Island leaders push global agenda on climate adaptation, ocean governance and finance

By Jayvee Vallejera

Island communities are already developing practical responses to climate, ocean and economic challenges, but stronger collaboration, finance and partnerships are needed to take those solutions further, Pacific islanders said at the 8th Virtual Island Summit.

Guam Gov. Leon Guerrero told participants about the Guam Green Growth initiative, or G3, and the island’s efforts to build a circular economy, in which a public-private partnership connects sustainability to workforce, education, food security, energy and conservation.

In promoting the G3 initiative, Leon Guerrero is particularly proud of the Conservation Corps, which boasts of 150-plus graduates trained in agriculture, aquaculture, forestry, fisheries and renewable energy.

“Instead of simply talking about future green jobs, we began preparing our people to fill them,” she added.

Leon Guerrero said the G3 Circular Economy Makerspace and Innovation Hub in Hagatña teaches residents 3D printing, digital fabrication, plastic processing and traditional skills.

In a step toward strengthening Guam’s food security, 120 community aquaponics systems have been deployed via the University of Guam, Leon Guerrero said. Currently, about 90 percent of food in Guam is imported.

Chalapan Kaluwin, dean at the PNG University of Natural Resources and Environment, created the “Carbon Vision for 2050” in 2005, with the environment and climate change as core pillars, as well as localized versions of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, adapted“the PNG way.”

Kaluwin’s key message was that academia, government, and international partners must collaborate, and that localization is essential for protecting the islands.

Hideyuki Shiozawa, director of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, who has been working in the Pacific since 2003, focused on community-based ecotourism as a means to create sustainable islands.

He touted the benefits of the Sasakawa model: small-group community ecotourism that draws on mythology, natural resources, and everyday life to create an immersive experience for visitors.

“Local guides provide visitors with authentic experiences and give them the feeling of becoming part of the community,” Shiozawa said.

He said the Sasakawa model has been expanded from Palau to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands, Tonga and Samoa. Three of Palau's eight communities are now self-sustaining, he added.

Ulalia Woodside, executive director of The Nature Conservancy Hawai‘i and Palmyra, shared with participants three nuggets of island wisdom: that resilience begins with relationships, not crisis response; that everything is connected and that walled-off management fails; and that island people must hold leadership and decision-making roles.

“The idea was simple—don't wait until a disaster happens in order to figure out who should be doing what and how. Build the relationships, trust, training protocols, and that shared understanding before the emergency happens,” Woodside said.

Regarding connectedness, Woodside said noted that problems are commonly dealt with in a fragmented approach.

“One agency manages forests, one agency manages freshwater, another fisheries, another climate. Nature doesn't recognize these boundaries,” she added.

Woodside said the Hawaiian concept of ahupuaa is an integrated land-to-sea management system, while heʻeia restoration means that wetlands, fishponds, traditional agriculture, and community reconnection are restored as one system.

Stewardship, accountability and reciprocity depend on Wisdom 3, when the people of a place actually hold leadership and decision-making roles, she said.

Woodside emphasized that islands are not just vulnerable; they are on the front lines of solutions.

 Joeli Veitayaki of the Blue Prosperity Fiji Research Expedition discussed Blue Prosperity Fiji, a partnership with the Fijian government funded by the Wade Institute in the United States. It is meant to help Fiji deliver on its commitments to the ocean and why it must be kept healthy and productive.

He said their work sustains nature-based solutions in practice, such as mangrove planting; invasive species clearing; mariculture and beach clam culture; community-led coastal environmental management; and joint management of coral reefs with hotels and communities.

The session with Leon Guerrero, titled “Island Knowledge Ocean Solutions,” was one of 12 sessions held online from Sept. 15 to 17. It brought together 52 island leaders, experts and businesses from the Pacific, Caribbean, Europe, the Indian Ocean, the Arctic and beyond to speak on 12 subjects.

This year's event revolved around three themes: Adapt to Change, Transform Systems and Mobilize Action. Across 12 sessions spanning coastal erosion, ocean governance, food and energy security, tourism and climate finance, sessions highlighted a common theme: while islands face unique vulnerabilities, they are also generating some of the most innovative and practical responses to today's pressures.

In his message to island leaders, Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Penitala Teo said traditional knowledge must not sit at the margins but must be at the center of climate action.

“We must invest in the people who carry that knowledge, connect generations and communities, and ensure that adaptation protects more than physical infrastructure," he added.

Mafalda Duarte, executive director of the Green Climate Fund, said islands are often on the front line of climate change, “but they are also home to some of the world's deepest experiences in adapting to change."

Speaking about the wider adaptation finance system, Duarte said small island states receive just 0.2 percent of global international adaptation finance, even though more than 34 million islanders have been hit by storms, floods or drought in the past decade.

She noted that nearly a quarter of GCF's projects are in small island developing states and pointed to Tuvalu as an example of what targeted finance can achieve: a $36-million GCF commitment made a decade ago helped unlock a further $67.9 million from Australia, New Zealand and the Asian Development Bank to aid resilience efforts.

The theme carried through to the final day of the event, when “Mobilizing Ocean-Climate Finance at COP31” asked what it would take for ocean priorities to receive the same urgency and funding as other climate issues.

Rachel Kyte, the UK Special Representative for Climate, said that debt-pause clauses following extreme weather events should become mandatory for all creditors.

Salome Tukuafu of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program said the Pacific has accessed less than 1 percent of available climate finance. The session also noted that an estimated $149 billion a year was needed to address global ocean priorities.

Summit participants also examined the structural changes needed to build resilient island economies and societies.

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