of the world’s
protein needs. The global asset of
the Pacific Ocean requires global
consideration, acknowledgement and
support.
95% EEZ
1,300,000 Km2
NEW CALEDONIA
2
400,000 Km
FIJI
30% EEZ2
Managed Marine Areas
of our Exclusive Economic Zones are
3.7million km
Our Promise:
500,000 Km
80% EEZ2
PALAU
~50% EEZ
1,100,000 Km2
COOK ISLANDS
Provides 50% of world tuna production annually
Thousands of small coastal and rural village communities that
express their remarkable ethnic diversity in simple daily life
including the traditional management of customarily owned
resources
Most people on islands depend directly on natural resources
for their food, water, livelihoods and traditional cultures
An ocean that is blessed with the most extensive coral reef
system and highest marine diversity in the world
Vast distances between islands favours rare and unique
species and huge biological variety
PACIFIC ISLANDS REGION
2
~400,000 Km
KIRIBATI
(PHOENIX ISL)
Our Pacific Promise to the world
A PACIFIC CALL for GLOBAL ACTION