Let’s support PM in his push for sustainable development

World and Pacific leaders have joined the chorus of praise and support for Fiji’s leadership on ocean and climate change

Sustainable development is some of the important key words in the United Nations Ocean Conference.

Pollution, dumping of non-biogradable rubbish like plastics, overfishing, illegal fishing are included in the list of activities that threaten our oceans. Sustainable development refers to development that is based on balancing it with the environmental impact.

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama tells the African Caribbean and Pacific team during a high level meeting that in Fiji, no development takes place until we can be sure that it is environmentally sustainable. He says there is sometimes a price to pay in terms of short-term financial gain.

In any development there is always an environmental risk. What is important is how we manage this risk to ensure that it does not cause long term damage that is irreversible.

Responsible development treats the environmental impact assessment seriously. In fact the state and health of the environment should be a top priority in all development plans.

It’s particularly important in Fiji given our clean green image. Our pristine environment is a major asset in terms of the tourism industry. Many tourists choose Fiji as a holiday destination because of this clean green image.

They envisage coming here to enjoy the clean air, green and lush vegetation and beautiful countryside and unpolluted rivers and seas. That’s the generally held belief that brings tourists to our shores every year.

Our challenge is to maintain it by doing whatever is necessary to keep our beaches and environment clean.

This is a collective effort and it requires the support of everyone.

We have no control of what floats from the sea to our shores. But we do have control of what we throw into the sea, river and land.

We also have control of what sort of development do we need. If we choose development for short-term benefits then we will have a high price to pay later. We cannot escape the negative consequences of our wrong choices today.

So it’s crucial that we are not caught up in a development rush that will cause us more harm than good. We should never lose sight that climate change is an integral part of this sustainable development conversation.

No one is saying that development is bad. Development is good provided it doesn’t directly or indirectly cause harm to the environment.

The awareness campaign on the state of our ocean is part of this discussion on sustainable development. If we fail to protect our oceans then they will eventually choke to death with all the marine life. This will seriously affect our food and economic livelihood.

If we continue to have haphazard development without proper environmental impact assessments, then we are treading on dangerous ground.

We have seen from around the world the catastrophic impacts of developments that ignore this warning. Many lives have been lost, buildings and assets destroyed because of risky developments.

World and Pacific leaders have joined the chorus of praise and support for Fiji’s leadership on Ocean and climate change.

It’s a tribute to the passion in which Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has led the charge.

What we need to do now is to support him and do whatever we can at home to keep Fiji clean and healthy.