Act locally, think Pacifically!

Merra Minne Kipefa, a youth delegate from Papua New Guinea at the inaugural Pacific Youth Caucus on the Environment in April 2001, captured the spirit of the gathering with his motto: 'Act locally, think Pacifically'.

Hosted by the University of Wollongong in Australia, the meeting was the first major forum of young environmentalists from the South Pacific islands held under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme. The idea to hold the caucus came from the young people of the South Pacific themselves; to many, the results were surprising.

The idea for the forum was hatched at the inaugural UNEP Asia Pacific Youth Forum, which was held in Singapore, September 1999. Representatives from Tonga, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, New Zealand, Samoa and Australia decided that a separate forum for the Pacific should be held and they subsequently founded the Pacific Youth Environment Network (PYEN) as a group of young people committed to youth networking and youth empowerment in the Pacific. Megan Aliklik from Nauru emphasised that a regional conference would not only strengthen the network but could also be a forum for expressing the concerns of Pacific young people to regional governments, intergovernmental organisations and the Rio + 10 process.

With that resolution, it was up to the young people to take the idea forward. The strong friendships and solidarity that developed between the delegates during their week together in Singapore paid off as the PYEN spent much of 2000 negotiating with governments and international organisations for support. By early 2001, most arrangements were in place for the event to go ahead.

CAUCUS TIME

When delegates began to arrive, the organisers' families and friends helped transport them from Sydney airport to the industrial city of Wollongong, two hours south on the coast, where they would eat, sleep and conference for the rest of the week. That first day was emotional for many members of the original Singapore group, as they were reunited with friends whom they had been in regular email contact with for a year and a half.

That night everyone dined together for the first time in Australia. It was fish and chips on North Wollongong beach looking east over the vast Pacific Ocean. Despite the responsibility each person had as a representative of their country, the mood was relaxed and festive--that night it seemed like everyone had put aside their worries and was simply happy to be enjoying the company of new and old friends.

The next day the caucus was on. First up were the country papers. Delegates from each country introduced the caucus to their country and the environmental issues of greatest concern to their island. It's not surprising that climate change, which threatens to raise sea levels and submerge islands, was agreed to be one of the most pressing and urgent issues. However, it was only one of many major environmental crises they identified. For example, Merra and Raymond Unasi, the delegate from the relatively large Pacific island country of Papua New Guinea, explained to the caucus that tied aid (conditional aid) was one of a series of serious problems for their country. Interestingly, the caucus sponsors, AusAID, were singled out for criticism for giving what they call 'boomerang aid' whereby Australian funds for development projects return to Australia in the form of consultancy fees, raw materials and other transactions with Australian firms.

Next the caucus held a series of workshops, presentations and panel discussions covering such diverse issues as biodiversity conservation, sustainable development, waste management, and alternative technology. James Arvanitakis from the Australia-based NGO Aid Watch gave a presentation on eliminating poverty in the Pacific. James said that in looking at poverty it is important to distinguish between 'food poverty' and 'money poverty.' He said that in many Pacific islands, although many people are money poor they are not food poor, and therefore are healthy and self-reliant. He cautioned that western-style development can undermine traditional modes of food and social security, erode act looally think paoifioally oontinuod... self-reliance and sustainability and often be a root cause of food poverty.

Later in the week we organized a role-playing workshop. With help from Merra, the caucus played out the saga of the controversial and destructive Ok Tedi mine in PNG. Delegates assumed the roles of World Bank and government representatives, traditional landowners, mine workers, trade unionists and conservationists. The performance of Tawati Uati from Kiribati was so convincing that delegates wondered if he had been a World Bank representative in a past life!

On the second to last day of the caucus, the delegates visited a protest camp 20 minutes up the coast from Wollongong next to Sandon Point, a famous surfing spot. There the traditional owners of the region had occupied an area scheduled for housing development. The land directly next to Sandon Point is an Aboriginal burial ground, and elsewhere on the site is extensive evidence of tool making proving that it is a place where Aboriginal people have been gathering for thousands of years. A few years ago the remains of a 'Kuradji'--a clever man, the equivalent of a high ranking 'shaman'--were discovered at Sandon Point, The visit from the islanders was emotional for many of the protestors as well as delegates who could identify with the Aboriginal struggle for the recognition of land rights.

By the end of the five-day caucus the participants were exhausted. Not only had we jammed in as many workshops, field trips, impromptu dance parties and sing-a-longs as possible but we had also drafted and signed two major declarations: the Wollongong Declaration and the Climate Change Declaration, each to be submitted to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. The declarations call on governments and corporations to halt the consumption of fossil fuels and for the Pacific islands to be allowed to develop in ways that take into consideration the needs of all Pacific island people, including young people.

The delegates finally returned home after a gruelling but fruitful six days in Australia to continue with the projects and campaigns that they had briefly left behind. Now they could continue their hard work with the knowledge that they were working in solidarity with many other young activists across the region.

RELATED ARTICLE: THE WOLLONGONG DECLARATION

Adopted by the Pacific Youth Environment Network, Wollongong, Australia on April 21, 2001. An excerpt of the full declaration.

We, the Pacific Youth Environment Network, have gathered on this day at Wollongong, Australia, to affirm our collective responsibilities to restore and protect our cultures and our environments.

We urge the United Nations system and the countries that are to gather at the World Summit for the Environment to honour our concerns and to respect our rights to our intellectual and cultural heritage and to our lands and resources.

We reiterate our commitment to sustainable development and oppose current models of development being pursued by multinational corporations, industrialised Nations and our own governments that are proving detrimental to Pacific eco-systems and Pacific cultures.

OUR VISION FOR THE FUTURE

In order to restore and protect our environments for our future generations, we assert that our vision for the future must be recognised.

9. We envisage a future that recognises and celebrates the inter-relationship of the environment and people. We desire that the natural environment be accessible to all persons now and in the future.

10. We yearn for a world:

10.1 in which our land, water, trees, animals, air and our cultures, are not valued K, according to economic worth, but rather, for their inherent and spiritual value;

10.2 in which our bodies are free from the poisons and diseases that are caused by the pollution of the natural world;

10.3 in which our peoples are free from threats to their livelihoods, traditions, and their very existence; and

10.4 in which our consciences are free from the guilt of depriving our sisters and brothers of the present and our children and grandchildren of the future, of those natural resources on which we have relied for our material requirements and our spiritual needs.

Andrew Stanton, a young social justice and environment activist living on the east coast of Australia, helped organize the Pacific Youth Caucus on the Environment. Andrew is Aidwatch's Papua New Guinea Campaigner and the united Nations Environment Programmes Youth Adviser to the Pacific. People wishing to assist young activists from the Pacific to attend future regional meetings can contact Andrew by email at [e-mail].