SI: INCREASED SUPPORT FOR VICTIMS OF SEXUAL AND GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

Quoting the Solomon Star newspaper – 24 October 2019

“THE Family Support Center (FSC) and UN Women Fiji Multi-Country Office (MCO) on Wednesday launched a new agreement that increases support services to victims of sexual and gender-based violence.

“This new agreement or project will ‘Increasing Outreach for survivors of Gender-Based Violence’ project ensures women and girl survivors have better access to counselling and case management services in the provinces of Guadalcanal, Isabel and Temotu.

“Speaking during the signing of the project was the Center Manager for FSC Loroi Sisiolo.

“Sisiolo said the FSC staff members are happy about the signing of the project with UN MCO which was made possible through MDFAT.

“She said this new agreement will increase counselling on gender base-violence and abuse.

“And will also enable women and girls who experience violence to have access to counselling services and case management services throughout Honiara and other provinces,” Sisiolo explained.”

Copyright @ 2019, Solomon Star News.

PACIFIC LEADERS INCREASINGLY DECRY THE LACK OF ACTION IN DEALING WITH CLIMATE CHANGE

11 December 2019

Climate change is proving an existential threat and there are still countries paying lip service to the vulnerability of Pacific nations.

It is reported by Radio New Zealand today, Wednesday, thatFiji's Prime Minister has hit out at several developed countries during a speech at the UN climate summit in Madrid.

The seriousness of climate change and the impact it is having on Pacific Island countries, including the Solomon Islands, is causing more Pacific leaders to speak out and decry the abandonment of science and the lack of concern for humanity.

Quoting extracts from the Radio New  Zealand news bulletin, this was said:

“Frank Bainimarama said several countries had paid lip service to the vulnerability of Pacific countries, while actively denying scientific consensus.

“In a veiled swipe at neighbour Australia and countries like the United States, Mr Bainimarama said backward steps had been taken since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015.

"Instead of taking ambitious steps forward, we're seeing backwards attempts to rewrite the Paris Agreement...

Mr Bainimarama called for strong regulations to come from the final rules for the Paris Agreement, which negotiators are trying to settle in Madrid.

And Tonga's Prime Minister, Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa, said his country was losing the ability to cope with an increasing number of disasters in his country.

While addressing the UN climate summit, Mr Tu'i'onetoa said it was vital the Paris agreement be implemented to its strongest intent.

Mr Tu'i'onetoa said Tonga had been ranked as the world's second most-vulnerable country to disasters, and pointed to Cyclone Gita, which caused widespread damage last year.

He said climate change was threatening the environment, ocean and resources on which his people depended.

"We continue to experience record rates of coastal erosion, overflow, and flooding. These are further compounded by the rising in sea levels...

"Tropical cyclones are increasing in intensity at a rate of intensity that undermines our capacity to respond."

“Kiribati's president Taneti Maamau agreed the world was not doing enough to address climate change, which he said posed an existential threat to his country.

“Mr Maamau said the scientific evidence was undeniable, and leaders must commit to firm action.

"It is still troubling to see that regardless of the science provided, as well as the collective voice of the youth and students throughout climate strikes, and the evidence of climate impacts each respective region is noticing, we still fall short."

“Mr Maamau also called for a phasing out of coal, and strong global commitments for carbon neutrality.

“Meanwhile, a former US Secretary of State, John Kerry, said the G20 group of developed countries were failing to act like adults in their approaches to climate change.

“He was speaking at a side event at the UN climate talks in Madrid.

“Mr Kerry, who was a leading player in brokering the 2015 agreement, said the world's biggest polluters had done nothing since the agreement was signed.

“He said it was shameful that it was taking children marching on the streets to tell leaders about undeniable scientific evidence.

"And none of the 20 nations, that are privileged to belong to the G20 - the principal emitters of the world - 85 plus percent of all the emissions. Twenty nations and they're all going up in their emissions this year.”

Source:  Radio New Zealand.

Yours sincerely

Frank Short

KIRIBATI FACING THE INCREASING THREAT OF CLIMATE CHANGE WITH FORTITUDE AND COURAGE

While the world debates ways to arrest climate change low lying atolls in the Pacific are suffering the worst effects

Many would-be holiday makers around the world glance through the glossy travel magazines they pick up at their local travel agency and spend hours gazing at the gorgeous illustrations of white sandy beaches fringed with palm trees and blue seas so typical of what is pot raid of Pacific islands countries like the Solomon Islands, Fiji, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu, Tuvulu, the Marshall Islands and Kiribati.

The sad irony is that many of the low lying atolls in the Pacific are battling to arrest the impact of climate change and especially struggling to hold back the rising sea levels that are eroding their coastlines, flooding the land and damaging homes and destroying the food gardens coastal communities depend upon.

The situation in Kiribati has been the focus of news this week from a featured news bulletin on Radio New Zealand and it graphically illustrates what is currently happening in the country while mirroring similar happenings in neighbouring countries such as I have mentioned.

Quoting the Radio New Zealand news this is what RNZ’s journalist, Koro Vaka’uta had to say

 “Awareness around climate change seems to have increased in recent years with numerous international summits attended by governments and agreements signed.

“But action on the ground is not so obvious.

“The New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters' made his first visit to Kiribati last week and he was immediately struck by the challenges the main island of Tarawa was battling with.

"Well it's quite stark. The high point, that's three metres. The fact is that yes there are serious issues here," Mr Peters says.

"The world and countries concerned about climate change and its effect, they need to be doing something about it now. Not sometime into the future.

"Remedial action is possible but let's put our collective minds together and our commitment together to do something about it."

Mr Peters' sentiments are echoed by people on the ground.

Maerere Eria is the pastor of a community church in a particularly vulnerable part of Tarawa, often inundated by king tides.

"We can see that there is an increase of the high tides right now and we see that it brings damage to a lot of sea walls and not only that it is damaging a lot of our buildings as well."

Mr Eria says the community used to witness king tides once or twice a year but now it seems more like five or six times annually.

He says during high tides, people of the village compound seek protection in the concrete church building, but even then it is hard to keep dry.

Fellow community leader, Teakamatang Eritati, says the tides have destroyed a seawall which once protected the village and now where there were once houses, there is a body of water.

"There were houses here but they were surrendered when the wave went and the seawall was broken so then they left and they departed the place."

Pastor Eria says the thought of permanently moving from the area is daunting.

"The hardest part, because they are brought up in this place, it is quite hard for them to move out from here."

But the people of Kiribati are a proud people, and they have not given up the fight.

The Kiribati President Taneti Maamau has been reticent around the topic of climate change, but he told a state dinner for Mr Peters, that he looked forward to working with New Zealand in strengthening the country's resilience.

"It is our duty to build the resilience of our islands and people to this greatest security threat, to build the adaptive capacity of our islands and people and we continue to call on our partners to join Kiribati in this fight."

Winston Peters says New Zealand is here to assist and the country recently provided aid in response to major storm damage to parts of the country earlier this year.

"But all that will have been regrettable in terms of its inability to be enduring unless we can secure, in terms of climate change challenges, their continuance living here," says Mr Peters.

"And it's not going to be easy but with the best of international intentions, and countries who say a lot about climate change, if they're prepared to make a commitment, I believe it's capable of being resolved."

“But Teakamatang Eritati says in Kiribati he has experienced government inaction.

“He says he signed an agreement with the government to help rebuild their seawall.

"In the agreement we are to provide the labour. We will do the labour and the work and they will provide the materials and things like that but that has never happened until today."

Mr Eritati says the situation has left villagers weary.

"Frustrated and tired of this because we reconstruct our temporary seawall and the last two, three weeks the wind came with waves and hit the seawall and gone and then we woke up again to put it up again."

“Pastor Eria says he sympathises with the local government and understands it has a lot to deal with and is not awash in resources.

“But he says while people debate and discuss the issue of climate change, his people are putting up with the impacts.

"It's happening right now. We really spend a lot of time praying about it. Who are the people that are willing to help us? We really suffer by these high tides."

“Until assistance comes, Mr Eria says his people will just battle away as best they can.”

Yours sincerely

Frank Short

RHINO BEETLE A SERIOUS THREAT TO SOLOMONS COCONUT INDUSTRY

25 August 2019

Solomon Islands: The threat posed by the Coconut rhinoceros beetle to the local coconut industry. 

A lengthy article written by Luke Kidde, Andrew Piper and Bob MacFarlane and published in the ‘Diplomat’ last October mentioned how a new invasive strain of the coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB) was present in the Solomon Islands and spreading rapidly.

Symptoms of CRB attack were first reported in Honiara in January 2015. Subsequently, CRB has spread along the north coast of Guadalcanal, to the nearby small island of Savo, the Ngella (Florida) grouping, and to North Malaita in perhaps the most serious outbreak beyond Guadalcanal.

 More recently, CRB has been recorded in the Russell Island group, which is home to the largest coconut plantation in the Southern Hemisphere, South Malaita, and on Ulawa Island.

 CRB is also present in Palau, Guam, Hawaii, PNG (Port Moresby, Central and Gulf Provinces), the Northern Mariana Islands, Japan (Okinawa) and Vanuatu.

In Vanuatu, a state of emergency has been declared over the invasive coconut rhinoceros beetle in the north east of Vanuatu's Efate island and is likely to be extended.

Two teams operating on a $US467, 000 budget have been sent out to the affected area which includes Lelepa Island.

The operation involves destroying breeding sites, spreading community awareness and implementing quarantine zones.

The coconut rhinoceros beetle is an invasive pest that’s devastating palm trees by boring into the crowns of the palms to feed on sap, thus killing the trees. The beetles are hard to control, and techniques such as pheromone trapping, biological control, or sniffer dogs have been used in several countries but so far proved ineffective or expensive.

 One of the most effective strategies for controlling the beetle is finding and eradicating potential breeding locations. However, breeding sites are often cryptic and found in a wide variety of locations, so discovering the sites is easier said than done.

In Quam where the CRB was first discovered in 2007 initial efforts to eradicate the beetle seemed to have been successful but the CRB returned and new methods of eradication are still being trialed.

Early success in checking the CRB ‘s spread in Guam involved a practice of capturing adult beetles, placing radio tracking devices on them, and then following the tagged beetles to breeding locations using the tracking device.

The use of tracking devices was a feasibility study, and the technique seemed to work.

The technique allowed the discovery of breeding sites that otherwise would have gone unknown or unnoticed.

Even though the experiment was a success, more studies needed to be done to determine whether the technique could be used effectively on a large scale.

I am not aware whether the practice is still being used in Guam as a means of finding and eliminating the beetle’s breeding sites.

In the Solomon Islands as recent as June this year, the Managing Director of Kokonut Pacific, Bob Pollard, told Radio New Zealand that the coconut industry in the Solomons was under attack and the coconut industry looking bleak.

Mr. Pollard said the CRB lays its eggs in trees and the larvae eat the trees from the inside, threatening the 29,000 hectares of coconut trees in the Solomons.

“New Zealand is helping with scientists to try and find a virus and fungus to eliminate the beetle. But the urgency has reached new levels,” Mr Pollard added.

The CRB presents a very significant livelihood and economic threat to Solomon Islands. Fortunately, the SIG and development partners acknowledge the issue and have now responded with support. The initial focus of management is on reducing the beetle population by destruction of breeding sites and containment. Behavioural change on the part of farmers and villagers is necessary – for example, it is now important for farmers to destroy dead/rotting palm logs wherever they are found, and manage green waste and compost. Greater inspection and controls around inter-island movement are also necessary (it is thought that the infestation in North Malaita is linked to the freight of chicken manure as organic fertiliser). Ongoing coordination by Biosecurity Solomon Islands of all of these activities is essential.

Destruction of breeding sites will reduce the population, but with previous CRB infestations, true long-term management was only possible following the introduction of two insect pathogens: green muscardine fungus, Metarhyzum anisopliae, and in particular the virus Oryctes nudivirus.

 Extensive activities are now underway in the Solomon Islands, PNG, Guam, Palau and Japan to identify, test, bulk-up and release a new virus.

The private sector (Sime Derby from Malaysia; the parent company of GPPOL and New Britain Palm Oil Limited) has invested significantly in the discovery of a new virus in Asia and, ultimately, its bulking-up and release in PNG and Solomon Islands.

Overall, the prospect for CRB control in Solomon Islands is now improving, but considerable work is required over the coming months if even more severe consequences are to be averted.

 In a region where coconuts are so important to economies and communities, the CRB response in Solomon Islands has become a pilot for the region. Solomon Islands’ and its neighbours are watching with interest.

 Sources:  The Diplomat, Entomology Today and Radio New Zealand.

 Yours sincerely

 Frank Short