Rising sea levels on Duke of York Isles
* Local authorities have no plans to counter the affects of global warming on Duke of York. ELIZABETH VUVU reports *

THE international debate on climate change and global warming is a topic which is becoming increasingly important to people in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific due to the fact that many of our islands are being affected by rising sea levels.
The PNG Government is fully aware of the dangers of rising sea levels and according to global watchers, PNG is identified to be in the risk zone and in the last few years notable cases especially in the New Guinea islands region were recorded to be directly affected from global warming.
Preparations in terms of prevention, preparedness and mitigation has not gotten off to full swing in PNG, however, minor awareness has already been done in affected areas.
East New Britain is one of the provinces that have recorded sea level rises in the last two decades experienced mainly on the Duke of York (DOY) islands which are situated at a low lying island or area.
Apart from Manus and Carteret islands in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville which are the two main focuses for awareness and prevention, DOYis slowly realizing the fact that quite a few things have evolved in the last 15 to 20 years that has made its populace mindful of the dangers of sea level rise and how it would affect their livelihood.
But DOY islanders are not clearly aware about pollution caused by industrialized countries emitting tonnes of poisonous gas into the earth’s atmosphere causing climate change and global warming.
All they know is their seashores are showing signs of the encroachment of sea waters and they are being forced to pack up and move inland.
The idea of relocation to the mainland of East New Britain is a move the provincial government has seriously considered since 1994 to establish a second home for the islanders for two main reasons; the effects of thevolcanic eruption and in the long term, the disappearance of the little isles due to rising sea levels.
To date the latter was shelved due to lack of eagerness from the DOY people simply because they have not felt the real damage of sea level rise.
Neither the government nor non-government agents have come to the islands to conduct awareness on sea level rise, however, former public servants who have returned to the island have done a bit to teach the people on the dangers of sea level rise.
Villages on the northern part of the island have built natural barriers along their coastlines to prevent further erosion that has taken away six to 10 meters during the last five years. The DOY islands make up one local constituency with a total of 21 wards.
Amotor boat ride from Kokopo takes over 40-minutes and the isles provides some of the best sandy beaches and potential tourism attractions.
Kokopo District which Duke of York local level government comes under has identified potential tourist attractions on the island and has built numerous infrastructural and developmental projects costing thousands of kina for the people of DOY.
The population on the islands is over 10,000 and already the pinch of population pressure is a concern among the people who realise that socio-economic activities must be encouraged and sustained.
Recently I was part of a team that visited DOY and spoke to people about how they felt about climate change and rising sea levels.
Elders on the islands warned that the livelihood of their future generations would be affected if the issue is not addressed and proper measures taken to combat it.
Local authorities have no planned programs to tackle the issue and even though they know a little about the problem there is no awareness on the islands about sea level rises.
The most noticeable changes elders on the islands confirmed are their fishing grounds.
All the wards of Duke of York are located along the coastlines and they depend on marine resources for consumption and cash income.
Those living inland cultivate cocoa and copra as cash crops and exchange garden crops for sea food with the coastal people.
Now fishing grounds are farther to reach and they travel longer distances to find fish.
Some years ago after a major earthquake that hit parts of Rabaul, the islanders noticed a sudden rise in the sea level that washed meters away from the shoreline.
It was frightening and the Islanders now wonder whether authorities have short and long term plans to cater for the worst.

 
PNG Media Council’s efforts gets hearing in Bonn summit
BONN, Germany - It has been an amazing first week for Pacific islands delegations attending the 9th Conference of the Parties for the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn, Germany (CBD COP9). The Secretariat of Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) has several officers at the conference to provide support to Pacific islands delegations.
SPREPhas also been working towards raising the international profile of the progress made toward Pacific islands conservation.
The Papua New Guinea Media Council’s efforts to help preserve mangrove forests and grow more mangroves were mentioned in this international forum during the week.
SPREP’s communications officer Ms Nanette Woonton is among the regional participants at the gathering and has brief hundreds of journalists and PR officers about what’s happening in PNG.
On May 3rd - World Media Freedom day - about 100 media personnel and journalism students planted 380 mangrove seedlings at Tahira Bay, east of Port Moresby, preceded by a workshop on Climate Change attended by 30 journalists and facilitated by the PNG’s own expert Professor Chalapan Kaluwin.
Next Saturday, June 7th, the PNG Media Council is planning for a major planting activity sponsored by Oil Search Limited which helped with purchase of 5000 mangrove seedlings.
These will be planted along the Papuan coastal villages of Gabagaba, Barakau, Gaire, Tubusereia, Porebada and Boera.
University of PNG’s Motupore Island Research Centre led by scientist Thomas Maniwavie is assisting in the exercise and he has engaged school children in the coastal villages to take part.
In Bonn, week one has been amazing. One of the issues raised at the Preparatory meeting we had in April to ready the Pacific for this meeting, was the need to raise the profile of what the Pacific is doing.
Sometimes we are undersold, as people think small islands countries are not capable of much, but the small islands developing states, in particular the Pacific, are doing some impressive things.
We are trying to promote that on the floor and in the working sessions,” said SPREP’s Action Strategy Adviser, Kate Brown-Vitolio.
SPREP are pleased by the growing recognition of the Pacific’s work on biodiversity.
A number of draft decisions, including the Island Biodiversity Programme of Work, a key CBD output for the Pacific, highlight work in the Pacific.
The Pacific Invasives Learning Network, Micronesia Challenge, Phoenix Islands Protected Area in Kiribati, Fiji’s conservation commitments, and the Pacific Invasives Initiative are all mentioned.
The European Union highlighted the need for the CBD Secretariat to update its current Memorandum of Understanding with SPREP during discussions in the COP.
There are a number of different roles a regional inter-governmental organisation can play at the CBD COP9. Among these, SPREP is working to improve coordination of the Pacific islands delegation to enable collaboration and information flow between countries.
“We have also been working with countriesthathavesimilarintereststoour own to ensure we can achieve our objectives at this meeting.
SPREP is also looking at collaborative activities with other countries and organisations that are here attending the COP in order to help progress our work programme.
This means e have been attending a lot of discussions outside of the main meeting,” Brown-Vitolio stated.
SPREP has coordinated meetings with the New Zealand delegation to discuss support for Pacific positions.
A member of the New Zealand delegation has also attended the daily meetings of the Pacific islands in order to update them on the work carried out by New Zealand in several issue areas and has assisted the group with coordination.
The United Nations Environment Programme hosted a side event on a European Commission project, involving SPREP, designed to assist Pacific island countries in implementing multilateral environmental agreement such as the CBD.
A total of 1.3 million euros will be managed by SPREPto carry this agreement out. SPREP attended the side event.
SPREPalso chaired a side event on the topic of harmonising reporting on biodiversity- related multilateral agreements.
SPREP also made their presence felt at a Global Invasives meeting to share experiences gained through the work on invasive species and bird protection in the Pacific.
Another side event attended by SPREPwas one by the United Nations Development Programme Global Environment Facility Protected Areas Programme of Work fund. SPREPpresented information on the experiences of one Pacific island country in carrying out a protected areas gap analysis.
According to Brown-Vitolio, “These are just several of the meetings that SPREP has coordinated and attended on behalf of the Pacific delegation during the first week at the CBD COP9.
Our role is to hold these discussions with the numerous different organizations present to enable support for action in the Pacific.”
Week one allowed for SPREPto carry out as much work as possible in par.
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