Posted on October, 04 2011

As a member of the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation, WWF participated in the 14th meeting of the roundtable members and stakeholders,held in Fiji in July.

The 2011 Roundtable focused its discussions on the regional process leading to the 2012 global Rio+20 meeting which has as one of its themes the green economy, in the context of poverty eradication and sustainable development.

The final outcomes statement from the Roundtable was released this month in a communiqué which included significant messages from the meeting.

The communiqué stated that “conventional economic models for development no longer support sustainable development and do not provide options in the face of climate change. There is a need to incorporate green economy principles to economic development models.

“Pacific island nations cannot move toward a new economic development paradigm alone. The global economy as a whole must change and move to a more ecologically, economically and socially sustainable basis. Failure to do so will also place Pacific nations in a more precarious position if they choose to move to a 'green or blue-green economy' paradigm unaccompanied by the global community.”
This is the key message that Pacific Leaders and organisations must take to the Rio+20 in 2012.

The communiqué also stated that “The islands of the Pacific can offer lessons and models to the greater island Earth. The Large Ocean States of the Pacific island nations are custodians within their Exclusive Economic Zones to one-third of the Earth's surface and the actions that have been, or are being, taken by visionary leaders at national political and community levels can point the way to a more sustainable future.”

The Pacific Islands Roundtable communiqué called for:

1. Sustainable development to be effectively embedded into sectoral business plans and actions monitored over the next decade to ensure a transition to a green economy is a reality.
2. Pacific Island Governments to ensure that new development funding and investments from external donors and partners and domestic financial institutions, support green and equitable development.
3. The Rio+20 Summit to deliver concrete actions to support the maintenance of natural capital of Pacific Islands states and recognize the unique positive contributions of our massive and relatively healthy oceanic and terrestrial ecosystems to the world.

The full PIRT Outcomes document can be found at the Roundtable web-page http://www.iucn.org/about/union/secretariat/offices/oceania/roundtable/resources/