Climate combat
‘Partnerships instrumental’
PRIVATE public partnerships have been instrumental in creating some amount of progress in Fiji ‘s effort’s to combat climate induced development challenges.
While speaking at the Our Ocean Conference in Panama, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka highlighted that even as a small island state, Fiji had made some progress in creating a space for sustainable investment in its Blue Economy.
He said this was necessary to combat climate induced development challenges in collaboration with the Global Fund for Coral Reefs and the United Nations Pacific Office.
“Most importantly, Fiji is working in partnership with the private sector to invest in reef conservation and regeneration,” he said.
“Some progress is being made in the implementation of our commitment to Locally Managed Marine Area Networks (LMMAs) to support sustainable income generation, more remains to be done.
“We are engaged in other frontiers to ensure sustainability and climate resilience. Despite limited resources available, the Government has placed priority to resettle communities and build capacities for rehabilitation.”
Despite the milestone achievements, Mr Rabuka said significant and enormous challenges still lay ahead for the country.
He said they recognised the massive pressure on Fiji’s domestic fish stock caused by increasing sea surface temperatures.
“Fiji seeks to revitalise its aquaculture sector through public private partnerships that support state-of-the-art hatchery facilities, targeted commercial and community-based projects and the diversification of our export base using sustainable aquaculture.
“We are also working on establishing carbon neutral energy sources, although at a slow pace.
“This has been a tough path for Fiji due to technological limitation and lack of infrastructure.”
Mr Rabuka said the support from both bilateral and multilateral partners present at the Our Ocean Conference to cofinance blue bond investments and provide credit guarantee solutions to help access affordable ocean finance at near concessionary rates was necessary.
“A decade since the first ‘Our Oceans Conference’, we are struggling to meet our biodiversity, nature and ocean protection commitments. Successes are few and far between.
“Despite our challenges, we will not give up. Our commitment and determination can only be achieved with more resources, technical assistance, and a robust international legal framework for action in all spheres of oceanic and environmental protection.”