Pacific Islands Environment Outlook - UNEP

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 43
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training for local communities in sustainable
agriculture and fisheries practices in Samoa;
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) workshops for
local communities and conservation officials in
Solomon Islands;
some domestic measures in the area of biodiversity
and nature conservation have also broken new ground
by using traditional practices and customary
ownership to support conservation measures in the
coastal fishery, as in Samoa; these measures have
been particularly participatory in nature, as is
described in Box 2.5 outlining Convention on
Biological Diversity activities.
The importance of non-government organizations (NGOs)
in the region also needs to be highlighted. The role of
NGOs in promoting participatory and grassroots
development is well recognized. NGOs are effective
vehicles in encouraging and empowering the
disadvantaged to play a greater role in improving their
own well-being. Increasingly, NGOs are working hand-inhand
with governments and development partners in
national development efforts. The potential of many
indigenous NGOs and community-based organizations in
helping to promote human development is, however, not
fully realized because of inadequate management
capability, lack of skills in programme planning and
implementation and often weak project accountability and
monitoring systems.
NGOs at the regional level include the Pacific Islands
Association of NGOs (PIANGO), which functions as a
regional NGO association focusing on the organization
and regional development of NGOs in the Pacific. Most
countries have a national umbrella NGO association, such
as DSE in the Solomon Islands, and the Tuvalu
Association of NGOs (TANGO) in Tonga and Tuvalu. The
Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific (FSP) is
a regional non-profit organization aiming to work with the
Pacific people in human development programmes and to
improve the quality of life for village people. Activities
range from rural housing construction programmes and
income generation projects to community forestry
activities. FSP is present in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu
and Tonga. NGOs at the international level, such as the
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), The Nature
Conservancy (TNC) and Greenpeace, also play a
significant role in the promotion of environmental
management and sustainable development in the region.
At the national level, there are a growing number of
NGOs, with a range of mandates and objectives: women’s
development programmes, research (ecological, historical,
cultural), disaster relief, the co-ordination of youth
activities, adult literacy programmes, farmer support
programmes, family planning programmes and academic
institutions such as USP extension service centres that,
for example, run community training programmes in
Tonga. Some NGOs, such as the Girl Guides Association in
the Cook Islands, have developed environmental policies.
Vanuatu and Solomon Islands have in recent years
witnessed the establishment of the Vanuatu Environment
Organization (VEO) and the Solomon Islands Indigenous
Peoples Environment Organization (SIIPEO).
During the last decade, there has been an important
shift in the direction of NGO activity. During the 1980s,
the crisis of the rainforest worldwide led a number of
international NGOs to conduct campaigns to ‘stop
logging’. In the Pacific, some NGOs from Australia and
New Zealand followed this line, whereas others adopted a
slightly different approach. They became involved on the
ground and looked for options available to forest owners
to derive income in other ways, such as investment in
eco-tourism and eco-timber.
Over the same period, and sometimes with support
from offshore NGOs, the local movement became more
active, especially in PNG and the Solomon Islands. This
local thrust was partly towards non-wood forest products
as a means of providing income for the forest-owning
community, but it also took up the theme of sustainable
management. Some NGOs went into the provision of
training courses in forest management, chainsaw
operation and other technical skills, so that local people
Box 2.6: Campaigning to raise awareness and
change behaviour
Regional campaigns for the conservation of key species and
ecosystems have proved effective at the regional level. The 1995 Year
of the Sea Turtle campaign resulted in one country declaring a oneyear
moratorium on the commercial harvesting of this important but
critically threatened species. This moratorium was later extended for
another three years. A number of other countries have expressed the
desire to follow this example but have yet to do so. The 1997 Year of
the Coral Reef campaign demonstrated the effectiveness and
success of awareness-raising to motivate people to change their
attitudes and behaviour regarding the use of a resource such as
coral reefs.
Policies for the conservation of migratory species such as sea
turtles and marine mammals can only be successful in a region like
this if there is international co-operation. Unfortunately, whilst
Pacific islands have again taken the lead in promoting a regional
ban on the commercial harvesting of sea turtles, neighbouring states
continue to harvest them at unsustainable levels. More must be done
at the international level if these species are to survive.