The health of our oceans is fundamental to the health of our planet. Ninety-eight per cent of the area occupied by Pacific Island Countries and territories is ocean. We sometimes refer to ourselves as Big Ocean Stewardship States in recognition of this geography. The Pacific Ocean is at the heart of our cultures and we depend on it for food, income, employment, transport and economic development.
There are tensions inherent in these relationships. The ocean unites and divides us. It connects and separates us, it sustains us and, at the same time, can be a threat to our very existence. These tensions have often encouraged us to work together for the good of our people. The ocean has been a catalyst for regionalism.
For decades, we have seen overfishing, the increasing burden of pollution, a warming of water temperatures and rising sea levels. These have profound, damaging effects on our ocean and its ecosystems. But we also see that the ocean has an incredible ability to adapt and regenerate if it is given the chance.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent an opportunity to address the urgent need to focus on the health, integrity and longevity of our world’s oceans. SDG 14-dealing with “life below water” — gives us hope that the ocean can sustain and provide for us as it always has. This requires rethinking the way we sustainably manage our oceanic resources. We recognise that there must be transformational change in attitude and behaviour. We must come together if we are to succeed as citizens, communities, governments and countries.
Progress towards SDG 14 will be more challenging than achieving almost any of the other goals given that 70 per cent of our planet’s surface is ocean, and the ecosystems in it are fundamental to life itself. We simply have no choice but to do better.
The Pacific Ocean is in us, it has long been a teacher for our people. For generations we have observed and respected its mana, sharing what we have learned from our ancestors with our children.
In saying that, we recognise that our traditional knowledge can be complemented by the science and technology that offer new approaches to the sustainable management and conservation of our ocean, as we adapt to a rapidly changing environment. It is vital that we actively participate in and support the innovations and insights that are emerging.
Sustainable management
of our ocean
Not surprisingly, the Pacific Islands Forum, the premiere political grouping of PICs and territories, has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to managing our ocean. In fact, the United Nations Law of the Sea was a point of discussion during the historic first meeting of the Forum in 1971. Through the forum, the Pacific region already has a collaborative and integrated ocean management system in place.
The Pacific Islands Regional Ocean Policy promotes “sustainable development, management and conservation of marine and coastal resources in the Pacific region” through five guiding principles based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The Framework for a Pacific Oceanscape catalyses regional action and initiatives covering an area of approximately 40 million square kilometres of ocean and island ecosystems. It strengthens the Pacific Islands Regional Ocean Policy, particularly through stronger provisions in the areas of coordination, resourcing and implementation.
It also aspires to protect, manage and sustain the cultural and natural integrity of the ocean for present and future generations of the broader global community. At its heart is a desire to build pride, leadership, learning and co-operation across the ocean environment.
More recently, forum leaders issued the Palau Declaration on “The Ocean: Life and Future” (2014) and the Pohnpei Ocean Statement: A Course to Sustainability (2016). Both statements speak to the interconnections between the ocean and the lives of Pacific people, as well as our ongoing commitment to care for the ocean for our wellbeing.
The renewed focus on ocean policy, brought about through the pursuit of SDG 14, gives us a chance to continue to build on these existing guidelines and policy commitments.
Pacific Ocean
commissioner
The PIF sees a fundamental role for genuine, appropriate and durable partnerships for moving the ocean agenda forward. Recognising that these partnerships must go beyond governments, the forum established the Office of the Pacific Ocean Commissioner in 2014.
As the commissioner, my responsibilities include the provision of high level representation and advocacy to Pacific Ocean priorities decisions and processes. My office works to unite PICs and territories through strengthened co-ordination, collaboration and integration of cross-sectoral ocean issues, such as protecting biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction and zone-based management.
The office also seeks to improve accountability by developing coordinated approaches to measurement and reporting, and undertakes analysis of the linkages between oceans and climate change, to ensure the Pacific region is well placed to meet the environmental challenges ahead.
Pacific Ocean Alliance
A key achievement of my term as the Pacific Ocean commissioner has been the facilitation of the establishment of the Pacific Ocean Alliance. It’s a network of private, public and civil sector representatives acting together to advance approaches to integrated ocean management. It is an open-ended and voluntary information-sharing and co-ordination partnership between stakeholders with a genuine interest in the sustainable development, management and conservation of the Pacific Ocean and its resources.
The alliance provides a space and common ground to bring together national government agencies, regional, private sector, research and civil society organisations and communities not previously represented to work on ocean issues in a co-ordinated manner. The alliance is a mechanism for inclusive consultation in the development and implementation of ocean policy, co-ordinating the provision of technical assistance and support as it relates to the sustainable development, management and conservation of the ocean for Pacific Island countries and territories.
Leadership in
ocean management
I am proud of several noteworthy and demonstrable achievements that have been made in the Pacific through innovation and exemplary leadership.
They include the effective, sustainable and economically rewarding strategic initiative of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, a sub-regional grouping that has significantly increased the revenue earned by member countries by introducing the Vessel Day Scheme for purse seine fishing across their exclusive economic zones.
This innovative fisheries management approach has been particularly successful in shifting the balance of power, control and influence, while demonstrating greater stewardship and sustainability.
The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency oversees a world class regional monitoring, control and surveillance framework for our tuna fisheries. Operating out of the Regional Fisheries Surveillance Centre in Honiara in the Solomon Islands, the framework has been praised for its combination of tools, programs, assets and activities at the national and regional levels that achieve valuable results for its members.
Another regional example is the approach adopted by local communities to manage and sustainably use their coastal and marine areas, over which they have traditional or more recently assigned tenure rights or ownership. This is the mainstay of the work of Locally Managed Marine Area Network and national initiatives, such as those in Samoa and Tonga. The lessons from these experiences serve as valuable templates for the future sustainable use of ocean resources.
Facing challenges
together
The ocean is dynamic and transcends borders. As such, it impacts almost all our development aspirations. In my mind, the Pacific is a blue continent. A sea of islands.
For us, the pursuit of SDG 14 has not just commenced. Decades of investment and learning in integrated ocean management have already taken place, and it is incumbent upon us all to ensure that communities share knowledge with their countries, and in turn, that countries share knowledge with their region, and regions share it with the world.
We have long known that more can be achieved when we face shared challenges together. The health and wellbeing of our ocean is an existential challenge that demands regional unity to address it.
As Solomon Islands PM Manasseh Sogavare of said: “We cannot manage the oceans but instead need to manage the behaviour of people who use the ocean.”
This is ancient wisdom for us in the Pacific. I view the renewed focus and energy behind SDG 14 as a gift for teaching the world about the connectivity, complexity and value of the ocean. Everyone must come to understand that their behaviour will ultimately decide the fate of our oceans. For my people of the Pacific, our fate is immutably entwined with the health of our ocean.
* Dame Meg Taylor is the Pacific Ocean Commissioner and secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum. The views expressed are hers and not of this newspaper.
* Source: UN Chronicle
