Samoa and Palau share success stories at international biodiversity conference in Nagoya

The Pacific Voyage Media Team

 

22 October Nagoya Japan - Samoa and Palau are two Pacific Island nations using the Communication, Education and Public Awareness (CEPA) tool to put forward environment and conservation education in their respective communities.

Faleafaga Toni Tipama’a of Samoa’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and  Palau International Coral Reef Conservation (PICRC) CEO Fabian Iyar presented at the CEPA side vent organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on the best practises, experiences on the work done for educational awareness.

“Samoa is grateful to Japan for being able to come on board and assist us.  It has opened up windows to do further work on biodiversity and conservation and look at CEPA programmes,” Tipama’a says.

In Samoa CEPA is used to help raise understanding on a project on enhancing management capacity on National Parks and National Reserves.

 “We presented on the activities that we have been implementing through our project, not only its achievements but sharing with other parties the role of JICA and our other partnerships including that with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).  We also have other partners we work with to help raise awareness and education in this work area, partnerships is a very important aspect.”

In Palau on the other hand, a community-based system to support the monitoring of marine protected areas is the program being shared with the community.  Iyar states that it’s a partnership between PICRC and international initiatives that encourages participation from the community.

Both Pacific nations note that these projects are sustainable ones that will go on even after the funding has ceased.

Palau’s project targets Marine Protected Area (MPAs)s for monitoring in consultation with local communities and administrative agencies and to promote participation of local communities and officials of State governments in the monitoring activities.

“This program is being implemented in a way that the community will understand it better,” said Iyar.