News from the Field

Garbage has become a nightmare (Photos courtesy of Kousei Shimada / JICA )

Sweeping sandy beaches. Swaying palms. Unending skies, romantic coves, soothing breezes and deep blue seas that stretch to infinity.

It is the very definition of paradise, but today there are growing problems in
that idyllic landscape – a region as large as China located between Japan, Australia and far to the east, the Americas.

Fourteen of those regional countries and areas plus Japan, Australia and New Zealand met on the Japanese island of Hokkaido May 22-23 for the 5th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM5) to strengthen regional ties and review efforts to solve some of the area’s burgeoning problems.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso committed a 50 billion yen aid package over the next three years in areas such as the environment, climate change, education, water, health, and human resource development. This compares to 45 billion yen in the previous three-year cycle which the prime minister said had been “used effectively” on infrastructure projects and to dispatch Japanese experts and volunteers to schools and hospitals, among other activities.

Japan will work closely with the Pacific nations on climate change problems leading up to the next global meeting in Copenhagen in December and will commit 6.8 billion yen for solar panels. Some 1,500 personnel and an additional 2,000 people in the education, water and health fields will be trained. Under a so-called Kizuna Plan, Tokyo and the islands will conduct youth exchanges involving more than 1,000 people and the number of research students studying in Japan will be doubled.

While most of the rest of the world still regards the Pacific region as a spectacular holiday destination, it is its very geography which is causing many of its headaches, according to conference delegates.

While China’s landmass contains 20 percent of the world’s population, this part of the Pacific is one of the most sparsely populated regions on earth. Kiribati, for instance, a republic of 32 atolls and one coral island, covers an area of 3,500,000 square kilometers, mostly water, but its population is only 95,000. Nauru, once known as Pleasant Island, covers a mere 21 square kilometers with 10,000 people and is the world’s smallest island state and independent republic.

Difficult and Expensive

Gravel excavations in the Marshall Islands is another problem (Photos courtesy of Kousei Shimada / JICA )

Because the islands are scattered across such a vast area with tiny individual populations, it is both difficult and expensive to provide communities with such basic services as education, health and infrastructure.

Another state, low-lying Tuvalu, midway between Australia and Hawaii, has been on the international radar for years because many environmental specialists believe it could be one of the first nations to literally disappear because of possible rising sea levels caused by climate change.

Other countries which attended the meeting—Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Niue, Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau—are also subject to some of the worst climatic excesses including cyclones, earthquakes and even tsunamis.

The vagaries of climate change are being exacerbated by coastal erosion. The World Wildlife Fund said in a current report that two-fifths of the planet’s most significant marine environment, an expanse of coral reef known as the Coral Triangle which spans Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, has already been lost and the rest is set to disappear by the end of the century.

Around 35 percent of the world’s coral reef fish, some 3,000 species, breed in this area and there are “more marine species in the Coral Triangle than are found in all the other tropical oceans put together,” the WWF report said.

The vast oceans and coastlines are undoubtedly the Pacific region’s most important natural resource and currently they supply Japanese households with about 80 percent of their tuna and bonito which appear on dinner tables each night.

Coral Reef Losses

But as the WWF report outlines, the loss of the coral reef combined with foreign exploitation, over fishing and lack of local infrastructure could eventually threaten both the livelihoods and eating habits of island populations.

Modernity and changing lifestyles have also become some of the most odious problems facing the islands. Supermarkets, canned goods, plastic bottles, refrigerators and cars may make life more convenient, but the region has run out of space to dispose of huge mountains of non degradable garbage.

Japan, which has a long association with the area, has been involved for many years in helping to alleviate these various problems.

In 2000 the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) made a project formulation study on waste management and since then has partnered the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in promoting both regional and national programs based on the so-called 3Rs principle—Reuse, Reduce, Recycle—or in some cases, Return. A so-called semi-aerobic landfill system which speeds up garbage decomposition has been introduced in Samoa, Palau and Vanuatu.

Japanese and Tuvalu research organizations have been working on mechanisms to encourage the formation or preservation of coral atolls to help prevent beach and coastal erosion. In Fiji JICA has helped reduce the impact of cyclones by improving meteorological and cyclone forecasting and in Papua New Guinea it has helped establish sustainable rice production which can better withstand the effects of climate change.

To preserve the region’s marine resources JICA activities include promoting seed production activities for freshwater shrimp, improving post harvest fishery products, restoring depleted coastal resources in Vanuatu and strengthening both research and human resource management on community basis.

Japan’s grants and loans have helped develop roads, bridges, water works, power, port facilities, ferries and airports throughout this pacific region including the improvement of wharf facilities at Port Vila in Vanuatu which is scheduled to be completed next year.

In the health and education fields, JICA is involved in policy and planning formulation, training and such practical projects with WHO, UNICEF etc. as establishing an efficient system to ensure that children in even the most remote corners of the region can receive vaccines.

A satellite communications network at the University of the South Pacific, which has its main campus located in Fiji, established with Japanese cooperation, allows for two-way distance learning on the various campuses scattered throughout the area. In Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau, both young and senior Japanese volunteers and JICA alumni have been working to improve education in such subjects as mathematics.