Pacific Magazine > Daily News

'Direct Strategies' Needed For Conservation, Takesy Says

By Alexander Rheeney in Alotau, PNG
Sunday: October 28, 2007

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare closed the 8^th Pacific Islands Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas on Friday in Alotau, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea.

Bidding farewell to the 400 participants who flew to the PNG town for the region’s biggest environment conference, Sir Michael said he was confident their discussions and decisions over the last five days would contribute significantly to a better future for the region.

“It is our responsibility to ensure that the outcomes of this conference are fully implemented. Hopefully, when we meet again in five years time, we are able to report on more successful stories,” he added.

The PNG meeting, which revolved around the theme “conservation serving communities in a rapidly changing world,” agreed on the need to review and revise the region’s action strategy for nature conservation.

But in a region plagued with a low literacy rate and clashing opinions on conservation and development aspirations, South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) Director Asterio Takesy said the strategies should be direct, meaningful and interpreted for national and local conditions and needs.

“Implementation of the action strategy is a local and national responsibility with the support of regional and donors around the region. However, we will need to be clear about how we can make this strategy work – to do a proactive and engaged roundtable network is essential,” he added.

Takesy assured participants that SPREP will continue to work with the Roundtable for Nature Conservation in the Pacific Islands as well as countries and Pacific territories to implement their action strategies.

PNG was the latest Pacific state to launch its own Nature Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan (NBSAP) during the conference in Alotau.

The region’s next action strategy will be reviewed in 2012 in order to measure the region’s level of achievements, if there are any, than the present strategy.

The SPREP director also thanked the PNG government, the Milne Bay provincial government and the Milne Bay people for what he described as a successful five-day conference that saw participants come from all over the Pacific and the globe.

“I thank the government and the people of Milne Bay for their superb support. This conference would not have had this result if it had not been for our (conference) location – Cameron High School, Alotau, Milne Bay Province. This is a wonderful venue that will serve for many such events in the future,” Takesy added.