Environment

Queensland Uni course comes to Raro
Fly problem worries ministers
Befriending Biodiversity
Cook Islands Year of Biodiversity
2010 Targets – Biodiversity
Biodiversity facts! Did you know?
Talking the biodiversity talk
Rarotonga to come under scrutiny

A two-week University of Queensland environmental management course is being held in Rarotonga from Monday until February 5.

About 30 people from the region are here to take the annual course which looks at integrating contemporary and traditional coastal ecosystem management in the Pacific.

This is the first time the course has been held in the Pacific instead of in Australia.

The Takitumu lagoon management plan will be used as a case study by the coastal resource managers and non-government organisation members and consultants who are tasked with planning in small island states.

Next Thursday those taking part in the course will take a field trip to Takitumu lagoon where they will see and hear first-hand about the management plan and how it has engaged the community.

The National Environment Service, Marine Resources and the Cook Islands Marine Resources Institutional Strengthening Project (CIMRIS) have helped bring the university’s annual course to Rarotonga. The course is run under the Coral Reef Targeted Research & Capacity Building for Management Program – the university’s joint project with the Global Environment Facility, World Bank and the United States National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA).

A host of other collaborators for the Rarotonga-based course includes the United Nations Environment Programme.

Three NES staff – Keri Herman, Phillip Strickland and Aitutaki-based Bobby Bishop – attended the 2007 course in Queensland.

It was their hope that the course could be held in the South Pacific where its relevance would be further enhanced.

Local presenters for the course are Herman, Strickland, marine resources research officer Dorothy Solomona and director of inshore fisheries and aquaculture Koroa ‘Kori’ Raumea.

Next week a Pacific leadership forum will also be held alongside the course to discuss topics related to environmental management in the Pacific.

The course is set to be held at the AOG Hall in Takuvaine.

• Helen Greig

Two cabinet ministers are joining forces to come up with a new plan to tackle the fly problem at the Arorangi waste facility which has been blamed for the large number of them in the surrounding community.

Health minister Apii Piho and minister of infrastructure and planning (MOIP) William ‘Smiley’ Heather are aware of the difficulties in tackling the problem with limited funding to attend to it.

Heather called Piho yesterday morning to ask if public health could increase the spraying it does at the facility from every fortnight to every week in an attempt to control the fly population.

“Now I’m asking if health can bring up its spraying programme from two weeks to one week,” says Piho.

Since late last year the ministry of health has been spraying chemicals on the landfill to kill as many flies as possible. The facility has also installed several bucket-type fly traps to help keep the numbers down and is attempting to compact the landfill waste as much as it can.

The problem with the facility management comes down to funding for the machinery and fill needed to compact the waste and keep the flies away from organic waste that makes up a big portion of the waste there.

Yesterday CINews published a letter of complaint about the flies from Rohan Ellis, group general manager of three hotels in Arorangi – Manuia Beach, Castaway Beach Villas and Lagoon Lodges. Ellis was one of many who called in public health last year for a solution to the problem. Many households in the area are sick of being inundated with flies but it has been even worse for those running tourist properties.

“If nothing is done about the flies, we may be forced to close our restaurants for fear of not being able to charge guests for an unacceptable dining environment,” wrote Ellis.

While there are doubts as to how the problem can be solved, Heather is still encouraging households and businesses not to put food scraps and other organic waste in their rubbish for collection. This kind of waste is what attracts the flies to the facility.

Piho met with health secretary Tupou Faireka and director of community health Dr Rangi Fariu yesterday to discuss increased spraying efforts at the landfill.

Now both ministers want to meet together with their respective heads of ministries to look at short term and medium term options for not only reducing the fly problem for now but also in future.

• Helen Greig

Suwarrow National Park, one of many protected areas. Suwarrow National Park, one of many protected areas.

Nod if you just read the word and wondered ‘what the heck is biodiversity?’

Now take a look around you, at your surroundings. Do you see trees outside your window? Are you fortunate enough to have a co-worker who is wearing a flower in her air? Have you got a great view of the ocean?

All of that is biodiversity which can be defined as the ‘Variety of life on Earth’ and our Pacific is a unique area for both the marine and land-based biodiversity.

Biodiversity plays an essential part in our lives. It has helped shape our cultures and traditions, formed who and what we value as Pacific people, and has helped bring us the identity and heritage that we are proud of today.

Biodiversity is still a major source of livelihood for Pacific people. Many in our community rely on biodiversity for housing, traditional medicines, handicraft production and food.

What different forms of biodiversity do you think you come across each day? If you have answers such as the bananas you eat, fish in the sea, coral you snorkel amongst, hedge you have trimmed or even the parau shell that you have carved into a necklace, then those are correct. Remember, biodiversity is the Variety of life on Earth.

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. It is a celebration of life on earth and of the value of biodiversity for our lives. The world is invited to take action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth: biodiversity.

Human activity is causing the diversity of life on Earth to be lost at a greatly accelerated rate. These losses are irreversible, impoverish us all and damage the life support systems we rely on everyday, but we can prevent them.

In support and recognition of the importance of biodiversity, the region is also running a Pacific Year of Biodiversity Campaign, for which the Cook Islands have signed on.

This year your National Environment Service will be targeting its campaign to raise awareness of the threats to biodiversity and the means to conserve it as well as encouraging communities to take action and save our biodiversity.

The Cook Islands will be looking at protected areas and raui, eradication of invasive species and actions that lead to loss of biodiversity and solutions. Major environmental events organised for the year will have this focus, such as the annual Environment Week!

The Cook Islands is a member of the Bureau for the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Cook Islander Tania Temata was nominated to the Bureau in 2008 to represent the interests of the Asia Pacific region.

In 1994 the Cook Islands became a party to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which has three main objectives: sustainable use of biodiversity, conservation of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of benefits of the use of genetic resources.

We are part of the international movement that works to a number of targets to save global biodiversity.

Known as the 2010 Targets, they encompass a wide range of goals, one of the more general targets is to ‘halt biodiversity loss’. Throughout the world within regions and the different countries including the Cook Islands, work is being carried out to meet these targets.

This year the 10th conference of the parties to the CBD will meet in October to assess and review how these targets are being met. 2010 is a major landmark year for international biodiversity.

“The work in the Cooks to protect biodiversity has been fragmented but in a good way,” said Temata.

“The communities have taken on specific roles and have their own way of doing things, and if it works and it is okay with them – then there is no need to change it. Such as Pukapuka, they have a seasonal raui system that has been happening for years and we acknowledge and recognise this.”

However, what has been identified as a need for Cook Islands is the means to assess our own biodiversity.

“There are success stories with traditional forms of conservation and those such as the Takitumu Conservation Area, and the Natural Heritage project which has launched the database is excellent. We still need to be able to assess the coverage and distribution of our natural heritage.”

As part of the 2010 Year of Biodiversity the Cook Islands have launched their own campaign, today, Monday January 25.

The National Environment Service asks for support in celebrating and conserving the biodiversity of the Cook Islands this year.

“We thought we’d put extra effort in celebrating our biodiversity and value it, rather than looking at the negative aspect all the time.We need to celebrate what we have and be grateful and aware of the link between biodiversity and the way we live in the Cooks.”

- The global cost associated with invasive species is estimated at US$1.4 trillion annually - 5% of the world economy.

- More than 450 million people live within 60 kilometers of coral reefs, with the majority directly or indirectly deriving food and income from them.

- In rural areas of Pacific Island Countries, fish contributes 50 to 90% of animal protein in the human diet.

- More than 60 per cent of the world's people depend directly on plants for their medicines.

Red List – also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data List is a listed inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species. For example, it is in the Red List that you can find out whether a certain species is Extinct, Critically Endangered or Vulnerable.

Invasive Species – Introduced species that become destructive to the environment or human interests; can also include some native species that flourish and become destructive following environmental changes caused by human activities.

Endemic species – Species that are restricted to only one or a few islands and found nowhere else in the world.

CBD – Convention of Biological Diversity is dedicated to pro-moting sustainable development, it was signed by 150 governm- ent leaders at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. The CBD has a secretariat to carry out the work assigned to it and calls a conference of the parties every 2 years to discuss how the Convention is being implemented.

Dr Ron Neller. 10012574

Field trips are a large component of the University of Queensland environmental management course is being held in Rarotonga.

The two week course began on Monday with those taking part from around the region getting an introduction to the course and an orientation tour.

Dr Ron Neller is one of the course presenters who will lead several of the field trips over the next week.

Neller says the orientation, which covers trips to a variety of areas on the island, is part of the aim to promote a ‘whole of island’ approach to ecosystem-based management.

Four more field trips will focus on specific issues from land-based problems to marine-based issues.

Neller says issues such as erosion, piggery waste and sewerage problems will be seen first hand when they go into the field to look at the effects of land-based activities.

The marine field trip will look at issues such as coral damage, water quality, and coastal erosion.

Neller says the region faces similar environmental issues although some to a larger degree than others. Rarotonga represents a typical small island environment.

Neller has run similar courses in the Cook Islands and around the region in the past. Until recently he was a professor in environmental management at Australia’s University of the Sunshine Coast. He joins a line-up of experts from Australia and the region, from a range of institutions that have come together to make the course available to about 30 people from the Pacific.

The annual course, being held in the Pacific for the first time this year, looks at integrating contemporary and traditional coastal ecosystem management in the Pacific.

The course is run under the Coral Reef Targeted Research & Capacity Building for Management Program -- the university’s joint project with the Global Environment Facility, World Bank and the United States National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA). The National Environment Service, Marine Resources and the Cook Islands Marine Resources Institutional Strengthening Project (CIMRIS) have helped bring the university’s annual course to Rarotonga.

The course is being held at the AOG Hall in Takuvaine.

• Helen Greig