SPEECH BY THE MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT AND WATERWAYS DR MAHENDRA REDDY ON WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2020

Her Excellency, South Korean Ambassador to Fiji, Excellency Cho Shin-hee.
Permanent Secretary of Waterways and Environment, Mr. Joshua Wycliffe,
Director of Waterways, Mr. Mahendra Kumar,
Director of Environment, Ms. Sandeep Singh.
Members of the NGO Community,
Ladies and gentlemen,
 
A Happy World Environment Day to you all!
Today, on the World Environment Day, Fiji joins the global community in celebrating the significance of the Environment we live in. This is also a great opportunity for us Fijians to reflect on our shared responsibility to safeguard our precious environment for our future generations to come.

Environmental challenges (climate change being the chieftain among them), affect all of us in Fiji. Unless we diligently work to protect and preserve our environment, we are fighting a losing battle.

The United Nations General Assembly declared the World Environment Day in 1972 as a global response to the mounting environmental challenges faced at that time. Today on June 5, Environment day continues to be celebrated all over the world.

The commemoration of the Environmental day provides for us Fijians, a powerful platform to bolster our advocacy, accelerate, amplify, engage with our communities, and with governments around the world to take actions on the growing critical environmental challenges that our planet faces.

For generations, our planet earth has been kind to us, nourishing us, giving us the vital gifts of nature that sustain our lives. Yet mankind has not accorded the kind of recognition and respect our nature deserves.

According to United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), “the food(s) we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink and the climate that makes our planet habitable all come from nature. For instance, each year, the marine plants produce more than a half of our atmosphere's oxygen. A mature tree cleans our air absorbing 22 kilos of carbondioxide, releasing oxygen in exchange”. This is just one of several precious gifts bestowed to us by nature.

The Theme for the world Environment Day 2020.
The theme for 2020 World Environment Day is Biodiversity. Biodiversity underpins the ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services essential for human well-being. It provides us with food security, human health, the provision of clean air and water; it contributes to our livelihoods, and our economic well-being and development including poverty reduction. It is the foundation that supports all life on land and water. Altering, or removing a single element of Biodiversity from the ecosystem affects the entire life system and can produce negative consequences.  (NBSAP 2020 – 2025). Thus the theme urges us as a nation to make changes to our daily lives to reduce air pollution, activities that threaten our national biodiversity and put an end to the effects on our health and environment.

The Demands we place on Biodiversity
According to the United Nations, human actions, which include deforestation, encroachment on wildlife habitats (both in land and the ocean), intensified agriculture, and acceleration of climate change, have pushed nature beyond its limits. Research shows that it would require 1.6 times the size of natural earth to meet the pressure and demands exerted by us humans on our environment. If we continue on this path, the biodiversity loss will spiral (quicker) on a downward path forcing severe implications for our communites. This includes the imminent collapse of food and health systems.

Biodiversity involves 8 million plant and animal species, the ecosystems that house them, and the genetic diversity among them. In the last 150 years, the live coral reef cover has been reduced by half. Within the next 10 years, one out of every four known species might get wiped off the planet.

What we do for you
Everything we do as Ministry for Environment and Biodiversity, we do it with you in our minds. This week alone, the Ministry established at least five definitive steps to combat the loss of Biodiversity in Fiji and enhance the flourishing of Fiji’s Biodiversity. These steps include the inception of the 6 National Report to the Convention of Biodiversity, the establishment of a Litter Free Fiji Think Tank, establishment of a new nature based Solutions Product (through the planting of the sea meadows (Meadows in the Sea Program), launching of the Reef and MPA Surveillance and Protection Program.
Today, our Ministry will be inagurating Fiji’s First Nature based Solutions Complex in Luvuluvu, Nausori. These Nature based solutions that we have built will buttress the riverbank protection and resilience for hundreds of communities around Fiji.

We also have provided composting solutions to 40 farming families in Sawani through the distribution of compost bins this morning.

The Ministry of Environment’s commitment to Biodiversity protection is not only showcased by the programs launched this week but it seeps through every pulse across the length and breadth of our Ministry. The Department of Environment showcases its responsibility towards the protection of Fiji’s Biodiversity through the appropriate application of its mandated legislation (which includes the Environment Management Act 2005, and the Endangered and Protected Species (EPS) Act 2002. The EPS Act 2002 lists over 300 plus marine and terrestrial species that the Department protects in Fiji. Some of these species are believed to be threatened with extinction and some are listed under the IUCN Red list as endemic or critically endangered. The Department of Environment is currently working with scientists to ensure that these species and their habitats are protected and their survival is not compromised.

The Ministry of Environment is also the focal point for the Convention on Biological Diversity and is responsible for the implementation of three International Conventions relating to habitat and species protection. They are the CBD, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) and the Ramsar Convention or the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance.

The NBSAP
Recently, our ministry launched the National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan (NBSAP) 2020 – 2025. The NBSAP 2020 – 2025. This strategy, maps out program milestones to conserve  and  use  the  components  of  biological  diversity sustainably for Fiji. Some of the programs and activities recently completed over the last few weeks, reflect these milestones being achieved by the Ministry.
 
The Department of Environment will continue to work through innovative ways and means to protect your (biodiversity) wealth for you and your children and their children (for generations to come).

Cleaner (Environment) Fiji for all
Ladies and gentlemen, another issues that bothers our Ministry is that of littering and waste management. Poor waste management will greatly impact our environment. It is a known fact that at least 80% of marine plastic pollution  is a direct result from land-based sources. WWF reports that over 2,480 billion pieces of plastic is estimated to be floating in the Pacific Ocean – an overwhelming portion of which is contributed by countries that are not in the Pacific and is impacting on our ocean ecosystems.

The Ministry of Environment recognizes the  actions being undertaken at a global level and localises those actions ensuring solutions are agreed and implemented at a scale that will address our litter problems here in Fiji.
Major steps that include the recruitment of Litter Free Youth Clubs across Fiji have been initiated. This will not only arrest littering on our streets but also educate our youth to act and behave as “Clean Fiji Ambassadors”. The Ministry has just launched a “Litter Free Fiji Think Tank” that  will review the strategies and policies we currently hold and its effectiveness in ridding our communities of litter and waste. The Department of Environment will continue to enforce the Environment Management Act 2005 and the Environment Management (Waste Disposal and Recycling) Regulations 2007 and the Litter Act 2008 to ensure that waste is properly disposed and does not end up into our environment.

Our External Partnerships
The Ministry constantly engages with our communities, other government agencies, external NGO/CSO groups, the academia and the private sector
Some of the partnerships that protect and flourish our biodiversity include the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through which Fiji is currently completing programs worth nearly $16 million. Ongoing engagement with GEF should fetch further resources through this partnership.

The Department of Environment partners with the Vulcan Inc. mapping Fiji’s coral reefs and better manage the protection outcomes.

In delivering Fiji’s international obligation(s) including the reporting obligation to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Ministry of Environment with the support of UNEP and the GEF is currently preparing its 6th National Report to the Convention. The 6th National Report takes stock of all actions in implementing Fiji’s national biodiversity targets and the global Aichi targets. This report will primarily help inform Fiji's progress on implementing its National Biodiversity Strategy and Action plans.

We also partner with the various UN agencies in not just protecting our Biodiversity, but also protecting our ozone layer (above).

We are a partner to the Commonwealth Blue Charter, (Fiji is a member of the Oceans and Climate Change Action group). A recent event commemorating this relationship was the Meadows in the Sea Program in partnership with the British High Commission in Suva (yesterday).

I wish to acknowledge the continuous support of the various government agencies, international and local non-government organisations, communities and academic/research institutions towards biodiversity conservation in Fiji and in particular, working with the Ministry of Environment to protect and conserve Fiji’s unique ocean biodiversity.

The Ministry is committed to achieving our  national, regional and global commitments and conservation targets through a collaborative effort with our development partners.
 
We wish all Fijians a Happy World Environment day and call on our citizens to take action today and everyday to protect our home, our Fiji.