Pato joins talk to save the oceans

National

Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato is attending a two-day “Our Ocean” conference in Malta.
He hopes to provide support to a drive for urgent practical measures to help restore the health of oceans and ensure a sustainable local fishing industry.
Pato will follow on from his advocacy with Prime Minister Peter O’Neill at last month’s Pacific Islands Forum and at the United Nations general assembly in New York.
Both meetings saw PNG in intense discussions with other nations on  how  to  achieve  the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 14 – Life Below Water – which is to ‘’conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.”
In Malta, Pato has been invited to be a panellist  at a special Pacific event called “Pacific-European Union Marine Partnership – A comprehensive approach to ocean governance.”
Pato will also take the opportunity to address participants on a range of issues affecting oceans worldwide.
Pato emphasised that Papua New Guinea wanted to see swift implementation of strategies that would achieve measurable results.
“For example, nations on the frontline such as PNG and the other Pacific  Island countries require  assistance  with  satellites,  drones,  aircraft  and  fast  surface  vessels   to improve surveillance in the  Pacific,” he said.
“That will help us apprehend those involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, which we want to eliminate.
“IUU fishing threatens the survival of species on which local fishing industries depend for their livelihood and which populations around the world require for good diets.
“With 30 per cent of the world’s tuna supplies, we are well aware of the urgency to protect fish stocks from rapacious pillages of the sea, but we need more international involvement with this issue of global importance.”
Pato said a resilient approach to climate change, which is already affecting Pacific Island countries, needed improved access for developing countries to the Green Climate Fund.
He said would encourage growing support for work being undertaken by PNG and like-minded nations at the World Trade Organisation to halt harmful governmental subsidies to fishing organisations.
“These subsidies, now amounting to $40 billion, contribute to overfishing, over capacity and the depletion of fisheries resources,” Pato said.