Pacific Islands

EU eyes 'new era' of partnership with Pacific

With the EU's current partnership agreement with the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of countries expiring in 2020, they are working towards a new agreement.

Stefano Manservisi, the Director-General of DEVCO, is visiting the Pacific, taking in visits to Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Australia and New Zealand.

He said the EU was proposing to embed in a new agreement a "specific Pacific pillar", based on common objectives.

Strengthening resilience to Ocean Acidification in Tokelau

For Tokelau, this is now underway with a special inception workshop held in Samoa, to plan implementation of the different activities.

With the Tokelau General Fono recently endorsing the Tokelau Climate Change Strategy – 'Living with Change' the protection of the ocean is featured as a high priority.

 Being part of the New Zealand Pacific Partnership on Ocean Acidification (NZPPOA) regional project to build resilience to ocean acidification is especially important for Tokelau and her community.

Fiji's Minister says oceans conference will be 'game-changer'

Sweden and Fiji are co-hosting the conference in June at the United Nations' Headquarters in New York.

Fiji just held a regional meeting in Suva to prepare, which was attended by small island states, New Zealand and Australia.

Its Fisheries Minister, Semi Koroilavesau, said the meeting went well and he was feeling hopeful about what the UN's conference can achieve.

He said Fiji and other small Pacific islands would be the first to suffer from ocean pollution and rising sea levels and there needs to be global consensus on what action to take.

UN Environment, SPREP partnering to support Pacific islands as they head towards UN Oceans Conference

The historic event is targeted towards rallying global action to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14, Life Below Water.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) through its Pacific sub-regional office are partnering together to implement several different initiatives to support Pacific island countries as they prepare for the UN Oceans Conference.

Co-hosted by the Governments of Fiji and Sweden, the UN Oceans Conference will be held in New York from 5 to 7 June this year.

IFC encourages adoption of solar power in Pacific

The Pacific has some of the most expensive electricity prices in the world with much of its energy coming from diesel.

The IFC and the Australian-based company, Smart Commercial Solar, will launch its project by offering a free energy report to Pacific businesses calculating how much they can save if they switch to solar.

The IFC's spokesperson, Subrata Barman, said it's time for Pacific nations to look at moving away from traditional models of power supply.

Pacific Islands could take the Rugby Sevens from Wellington

New Zealand Rugby has two years to run on its contract with World Rugby, but it struggled to get 10,000 people each day into Westpac Stadium.

After 18 years of Wellington playing host, there's fresh calls to take the tournament to Fiji, the home of the Rugby Sevens Olympic champions.

The NZR General Manager of Relationships, Planning and Operations Nigel Cass says the tournament has been arguably the world's most successful but it's not as fresh as it once was.

Kaino supports permanent Pacific Super Rugby fixture

The Blues announced yesterday they will host the Reds in Apia in June.

It will be the first Super match played in Samoa and coincides with Samoa's 55th Independence Celebrations.

Fifteen players the Blues squad have Samoan heritage, along with head Coach Tana Umaga.

Jerome Kaino, who was born in American Samoa, said the team was already looking forward to the game.

"We're really proud of that fact that we're pioneers to be able to take that game to Samoa - you know being the first franchise to take it there. And it's only fitting that we get to do that.

The Cartagena Protocol and the Pacific islands

Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, PNG, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Tonga are party to the Protocol which is linked to the Convention on Biodiversity, which, helps to protect Pacific communities and biodiversity from the consequences of living modified organisms.

The Cartagena Protocol was adopted on 29 January 2000 as a supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity and entered into force on 11 September 2003.

This protocol helps to ensure the safe transport, handling and use of these LMO's from biotechnology.

“We did it for you, the islands of the Pacific,” says Moana Director

Ron Celements and John Musker, producer Osnat Shurer and Auli’i Cravalho who provides the vocal talent for the character of Moana are in Samoa for a special screening of the movie.

“We did this for you,” Clements told a packed out Apollo Cinema in Apia last night.

“Most of the movie was based around Samoa and then we tried our best to touch every part of the Pacific with it. Every dance, word and culture,” he said.

“It was a tough job. We had to be here five years ago just to learn the culture and the Pacific as a whole. We hope it represented that fine,” he added.

Protecting our biodiversity, the Pacific islands share their stories on global stage

All delegates and countries come together united in their commitment to halt the loss of biodiversity.

Fourteen Pacific island countries are Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity for which the 13th Conference of the Parties started last week in Cancun, Mexico (CBD COP13).

All have committed to achieving the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets with the ultimate goal of reducing biodiversity loss.