Environment
Farewell Tamari'i And Let The Dance Continue
The Irish poet William Butler Yeats, once asked how can one separate the dancer from the dance? Throughout the Pacific, the dance in all its diverse forms of expression travels directly to the soul of who we are as a people, our strengths and sorrows. By the same token, our dance forms can mirror our feelings towards the environment, and its links to the subsistence lifestyle that identifies many of our people.
My own dance of six years with SPREP is coming to an end this month so this will be my last column. I am confident, however, that my successor, Asterio Takesy, will want to continue this column as a means of sharing his thoughts on important environmental issues.
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When I was appointed SPREP's Director in 1997, I believed then that it was an organisation with a reputation for effectively directing the resources entrusted to it by donors and members alike.
Upon reflection, this is still true today, and we have made important progress along the road towards achieving our mandate of promoting cooperation and providing assistance in order to protect and improve the Pacific islands environment and to ensure the sustainability of our natural resources.
We know now, perhaps with greater clarity than ever before, that the global demand for the limited resources within our islands and the seas around us must be carefully managed.
We also know that industrial, and other activities elsewhere in the world have a direct impact on our lives, such as the quality of the air we breathe or the availability of fresh water.
To this end, it has become important that we devote ever increasing efforts towards taking part in the many global negotiation processes that directly affect those resources and our unique way of life in our islands.
Through the recognition, and support for our work by member countries and various donors, SPREP has been able to expand its regional activities, as well as its active support of its island member states in international fora.
For that matter, global partnerships such as the Alliance of Small Islands States, and others, have proved to be very effective in building a bigger platform to present regional views. A standout example was the thorough pre-planning by the Pacific delegations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), and initiated during the 2000 Guam Environment Ministers Meeting.
At the summit, this translated into a display of real solidarity in putting across the Pacific's views on key topics affecting our lives.
Briefly, the payback was that the international community agreed to continue to accord the Pacific special case status as well as technical and fiscal assistance.
While working together to make our regional voice heard in the international arena is important, our islands and territories should not waiver from establishing closer ties with one another, on common environment issues, such as dwindling fish stocks from over-harvesting, and the surge in the number of commercial ventures, or the concern over freshwater supplies, and the plundering of indigenous forests in some member countries and territories.
Until the 1990s, many member governments and administrations had few staff devoted to addressing environment issues.
Today, most have an office or facility. Given the economic problems faced by many island countries, it is encouraging to see in offices in Tonga and the Marshall Islands for example, where efforts to maintain or upgrade these services are continuing.
Others are moving towards employing full time environment staff paid from their own budgets. This progress represents greater recognition by governments, civil society, and Pacific islanders of the very real challenges that we need to confront, if we are to overcome environmental degradation.
As economic reforms and development agendas take hold in many Pacific countries, there is also a need for the environment to become an integral component of every government department whether it be finance, development planning, agriculture, forestry, fisheries or tourism.
This mainstreaming will mean that the key issues affecting the future welfare of Pacific islanders should be offered parity with the most pressing issues of the day.
It has been uplifting to see the number of non-government organisations that have sprung up, and dedicated themselves to environmental issues at local and national levels.
Indeed several took part in the consultations that have been reflected in the current Action Plan for the region.
There are also signs of progress in sustaining development for the benefit of the communities themselves.
Much has been done in the area of capacity building where SPREP has over the years produced skills training, and resource materials in an array of related areas from marine and terrestrial conservation, to ecotourism and environmental reporting.
While the results of these measures are still being felt, there has been much positive feedback from many communities as to the real importance of environmental issues and its effects. As long as sufficient funding is available this work will be consolidated at all levels.
It is clear that there are no ready-made solutions for developing islands, but it is also clear that we can learn from each other and from experiences elsewhere in the world.
I believe that SPREP has emerged as a robust organisation that is continuously evolving to meet the growing concerns and needs of our people and times.
As we all know, nothing worthwhile, nothing of true value, is easily acquired. We have had to work hard for the gains we have made.
At times, our work has been thwarted by any number of human, professional, and political factors that only time, and the ability to absorb the lessons learned from those situations, can resolve. We live and learn.
On a personal note, I would like to thank the governments and administrations of SPREP for their support for the work of the organisation.
I also acknowledge the generous support of several non-SPREP member countries, as well as the growing number of national, regional and international organisations, which have made substantial fiscal, technical and in-kind contributions, in helping the people of the region and SPREP itself to reach our current situation.
To the staff of the SPREP Secretariat with whom I have worked; it has been a pleasure to work with you in serving our people together.
I believe that the finest years for the work of SPREP are still to come.
May the dance continue to build in tempo.
- Tamari'i Tutangata is the director of the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) based in Apia.
