Environment

Protect our precious wetlands
Taau Taku Tita
Tita campaign being revived
‘Not passing buck’
Noni operation audited for organic certification

You can preserve the wetlands of Rarotonga by promoting their agricultural use and avoiding throwing rubbish into them. 12020705

Fast Facts

The world celebrated Wetlands Day on February 2 – an occasion that serves as a reminder to the Cook Islands public of what it learned last year about the usefulness and importance of local wetlands.

The National Environment Service (NES) dedicated last year – 2011 – to the wetlands, and in light of World Wetlands Day, officer Deyna Marsh reminds people that the messages they learned still ring true.

She encourages the Cook Islands public to continue doing its part to protect the wetlands by rallying for the halting of the development of wetlands areas, using wetlands to their agricultural potential, refraining from dumping rubbish in wetlands areas and supporting all conservation initiatives. While World Wetlands Day has come and gone, Marsh hopes people will continue to practice what was preached in 2011.

Last year NES officers did school visits to talk with students about wetlands, and saw their messages come to life in song, dance, poem and art form during Environment Week in June.

NES also included coastal wetlands in Muri and the taro patch as two important sites on the Lagoon Day tour. Officers spoke to Lagoon Day visitors about the value of the wetlands, their biodiversity – the koiti raukura (crab) was a popular topic of discussion, as it is only found in Ngatangiia on Rarotonga – and the way the wetlands keep debris and soil run-off from entering the lagoon.

At the Aroko site, they explained that it is the only saltwater marsh on Rarotonga, making it the rarest native habitat on the island.

“We were happy to convince the community about these areas, especially the traditional and government leaders that came through the demonstration sites, as they had strongly supported NES and others to consider putting in place stringent best practice controls on wetlands,” Marsh said.

“NES has a draft Wetlands Policy which will be reviewed and we will continue to push for improved best practice on our wetlands when developing. We will also support the traditional leaders and communities who are already planning on placing raui on some of their wetlands in the village.”

People are free to pick up a wetlands brochure at NES for more information.

- Rachel Reeves

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

You can protect the remaining wetlands on Rarotonga and Aitutaki.

Avoid filling in the wetlands for development or get best development practice advice

Support the preservation of all wetlands

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Wetlands are valuable ecosystems which we need to look after. 12020706

 

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Children learn about the importance of using the full agricultural potential of the wetlands. 12020704

 

The TTT mamas (Esther Katu and Kauta Dean pictured) went all out with their campaign – even crushing thousands of drinking cans – in 2007. 12020709

Refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle

This year government is focusing on waste – innovative ways to minimise and manage it, so as to keep the Cook Islands clean and beautiful and achieve a ‘zero waste’ goal.

The National Environment Service, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Planning and the Ministry of Health will launch the Taau Taku Tita (TTT) or ‘Cook Islands Taking Action Against Waste 2012’ campaign on Friday at the Kopaenga Repo, Rarotonga Waste Facility in Arorangi.

The Taau Taku Tita campaign aims to encourage people to minimise and manage waste by refusing, reducing, reusing and recycling waste.

It will be a joint initiative, supported by government ministries, non-government organizations and community and private sector entities.

“It is our waste, our environment and therefore it is our responsibility, and so everyone must get on board and take action. This campaign will hopefully make our communities better informed so that we can take action,” NES director Vaitoti Tupa said.

The campaign will also support policy and legislative improvements outlined in the National Solid Waste Strategy, National Environment Strategic Action Framework (NESAF). The hope is that those clauses will enable the Cook Islands to meet its national goals under the national sustainable development plan.

“We hope that the campaign slogan ‘taking action against waste’ means that from the highest level to the grassroots we are able to embark on some positive actions that result in achieving our goal of zero waste,” Tupa said.

The campaign will include improvements to waste management and recycling programmes on Rarotonga and in the outer islands – such as the identification of sites for storage of certain waste streams, and strengthening the regulatory roles of government agencies.

Taau Taku Tita will also encompass a media campaign, the distribution of information cards telling people know where to take their waste, increased support for waste polices such as the Non-Biodegradable plastic bag ban, and the supply of waste education kits for all schools.

‘Waste’ will be the theme of this year’s National Environment Week, Lagoon Day and Clean Up the World events, and will feature in sculpture and wearable arts competitions.

SPREP is also providing waste education training for community based organisations. Nooroa Rangi from the Ruaau Community TTT project has been nominated to attend a training next month where she will learn waste education strategies that she can later share with her community, which is implementing the SGP-GEF Ruaau Waste project.

• Release

Plastic – it’s spoiling our beaches and ecosystem. 09012208

Taau Taku Tita (TTT) is Maori for “our rubbish.” It is also the name of a women’s project organised by the government to reduce household waste back in the early 1990s, and perhaps most relevant, it is the name given to the 2012 Year of Action Against Waste campaign for the Cook Islands. The campaign is focused on minimising and managing waste.

In 2007, women attended a workshop on Rarotonga where they learned about waste and proper waste disposal. The women shared ideas, knowledge and skills about composting kitchen and garden waste. They made useful items out of waste like recycled paper, plant holders out of PET bottles and rag-mats and tried out alternative household cleaners.

Speakers from local businesses talked to the group about the importance of recycling and even then the concept of ‘refuse and reduce’ waste was important to consider.

A spokesperson for a soft drink factory that used to refill glass bottles said of imported goods back then, “If it can’t be reused or recycled then it should not be imported into our country”.

To reduce the use of plastic bags each woman screen-printed the TTT logo onto a calico bag and during Conservation Week (now National Environment Week) shopkeepers charged 10 cents each for plastic bags and encouraged people to either reuse their own plastic bags or purchase the TTT bags.

The women of TTT also made a declaration to the government addressing the waste problems in the Cook Islands and pointing to a need to continue their campaign.

Since then, the women have been active in raising awareness of waste issues throughout the community – the private sector, government and non-government organisations – and in 2009 Mama Margaret Karika received an Environment Award in recognition of her contribution to environment awareness and the TTT campaign.

For this year, the National Environment Service has elected to revive the Taau Taku Tita campaign.

“We wanted to recognise the success of the TTT campaign back then which aimed to encourage behavior and attitude change towards waste practices and which is something we are aiming for even today!” National Environment Service director Vaitoti Tupa said.

“Taau Taku Tita will be familiar to a lot of our people already and is a catchy slogan for our new generation. It is our waste, our environment and therefore our responsibility to improve our waste practices so that our islands are kept clean and green.”

Founding members of the TTT campaign include Karika Ariki, Agnes Winchester, Esther Katu, Pani Ben, Naomi Iro and Kauta Dean.

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Chickens laying eggs and causing a stink at Scott’s Farm. 08101007

The National Environment Service (NES) claims it is restricted by the Environment Act 2003 from taking action against Scott’s Farm.

Some Muri residents believe that the act – of which they have copies – directs that NES take responsibility for air pollution and prosecute persons causing it.

“They’re just passing the buck around,” Mann Short said. “It’s like they don’t want to do anything about it.”

NES director Vaitoti Tupa says the matter is of “urgent” concern to him, but maintains that the act does not endow him with powers to take any legal action against Scott’s Farm.

He says the issue was brought to his attention a few years ago, at which time he sought legal advice from then-solicitor-general Tingika Elikana. Late last year Tupa again consulted Crown Law, and counsel Cheryl King gave him the same advice – that while NES is responsible for monitoring and managing air pollution, it can only prosecute, seize property or make arrests under specific circumstances.

“In terms of the power to address pollution itself, there are restrictions on the Environment Service in some ways,” King said yesterday.

Section 2 of the Environment Act defines the introduction of substances into the environment which result in “impairment of quality for use of...air” or “the creation of a nuisance” as “pollution”.

Section 27 provides that where an environment officer has reasonable grounds to suspect an instance of pollution, the officer may enter, inspect and search a property, take samples of the suspected pollution and get them tested by a reputable laboratory.

Should the officer find reasonable grounds to believe an offence has been committed, he or she can seize property, make arrests and prosecute offences.

But King believes the catch lies within section 51, which stipulates that “every person commits an offence who discharges or causes to be discharged pollution in or onto Cook Island water or inland waters”.

She says that because the pollution is not seeping into Cook Islands waters, it cannot be legally classified as an ‘offence’ under the act.

“However this provision doesn’t sufficiently cover the situation that is in issue at Scott’s Farm in Muri,” King advised NES in an email. “There are no other provisions within the act that specifically provide for making pollution or the discharge of pollution an offence.”

She noted that section 70 does provide that “regulations may be made for the regulation or prohibition of pollution of air, water or land, and the depositing, dumping of litter, rubbish, or any substance of a dangerous, noxious, or offensive nature”, but says at present there are no such regulations in place.

Tupa claims that where the act might appear to allocate the responsibility of managing the Scott’s Farm odour to NES, in practice it restricts NES from taking any action.

“We are not just passing the buck to Public Health,” Tupa said. “We are working with them. We don’t want to ignore these things but we are restricted in what we can do.

“This is not the first time this has been brought to our attention. We got the same advice from the former solicitor-general – that we can’t move forward unless there are amendments made to our act.”

Tupa says in the meantime, his officers have been doing site inspections, making recommendations and checking to ensure farm owner John Scott is treating waste with an odour-reducing microbial culture.

They have also given Scott’s septic systems the green light. Tupa said that if the septic systems were leaking discharge into the lagoon, NES would have the power to prosecute under the act.

“We’re trying our best to see if this thing can be minimised or solved in some way,” Tupa said.

Other legal advisers have indicated they disagree with the opinion of Crown Law expressed herein.

• Rachel Reeves

Senior qualifications assurance auditor Raymond Najm with Corey Gilbert, agricultural marketing specialist for the United States Department of Agriculture, at the Cook Islands Noni Marketing Ltd factory in Titikaveka. 12020116

Two auditors are at the Cook Islands Noni Marketing Ltd premises in Titikaveka this week doing a routine inspection to ensure the factory is complying with its organic regulations.

“We’re just here to make sure that the business complies with our requirements – it’s as simple as that,” senior qualifications assurance auditor Raymond Najm, who is here on behalf of Australia Certified Organic (ACO), said.

“They are certainly a valid organic certified operation,” he said, but declined to discuss the details of the audit report until it is written, reviewed by the ACO office and submitted to the directors of Cook Islands Noni Marketing Ltd.

Najm says the audit report is likely to be released within the next four weeks.

Joining him on the premises this week is Corey Gilbert, an agricultural marketing specialist for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) based in Texas.

He is doing a two-week assessment of Australia Certified Organic, so in effect is auditing Najm as he audits Cook Islands Noni Marketing Ltd.

Gilbert says he is also bound by restrictions and unable to discuss the details of his audit.

His role in the Cook Islands is to ensure that ACO, which certifies Cook Islands Noni Marketing Ltd, is in fact accredited to conduct certification.

Gilbert says his inspection is just part and parcel of a routine check-up.

Both auditors have never before been to the Cook Islands. They began assessing on Tuesday, and expect to finish by Friday, after which point Najm leaves for Sydney and Gilbert leaves for Brisbane.

• Rachel Reeves