By Mr Kosi Latu, SPREP Director General
The Festive Season is a wonderful time. So firstly, let me wish each and everyone of you a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
In the tropical surroundings of the Pacific, Christmas celebration and preparations to welcome the New Year, are joyous occasions. It’s a time for families, villages, churches and communities to give thanks, appreciate each other, reflect on the journey during the past 12 months and restock for 2022.
From our standpoint at SPREP, looking back at 2021, it has been a tough year. It is the second year where the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, including border closures and stringent international travel restrictions, dictated the way we work and operate. It hampered our ability to travel and engage with our members and partners, as we would have done usually.
But we’re not alone in this regard, and like many people across the world, we have had to adapt and find ways to navigate this new normal. As we look back at the year that was, I am pleased to say that despite the compounding circumstances, we have been tenacious and resilient in our efforts to fulfill our duty to serve all our member countries. Indeed, much has been achieved, just from a glimpse of the work your SPREP team has done in 2021.
On the global scale, COP26 in Glasgow presented another opportunity for our amplified Pacific voice to be heard. Did the Pacific achieve what it set out to do in Glasgow? Yes and no. What we saw was an outcome document filled with more pledges and promises without the necessary policies and actions needed to deliver on them. I have said this before and I will say it again; until we see real action to phase out coal and all kinds of fossil fuel, the future of the Pacific is bleak. But we can’t stop, and we cannot be discouraged. We’ve got to keep fighting until we see some real concrete actions on these pledges and promises. That said, I am very proud of our amplified collective voice to remind the world that we need to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and we need a 1.5 Degrees Celsius world. The work of our Political Climate Change Champions, who advocated for our Pacific priorities, was excellent and we look forward to growing the momentum in Egypt next year.
The Third Clean Pacific Roundtable (3CPRT) in November was another successful step in the region’s push for a cleaner future. The shift from a traditional society to a modern consumer-driven community has resulted in an unprecedented increase of wastes and pollution, as populations grow and developments expand rapidly. This has taken a toll on the health of communities, degrading natural ecosystems, threatening food security, impeding resilience to climate change and adversely impacting on social and economic development. This is extremely alarming and as custodians of our pristine Pacific oceans and land resources, are duty-bound to respond proactively to protect our environment. The adoption of the Cleaner Pacific 2025 Implementation Plan 2021-2025 and the Clean Pacific Roundtable 2021 Outcome Statement are key documents to guide our work and we look forward to working with everyone in the Pacific communities and our partners to keep the Pacific clean.
From our headquarters at Vailima in Samoa, the 30th Meeting of Officials of SPREP was hosted virtually guided by the theme “Accelerating Actions for a Resilient Blue Pacific.” The meeting brought together the Secretariat’s 21 Pacific Island and 5 Metropolitan Member countries and territories to discuss strategic, programme and governance issues pertaining to the organisation, as well as to approve the 2022-2023 work programme and budget. One of the many highlights was the Pacific Regional Declaration on the Prevention of Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution and its Impacts, where Pacific Leaders expressed grave concern about the environmental, social, cultural, economic, human health and food security impacts of plastic pollution.
While SPREP’s mandate is the Pacific environment, at the heart of everything we do is our Pacific people, our community. We were delighted to welcome more than 150 guests during our Open Day this year, celebrating the day when the SPREP Treaty was signed. It was a wonderful opportunity to give back to our community and invite them to learn more about the work we do. Showcasing our Pacific environment to students is always exciting as they represent the future we are fighting for. We hope this inspires them to become environment leaders in their families, schools and communities.
Speaking of inspiration, fourteen individuals and non-governmental organisations from seven countries across the Pacific, who have shown a strong commitment to environmental conservation and sustainability, were awarded the prestigious Pacific Islands Environment Leadership Awards (PIELA).
This is the second time the Awards were presented. In 2021 they commended our Pacific environment leaders in five different categories and were awarded to environmental leaders and activists from a range of countries across the Pacific region.
For Excellence in National Leadership in Environmental Sustainability and Conservation, Dr Patrick Pikacha from Solomon Islands, Mr Hubert Geraux from New Caledonia, and Ms Nunia Thomas-Moko from Fiji were the recipients of the Award. Three winners were also recipients of the Award for Excellence in Community Leadership in Sustainability and Conservation. They are Mr Timmy Sowang from Papua New Guinea, Mr Henry Kaniki from Solomon Islands, and NatureFiji-MareqetiViti, Fiji’s first national conservation NGO.
The award for Excellence in Youth Leadership in Environmental Sustainability and Conservation was presented to the Erakor Bridge Community in Vanuatu, Mr Solomon Yeo from Solomon Islands, the Matautu Lefaga Youth Group from Samoa, and Caledoclean from New Caledonia. The Lifetime Achievement for Excellence in Pacific Environmental Leadership Award was presented to Dr Dick Walting from Fiji, Tusanilefaia’ao Iosefatu Reti from Samoa and Jean Kape from French Polynesia.
The Champion of the Pacific Environment Award was presented to the late Ms Sue Miller-Taei from New Zealand and Samoa. Ms Taei has worked to advance Pacific conservation throughout the region for over 30 years. She has served the Pacific through various roles in the conservation space, from Conservation International to WWF, SPREP and the Pew Foundation. Congratulations go out to our Pacific Islands Environment Leadership Award recipients.
We ended 2021 with awarding the Pacific Invasive Species “Battler of the Year” Award to the Wallis and Futuna Environment Service. The accolade, which until now has been won by an individual since its inception in 2017, recognises Pacific invasive species field-based practitioners who have worked at the grassroots level and achieved an outstanding outcome for biodiversity from the use of minimal resources. The Wallis and Futuna group embody that and more. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, they successfully led rat removal operations on four islets; removed 30 large century plants and over 1,500 seedlings and removed over 1000m2 of taro vine.
We are extremely proud of them. There was so much more work, and much more was achieved, that we cannot cover everything in this piece.
Our organisation has grown in size and stature. When I started 12 years ago, we had a staff of roughly over 60. Today, SPREP staff is 120, strong. Our presence in the region has also been enhanced, with offices now in Fiji, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. It has been an honour and privilege to serve the Pacific region, and all our global partners, as Director General for the past six years but I believe in a God of seasons, and it is time for someone else to continue the work. I congratulate the incoming Director General Mr Sefanaia Nawadra and I wish him all the best.
But it is Christmas. The time has come for us to put our tools of trade and implements down to celebrate and reflect on the reason for the season. The scriptures tell us that for unto us a child is born, for unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. As we spend quality time with our families and loved ones, let me take this opportunity to thank you all for 2021. Thank you for your work, support and prayers.
I am also mindful that we are in the Cyclone Season, where all of us in the Pacific and vulnerable. I urge you all to be prepared, stay vigilant and be safe. Merry Christmas and we look forward to continuing the work in the New Year when your team at SPREP is back on deck on Wednesday 5 January 2022.
Fa’afetai and God bless!