Islands States from the Pacific and Caribbean took to the podium of the United Nations General Assembly, Thursday, to call for urgent action on climate change, with one leader warning that their people and culture face “potential genocide” from rising seas. “I speak as an islander who has walked the shores of many atoll islands,…
The Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) condemns the shooting of two high school students in Timika on Monday the 28 September by the Indonesian security forces. The incident occurred around 19.30hrs. Caleb Bagau, aged 18, died while his friend Efrando Sabarofek, aged 17, was wounded in the chest and legs. He is receiving treatment at…
Māori Television’s Native Affairs story on West Papua was the first New Zealand television crew allowed into the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian region in 50 years. Given Indonesia’s strict policy on allowing access to foreign journalists, reporter Adrian Stevanon said their trip was a sign of change. “I think the achievement is that we are able to…
The European Commission has confirmed its zero tolerance policy against illegal fishing worldwide by warning the Comoros and Taiwan that they risk being identified as uncooperative countriesin the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. At the same time, the Commission is lifting the yellow cards from Ghana and Papua New Guinea, which have…
SUVA, (UNICEF/UNFPA/WHO/DFAT) – Three Pacific Island countries using integrated approaches to health delivery for women, new-borns, children and adolescents will benefit from a nearly AU$7 million UN Joint Programme announced in New York as part of a meeting of Pacific Foreign Ministers. These countries are Kiribati, Solomon islands and Vanuatu. The Australian Government’s investment in…
NAURU has joined the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu to become the third country in the Pacific to ban the controversial practice of transshipping. The ban comes in the wake of the Rainbow Warrior III discovering Taiwanese longliner Shuen De Ching No 888 operating illegally in its waters, including offloading its catch to a mothership and…
NADI, (PACNEWS) —- The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) has called on the Tuna Commission to include fisheries observers in all transhipments taking place in the high seas. The issue was highlighted this week at the Pacific Tuna Forum underway in Nadi, Fiji. Largely unmonitored, transshipping involves fishing vessels – longliners – transferring their…
NADI, (RNZI) — The Pacific Islands Tuna Industry Association (PITIA) is calling for a balance to be struck between industry partners and fisheries managers and regulators in the region. Stakeholders from all over the world are in Fiji this week to talk about the challenges facing the Pacific Tuna Industry. The Chief Executive of the…
SUVA, (SPC) — Given the significance of agriculture to the Pacific region, a workshop currently underway in Suva aims to assist Pacific governments to better plan and target public spending on agriculture and to increase value for money in public agriculture expenditure. The three day workshop, a collaborative effort between the European Union supported Pacific…
HUMANITY’S mismanagement of the ocean has led to the loss of almost half the world’s marine mammals, birds, reptiles and fish in a single generation, a World Wide Fund for Nature report says. The emergency edition of WWF’s Living Blue Planet Report revealed a 49 per cent decline in marine vertebrate populations between 1970 and…