NEWSPAGE 11 April
2011

NEW ZEALAND: Christchurch Pacific people hard-hit but resilient

(Photo: Samoa Tourism Authority)

SAMOA: Samoa Tourism Authority updates
Source: Samoa Tourism Authority Press Release

Climate change - a tourism priority

The Tourism Sector through the Samoa Tourism Authority (STA) is taking an active stance in safeguarding the sector against the negative effects of Climate Change.

In efforts to combat Climate Change’s adverse effects on tourism, STA is putting in place 2 Projects known as National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) 4 and NAPA5 for Climate Change for the Tourism Sector.

NAPA4 focuses on ensuring that Samoa’s current and future tourism resources are protected and strengthened against any negative climate change effects.

“The aim is to increase the resilience and adaptive capacity of the tourism sector in Samoa by reducing climate related risks to the sector.”

This Project also includes the development and putting into action of a National Tourism Adaptation Strategy for Samoa. This will promote the proper management of tourism resources through effective aware-ness and educational programs.

NAPA5 which is being developed and implemented through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will be executed by STA in conjunction with NAPA4.

NAPA5 is designed to look at the inclusion of climate risk and resilience factors in tourism related policies and strategies.

NAPA5 will also look at how to activate adaptation measures in pilot Tourism Development Areas. The main focus here will be on community owned operations and how they put into practice these particular measures.

“Overall the NAPA5 objective is to safeguard tourism development communities in Samoa from risks associated with climate change”.

STA will be working hand in hand with other counterparts through NAPA4 and NAPA5 towards the common goal of not only identifying the impacts of climate change on the various sectors but more importantly to establish from the findings, solutions that will protect as well as assist the Tourism Industry and its limited resources.

As a result of STA’s commitment to this cause, a new position of Tourism Climate Change Project Coordinator has been established to assist in the design, formulation and implementation of the said Projects.


You are what you eat!

Have you ever wondered which of your lifestyle habits determine who and what you are, if at all?

The Hon. Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi, thinks that one major factor that determines what you are is the food that you eat.

“You are what you eat... think about it”.

This is one of the harsh truths he gave the participants from around the region that were attending the Oceania University of Medicine (OUM) Medical Conference which began yesterday, 07 April 2011.

The two day Conference brings together doctors and medical specialists from around the globe to share their knowledge with the eager participants on various medical and health topics ranging from telemedicine to ways to assist Samoa’s healthcare system.


Nafanua Kalapu hosts monthly regattas

The Nafanua Kalapu Paopao Regattas look set to be a regular feature throughout this year.

The Nafanua Kalapu Outrigger Club want to have fun preparing for the South Pacific Games in August of this year.

To do so, the Club have put in place canoeing regattas that will take place on the last Saturday of every month from now until August.

The aim of these regattas is to also promote and encourage competitive and recreational outrigger paddling throughout Samoa.

The first regatta was on 26th March.
 

(Photo: Anna Rogers)

AUSTRALIA: Tuvalu pleads for climate change assistance from Australia
Source: The Cairns Post

One of the first nations to experience the effects of climate change is crying out for Australia's help.

The tiny South Pacific nation of Tuvalu, about 1050km north of Fiji, has been hard hit by rising seas for the past 15 years.
Tuvalu, which comprises nine islands, has its highest point at about 4.5m above sea level.

The country is considered one of the most vulnerable places in the world to climate change.

Tuvalu Meteorological Service director Hilia Vavae, who spoke at Greenhouse 2011 conference in Cairns yesterday, said the country was experiencing flooding from high tides more frequently each year.

“It’s become the norm, now. From observations, it’s more frequent,” Ms Vavae said.

“Normally it happens January through to March.

“Now it can also happen October, November, December.”

Tuvalu has started a composting program to build up more soil to shore against floodwaters and Ms Vavae suggested more soil could be shipped into the country.

However, she said many Tuvalu residents were debating about whether they should leave the nation, to escape the rising seas.

Former Tuvalu resident Terje Dahl fled the country with his wife Emma and young family to Townsville about six years ago.

“During one year, my wife’s family called us (from Tuvalu) to say goodbye because of a predicted 3.8m high tide,” he said.

“Luckily it didn’t go that high and they survived.”

Mr Dahl said many Tuvalans who wanted to escape their sinking nation, wished to live in either Australia or New Zealand, as they had similar climates.

He pleaded with the Australian Government to assist more climate change refugees from Tuvalu.

“They all want to go, but they have no chance of getting anywhere,” Mr Dahl said. 

Photo Caption: Grim outlook: Tuvalu Meteorological Service director Hilia Vavae in Cairns says flooding from high tides is more frequent now and residents are debating about leaving the island nation to escape rising seas.

(Photo: Dennis Oda / Honolulu Star Advertiser)

HAWAII: Teenager's organs change men's lives
Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser

A Big Island boy who was injured last year provided the gift of life to two recipients.

Bronson "Duke" De Rego was 14 last year when he fell off a golf cart on the Big Island and suffered injuries that would end his young life.

He was flown to Honolulu, where doctors said they would have to take him off life support, something his father, Lamar, couldn't bear. But that changed when the nonprofit Legacy of Life Hawaii suggested letting his son become an organ donor, which meant doctors would keep De Rego on life support to preserve his organs until they could be taken out for recipients.

"It came together where we didn't have to pull the plug, where Duke could live," Lamar told two recipients of De Rego's organs after meeting them for the first time yesterday.

The two recipients, Jerry Brown, 65, and Junior Eder, 46, hugged each member of the De Rego family at Koolau Golf Club during an event organized by Legacy of Life Hawaii.

"He didn't die in vain," said De Rego's weeping older sister Ululii Sunsano. "We didn't have to say bye. We know you're fathers. (Your family) didn't have to say bye, too."

The event was part of Organ Donor Month in Hawaii.

The family of another donor, Elizabeth "Liz" Sutherland, also met two Hawaii men who were the recipients of her organs.

Barbara Southern, marketing director of the nonprofit, which recovers organs for transplants, said that for people with end-stage organ failure, the only treatment is an organ transplant. The operation can improve their quality of life and extend their lives by decades.

She said about 400 people in Hawaii are waiting for an organ transplant and that many will die because not enough organs are available. Organ donation can be also a miracle for both parties, she said.

"There's that joy in the family that's so important," she said. "It's life-giving."

The De Rego family, who traveled from Waimea, found solace in meeting the men whose lives were changed by their son, especially after losing a second son six years ago. Duke De Rego's older brother Alex, who was only 12 at the time, fell into the ocean while fishing and was never found.

Duke was the "jewel of our family," Shirley De Rego said. He was a freshman at Honokaa High School and a football and baseball player who stood 6 feet tall and weighed 245 pounds.

At his funeral, where 1,500 people showed up, one woman approached Lamar De Rego to say his son, who didn't know her, had helped carry her groceries to her car one day.

"He always wanted to help people," Lamar De Rego said.

Duke's kidney changed the life of Eder, who used to go through five hours of dialysis three days a week but now doesn't need any. Duke's liver replaced Brown's, which had a tumor and led to uncontrollable itchiness and other bizarre reactions.

Both men also had stories about how Duke touched them in other ways.

Before the transplant, Eder couldn't eat fish, but developed a taste for it afterward, which he attributed to Duke, who loved fish.

"God promised me a miracle, and you both are the miracle he promised me," Shirley De Rego said in tears. "He was my baby and I miss him dearly. We're just so blessed that he can live on."

Debbie Motzkin, whose sister Liz, 49, died suddenly of a brain aneurysm while horseback riding on Maui in 2009, came from Arizona to meet two men her sister helped with a kidney and liver.

The family was surprised that her sister had registered as an organ donor, but agreed to follow her wishes.

It was hard on her mother, who had to say goodbye to her daughter, who was still on life support.

"It unsettled her a bit," Motzkin said, but added, "It's wonderful to see her live on."

She met Jared Lum of Hawaii Kai, who received a kidney, and George Woo of Mililani, who received her liver.

"My family has just grown exponentially," she said.

Visit www.legacyoflifehawaii.org for details, or go to www.donatelifehawaii.com to register as a donor.

Photo Caption: The De Rego family of Waimea, Hawaii, met the two men who received organs from their son Bronson, who died in an accident at age 14. Shirley De Rego, left, Jerry Brown, Junior Eder and Lamar De Rego shared a hug yesterday during a meeting arranged by Legacy of Life Hawaii.

(Photo: Tonga Energy Roadmap)

TONGA: Tonga appointed to global energy agency
Source: Australia Network News

Tonga has been appointed as the Pacific's sole representative on the International Renewable Energy Agency's council (IRENA).

A renewable energy organisation in Tonga says the Pacific will receive more global recognition concerning climate change now it has been appointed to an international energy agency.

Lano Fonua from the Tonga Energy Road Map has told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program because Pacific nations are small and still developing it is often difficult to attract international aid for projects such as those designed to generate renewable energy.

"It has given us this sort of recognition, its given us a platform where we can rub shoulders with the people who make decisions.

"It is really hard in the Pacific I think because we are developing countries, but we are small, so I think a lot of the donors, a lot of the aid funding mechanisms are developed for larger countries."

Photo Caption: Lano Fonua from the Tonga Energy Road Map says the small islands of the Pacific will now have a platform to rub shoulders with decision makers.
 

(Photo: South Pacific Regional Environment Programme)

WORLDWIDE: Pacific Energy Ministers endorse regional framework
Source: Secretariat of the Pacific Community Press Release

Pacific Energy Ministers have endorsed the Framework for Action on Energy Security in the Pacific (FAESP) and its associated implementation plan.

Energy security in Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) exists when all people at all times have access to sufficient sustainable sources of clean and, affordable energy and services to enhance their social and economic well-being.

The Ministers approved the framework and implementation plan at a special session of the inaugural joint Regional Meeting of Ministers for Energy, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Transport at the headquarters of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in Noumea, New Caledonia.

The FAESP outlines a new approach to improving energy security in the Pacific region. It acknowledges that national energy policies and plans must be the principle means for achieving energy security and promotes a ‘whole-of-sector’ approach, based on the concept of ‘many partners - one team’. It was designed to provide guidance to PICTs to enhance their national efforts to achieve energy security and, in line with the principles of the Pacific Plan, to clarify how regional services can assist countries and territories to develop and implement their national plans.

The FAESP was formulated in response to the call from Pacific Leaders at the 40th Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns (August 2009) for greater energy security.

In his address to the Ministers today, Solomone Fifita, the Deputy Director (Energy) of SPC’s Economic Development Division noted that both the framework and implementation plan would be living documents to ensure they can be revised in response to changing priorities or circumstances in the sector.

The meeting was an opportunity to examine strategic engagements to address the challenges to the energy security of the PICTs during a time when the price of oil has exceeded USD 100 per barrel, a situation that seems likely to last for the foreseeable future.

The joint Regional Meeting of Ministers for Energy, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Transport ended on Friday.

Photo Caption: Deputy Director (Energy) of SPC’s Economic Development Division, Solomone Fifita.