Pacific meets at CBD COP 10 in Nagoya

Pacific Voyage Media Team

17 October, Nagoya, Japan - The Pacific region is uniting at the 10^th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 10) for which the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is providing a coordinating role through technical and communication expertise.

Under the theme “The Pacific Voyage”, the region intends to raise its profile at the international conference, showcasing nature conservation successes, highlighting common needs and speaking as one voice at the negotiations.

Members from the Pacific at conference registration

While the conference proper begins on Monday 18 October, preparations are already taking place.  The majority of the 14 Pacific islands countries and territories that are parties to the CBD are already in Nagoya, attending meetings and preparatory briefings.  A key preparatory event was the “Island Briefing” organised by the Global Island Partnership (GLISPA) and partners, held on Sunday 17 October for all island states attending the CBD COP 10.

“This meeting has helped to further elaborate on some of the key agenda items particularly those of relevance to island parties," said Easter Galuvao, the Biodiversity Adviser for SPREP.

“It is an opportunity for us to meet together with other island parties not only to strengthen our networking but most importantly to identify areas where we as islands may share common views and positions."

Pacific participants at the Island Briefing

The strong Pacific delegation not only features those from the Pacific islands countries, but also nature conservation partners from the region, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and the SPREP secretariat.  With 2010 being the International Year of Biodiversity, this particular Conference of the Parties is a significant one as it is an opportunity for countries to report on their progress in meeting the 2010 target to halt the loss of biodiversity.  This leads to the other significant item on the agenda, which is the formation of the next 10 year strategic plan to come into being after 2010.

“I am really happy that we have a bigger delegation to this COP meeting, not only so we can cover the substantive areas that we’ll be discussing in the agenda that are important to the Pacific, but also using the side events to communicate what the Pacific has been doing in terms of our persistence and achievements in biodiversity conservation,” said Ms. Galuvao.

“We can also highlight the areas where we are still vulnerable and the idea is also to use the opportunity to expand our partnership to support and help us to fully implement some of our priorities that we are not able to implement due to resource constraints."

As part of preparations for the CBD COP 10, country representatives have committed to following different agenda items.  Each morning the Pacific delegates will be meeting to update each other on how the negotiations are progressing and to seek advice and input for the day.  

SPREP staff will be providing the necessary technical advice and support when needed by the Pacific delegates during the negotiations and will also help raise the profile of the Pacific region through The Pacific Voyage, a communications campaign involving several side events, promotional materials and exhibitions.

The CBD COP 10 is held from 18 – 29 October and is hosted by Nagoya Japan.  There are 14 Pacific island countries attending – The Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji,  Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.