Fiji and Niue: Food security talks at UN Convention on Land degradation

17 October 2011, Changwon Korea - Desertification, land degradation and drought and food security: Preserving the resource base for our food security was the topic of Round table 1 of the high level segment of the 10^th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Korea today.

For Niue it is difficult to measure the effects of food security. 

According to the Associate Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Niue, Hon. Dalton Tagelagi explained that the low population of Niue places very little pressure on the available resource base on the island.

L - Associate Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Niue, Hon. Dalton Tagelagi

“This does not mean that it is not important, we too are taking all necessary precautions to ensure sustainable development at all levels with regards to resources we have contributing to food security in Niue.”

The Niue National Strategic Plan 2009 – 2013 addresses food security issues and the island nation currently has Food and Agriculture Organisation projects and activities on Food Security underway in Niue, spearheaded by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

“We recognize the importance of preserving the resource base for food security and understand the effects of climate change together with land degradation in the agricultural sector with losses of some important plant species and the depletion of soil nutrients due to continuous burning and shifting cultivation.”

For the Fiji Permanent Secretary of Fisheries and Forest,  Mr. Viliame Naupoto after listening to the dialogue on desertification, land degradation and drought (also known as DLDD), he believes from an island viewpoint another "D" can be added to this acronym to include Disappearance of land.

“Our land is not only suffering from land degradation, but also disappearance due to the effects of climate change,” said Permanent Secretary Naupoto.

“We have some takeaway lessons here, when we hear what is happening in Africa and how they are working towards greening their bare areas of land, from Fiji’s perspective we need to make sure that we do not arrive at that stage.  Due to our small island size, we cannot afford for our land to be degraded to the extent that we are seeing in the bigger continents.”

While 41% of the earth’s land area are drylands that house two billion people, in the Pacific region only 2% is terrestrial while 98% is Ocean.  Permanent Secretary Naupoto points out that due to our land size, our ecosystems are very much interconnected from the top of the hills and mountains to our reefs and ocean.  When it comes to the issue of food security, our ecosystems play a large part.

“When we talk about food security we do not only talk about land issues we also talk about the fisheries issues as fish provides a big portion of our food security.  To combat land degradation and drought we must look at it with an ecosystem approach, what we do on land and in the hills it affects our seas.”

During day one of the High Level Segment the delegates finished the discussions of Roundtable one.  Still to be completed are Round table two and three which will continue through to the second and final day of the High level segment.

Ministers meet in Korea for UN Convention on Land degradation

17 October 2011, Changwon Korea - The High-Level Segment of the 10^th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification today in Korea.   This is the first time the 194 parties to the UNCCD have convened in Asia.

There are two Pacific Ministers attending this meeting representing Niue and Vanuatu as well as the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries and Forest from Fiji.

The opening of the High level segment had a range of speeches and messages.

A video message from His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales Prince Charles was shown at the opening of the two day High level segment as well as a video message from the UN Secretary Mr. Ban Ki Moon.

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, Mr.Hwang Sik Kim also made an opening statement as well as the President of the UNCCD COP 10, Don Koo Lee, Minister of the Korea Forest Service. 

Mr. Lee reiterated the importance of desertification, land degradation and drought.

“Today, more than 12 million hectares of land are being lost every year due to desertification, land degradation and drought,” he stated.

“This is jeopardizing the livelihoods and the survival of more than one billion people in over 100 countries.”

The High level segment has 3 sessions of interactive dialogue sessions on different topics.

Round table 1 was on the topic of “Desertification, land degradation and drought and food security: Preserving the resource base for our food security.”  This drew discussion and comments from the high level delegates at the meeting.

Round table 2 is on the topic of “The UNCCD in the context of the Rio + 20: Addressing desertification, land degradation and drought as a cornerstone of the Green Economy.”

Round table 3 is on the topic of “Harnessing science knowledge for combating desertification/land degradation and drought: the path to improvement.”

During the two day high level segment, the Government of Korea will be introducing the Changwon Initiative which is a mechanism to achieve the global target of zero net land degradation by 2030.

A Pacific Statement on Biodiversity

The Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting for the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity which was held 16 - 18 August prepared the below final meeting statement.  

The meeting was coordinated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and was attended by the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Niue, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Partners that attended this meeting are the Department of Conservation NZ, Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts Australia, Environmental Defender Office, Fiji Forestry Department, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, IUCN, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, University of the South Pacific, United Nations Environment Programme, WWF and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Please click here to view the document in pdf format

Q & A : Why is this meeting important for your country?

16 August, Fiji - Q & A with the participants at the Preparatory Meeting for the 10th Conference of the Parties on the Convention on Biological Diversity in Fiji, Nadi from 16 - 18 August.

“It is important, but we haven’t been involved previously so Government is now keen to moblise resources towards biodiversity and how it can be mainstreamed into government policies and strategies. The process started last year with our national strategic integrated national plan, with biodiversity and climate change highlighted as major issues for our Government.” - Hadan Talagi, Niue.

"In terms of preparation we really like to see more on biodiversity issues. We have seen issues rising really rapidly in the Marshall Islands and we depend on biodiversity, it is important for us.  Now we are in to participating in these cop 10 meetings, it’s really important for us to voice our status and to come prepared and to have a say in the overall objective of the COP." - Joseph Tibon, Marshall Islands.

“There are a number of issues that the Solomon Islands, as a member of the Pacific, needs to have its voice in; for example the Access and Benefit Sharing regime is one of the issues that we really need to work together and put our voice there and apart from that ABS we also have other issues like bio fuels and biodiversity. If we encourage use of biofuels that will have an impact on our biodiversity, so those are issues that we consider why our presence is important here.” - Joe Horokou, Solomon Islands