A feature story authored by a student journalist highlighting the harm plastic pollution poses to human health in Fiji — with risks expected to rise significantly if robust action is not taken soon — has won the Online category of the 2024 Vision Pasifika Media Awards — Cleaner Pacific.

Riya Bhagwan, a Fiji national studying journalism at The University of the South Pacific (USP), won the prize with her Wansolwara story, titled Behind the stalled progress in Fiji’s plastic pollution battle, reports the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).

USP student journalists won two out of four categories in the awards.

Launched during the 7th Pacific Media Summit by Niue’s Prime Minister, Dalton Tagelagi, the awards celebrate excellence in environmental news reporting across the Pacific Island region.

The theme, Cleaner Pacific, spotlights the urgent need to tackle plastic pollution, one of the triple planetary crises threatening the planet, alongside climate change and biodiversity loss.

A story titled Managing Solid Waste in Gizo, a tough task, by award-winning Solomon Islands journalist, Moffat Mamu, of the Solomon Star, and also a USP graduate, won the Print category.

Coverage of the Vatuwaqa Rugby Club’s efforts to keep their community clean, by Fijian journalist Joeli Tikomaimaleya of Fiji TV, picked up the Television category.

Student award winner
The Student Journalism Award was won by Niko Ratumaimuri, of USP, for his story in Wansolwara highlighting a call by young Fijians to keep the country plastic free.

The 2024 Vision Pasifika Media Awards is a partnership facilitated by SPREP with the Australian government through support for Pacific engagement in the INC on plastic pollution and the Pacific Ocean Litter Project (POLP), Office of the Pacific Ocean Commissioner (OPOC) and the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA).

SPREP Director-General Sefanaia Nawadra said: “We are drowning under a sea of waste! The Pacific media is critical in ensuring we in the Pacific understand the challenges of waste and pollution and share ways we can work towards its effective management.

“Many of our waste issues originate from outside our region and our Pacific media must help our countries advocate for global action on waste especially plastic.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A feature story authored by a student journalist highlighting the harm plastic pollution poses to human health in Fiji — with risks expected to rise significantly if robust action is not taken soon — has won the Online category of the 2024 Vision Pasifika Media Awards — Cleaner Pacific.

Riya Bhagwan, a Fiji national studying journalism at The University of the South Pacific (USP), won the prize with her Wansolwara story, titled Behind the stalled progress in Fiji’s plastic pollution battle, reports the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).

USP student journalists won two out of four categories in the awards.

Launched during the 7th Pacific Media Summit by Niue’s Prime Minister, Dalton Tagelagi, the awards celebrate excellence in environmental news reporting across the Pacific Island region.

The theme, Cleaner Pacific, spotlights the urgent need to tackle plastic pollution, one of the triple planetary crises threatening the planet, alongside climate change and biodiversity loss.

A story titled Managing Solid Waste in Gizo, a tough task, by award-winning Solomon Islands journalist, Moffat Mamu, of the Solomon Star, and also a USP graduate, won the Print category.

Coverage of the Vatuwaqa Rugby Club’s efforts to keep their community clean, by Fijian journalist Joeli Tikomaimaleya of Fiji TV, picked up the Television category.

Student award winner
The Student Journalism Award was won by Niko Ratumaimuri, of USP, for his story in Wansolwara highlighting a call by young Fijians to keep the country plastic free.

The 2024 Vision Pasifika Media Awards is a partnership facilitated by SPREP with the Australian government through support for Pacific engagement in the INC on plastic pollution and the Pacific Ocean Litter Project (POLP), Office of the Pacific Ocean Commissioner (OPOC) and the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA).

SPREP Director-General Sefanaia Nawadra said: “We are drowning under a sea of waste! The Pacific media is critical in ensuring we in the Pacific understand the challenges of waste and pollution and share ways we can work towards its effective management.

“Many of our waste issues originate from outside our region and our Pacific media must help our countries advocate for global action on waste especially plastic.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Fiji got to celebrate World Oceans Day this week — a day when our conscience gets the occasional prick on matters related to the value of the ocean in sustaining life.

I like to brag about growing up surrounded by the sea and those unique moments during childhood I spent rowing across Qamea’s picturesque and mangrove-fringed Naiviivi Bay, plucking seashells from shallow tide pools and digging up vetuna (sandworm) from the sand.

Yes, the sea is a way of life for all of us.

Think of this.

The ocean covers more than 70 percent of the planet.

It is our life source, supporting humanity’s sustenance and existence, and that of every other organism on earth.

The ocean produces much of the oxygen we breath and need to survive, it is the habitat of most of earth’s biodiversity and is the main source of meat protein for more than a billion people around the world.

40 million ’employees’
The ocean is key to our economy with an estimated 40 million people to be employed by ocean-based industries by 2030.

In Fiji, an estimated 60 percent of the 900,000 population are thought to live in coastal communities, surviving on activities linked to the ocean, and our fisheries and tourism sectors are so intrinsically connected to the health of the ocean.

But the ocean we call our home is facing a variety of threats that challenges its existence and endangers humanity.

United Nations statistics say that we have depleted 90 percent of big fish populations and destroyed 50 percent of coral reefs.

“We are taking more from the ocean than can be replenished. We need to work together to create a new balance with the ocean that no longer depletes its bounty but instead restores its vibrancy and brings it new life,” the UN says.

With such dreadful reality in the backdrop, the 2023 WOD theme seemed timely and relevant — “Planet Ocean: tides are changing”.

It provides us with an opportunity to rethink what we’ve done, what we need to do and how to work together with world leaders, decision-makers, indigenous leaders, scientists, private sector executives, civil society, celebrities, and youth activist to make the health of the ocean a public agenda.

Clean up day
On Wednesday this week, The Fiji Times’ front page photo was of Josaia Waqaivolavola, a Year 2 student from Veiuto Primary School who was captured on camera participating in a beach clean up at My Suva Picnic Park along the Nasese foreshore.

His group collected 10 trash bags filled with plastics, among others.

It’s when we see the amount of rubbish along our coastlines and in the sea around us that we begin to realise that all the talk about “putting rubbish in the bin” is not working.

We talk about responsible citizenship but plastics continue to pollute our communities, roads, streets and parks, and our oceans.

Plastics have become so cheap to produce that we are producing things we don’t intend to keep for long.

In other words, we are producing plastics only to throw them away.

We are now mass producing disposable plastics at a phenomenal rate that the world’s waste management systems are finding hard to keep up.

40% of plastics disposable
It is estimated that about 40 percent of the now more than 448 million tonnes of plastics produced every year is disposable and used in products intended to be discarded virtually soon after purchase.

Just go to the beach and you’ll find them on the sand.

World statistics estimate that each day billions upon billions of plastic material find their way into our rivers, streams and eventually into our oceans.

During my childhood years on Qamea, my family’s livelihood depended on the sea.

At a time, when village canteens had no refrigerators to store meat, the sea was our main source of daily meat protein.

Many years ago, scientists and environment experts were warning us that the amount of plastics in the world’s ocean would increase 10 times by 2020.

That was three years ago.

Too polluted for fish
They further advised that by 2050, if statistical predictions remain true, we’d have so much plastics in the sea and our oceans would too polluted that fish and other delicacies would be unsafe to eat or we’d not be able to even swim anymore.

Cleaning the ocean is good but may not be good enough.

We need to nip this spiralling issue in the bud.

We need to work before the plastic reaches the ocean.

We need to work on land where they are produced before we go to the ocean.

In Fiji, the concern over disposable plastic waste is the same as the threat in other countries of the world — we are using more disposable plastics at a rate faster than we are able to effectively dispose them that our waste managing systems are struggling to contain the problem.

Recycling not effective
Our recycling initiatives are not effectively solving our disposable plastic dilemma.

During this year’s WOD celebrations, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the ocean as “the foundation of life”.

That pretty much sums everything up.

If the ocean is life, then why can’t we get out act together.

The ball is in everyone’s court and the time to act is now.

Until we meet again, stay blessed, stay healthy and stay safe!

John Mitchell is a Fiji Times journalist and writes the weekly “Behind The News” column. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Two school girls from East Java, Aeshnina Azzahra (alias Nina), 12, and Zahira Zade, 11, have sent hand-written protest letters to US President Donald Trump over the dumping of toxic plastic waste in Indonesia.

The letters were sent through the US Consulate-General in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya, reports CNN Indonesia.

In an Indoleft translation, Nina is reported as saying that she wrote the letter as a protest against the US which illegally exports plastic waste into Indonesia that is contaminated with toxic and hazardous materials (B3).

READ MORE: Indonesia sends rubbish back to Australia as ‘too contaminated’ to recycle

“This is a letter to Mr President Trump, so that you don’t export anymore waste to Indonesia. Why should we suffer the impact, they should deal with their own rubbish”, said Nina in Surabaya last week.

Nina, who is a class 7 student at the Wringinanom 1 State Junior High School in Gresik, also expressed her regret that advanced countries such as the US are unable to deal with their own rubbish problems.

Instead of helping, the US instead disposes of it in Indonesia.

“We already have a lot of problems in Indonesia because of rubbish. Why is it being added to by America”, she said.

Sad over animal deaths
In her letter, Nina told Trump that she was sad at seeing wild animals dying because of plastic waste. One of which is a whale which was recently found dead with its stomach full of plastic rubbish.

“I’m sad to see whales die, with stomach full of plastic waste. I was sad to see dead seagulls a plastic strangled neck. I’m sad to see turtles die with a plastic stomach”, wrote Nina in English in her letter.

Nina continued by saying that she did not want to see a future in which animals died as a result of plastic rubbish from the country led by Trump.

Speaking in the same vein, Zade, a class 6 Pogar 2 State Primary School student in Bangil, Pasuruan, challenged Trump by asking if the number one person in the country of Uncle Sam would like to suffer the same fate as turtles and whales to die because of plastic waste.

Zade said that in the area around her home many babies suffer from illnesses because of the smoke from burning plastic rubbish imported from the US.

“Do you want to be like the turtle with a plastic in their nose, whale died because their stomach are full of plastic. So many baby around me are sick because of the smoke from burning of plastic waste your country,” wrote Zade in English in her letter.

Other protests
She also asked that Trump take back his plastic rubbish and not turn Indonesia into his country’s rubbish ground.

Aside from Nina and Zade, a six-year-old boy Ramadhani Wardana also took part in a protest against the importation of waste from the US.

Warda, as he is often called, even gave a speech during an action by the Brantas River Coalition to Stop Imported Plastic Trash (Bracsip) at the US Consulate-General in Surabaya on Friday.

“Take back your trash!,, said Warda waving a red-and-white Indonesian flag tied to a bamboo pole.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Jilda Shem in Port Vila

It’s a Pacific island nation that has beaten the global community across the finish line with Vanuatu officially becoming the first nation in the world to legally ban the use of plastic straws.

A law passed in February will see the end of single use plastic bags, polystyrene takeaway boxes and straws by July 1.

As the planet addresses the threat of a “plastic ocean”, Vanuatu is mobilising to ensure a plastic bag, straw and polystyrene takeaway box-free nation.

“The ban on these plastics is an opportunity for us to help protect our planet and our island paradise of Vanuatu. It is also an opportunity for us in Vanuatu to strengthen our sustainable cultural practices,” said the First Lady Estella Moses Tallis.

“The Mamas of Vanuatu can bring to the frontline the use of traditional baskets which are part of our culture. The more we use them, the more we encourage our cultural art of weaving, in turn strengthening the cultural heritage of Vanuatu.”

Each year at least 8 million tonnes of plastic makes its way into the ocean, with at least 51 trillion pieces of microplastics already in the sea with warnings that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish.

-Partners-

For the Pacific island region, the ocean is the largest in the world making up 98 percent sea  and 2 percent land. A global report released in 2015 shows that the Pacific contribution to the world marine plastic debris is less than 1 percent for which 10 percent of which comes from Vanuatu.

Stakeholder workshop
All stakeholders in Vanuatu have come together for a two-day workshop today and tomorrow with the support of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to develop a national communications strategy. This will be implemented together, to help bring about a clean, healthy and sustainable Vanuatu free of plastic bags, straws and polystyrene takeaway boxes.

“I am so happy that we have come this far together, as a people and a nation to begin the walk to reduce plastic waste in our land and keep the ocean for our generations to come,” said Toney Tevi, head of the Maritime and Ocean Affairs Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs of Vanuatu.

The historical milestone reached by Vanuatu comes at a special time for the Pacific as SPREP celebrates 25 years of service to the Pacific island region this year.

Assistance from SPREP to Vanuatu will lead to the development of a communications strategy as well as strengthening of national policies and regulations to implement the legislation.

“We are all looking towards Vanuatu as a leader in this space, and are impressed by their commitment to protect our environment, ocean and people of Vanuatu and the Pacific,” said David Loubser, manager of the Pacific Ecosystem based Adaptation to Climate Change Project (PEBACC) in Vanuatu.

“SPREP are pleased to be able to provide this assistance to Vanuatu, and we look forward to the positive benefits that will come from these bans, benefits that will be reached not only by Vanuatu, but by the Pacific region as a whole.”

On February 1 three orders made under the Waste Management Act No 24 of 2014 address three issues – control of single use plastic bags, plastic straws and polystyrene takeaway boxes; littering; and the licensing of private waste operators.

Jilda Shem is the PEBACC communications officer for SPREP.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Sylvia C. Frain in Auckland

Aotearoa/New Zealand’s status as a “wasteful country” is one of the targets of the PURE 2018 tour launched in Auckland earlier this month.

More than 12 million metric tons of plastics enter oceans and waterways globally each year, directly impacting on New Zealand’s coastal communities, food sources, and sea birds.

New Zealand was recently ranked the world’s 10th most wasteful country, producing 3.68 kilos of waste per capita a day.

The launch began with a hui highlighting the current toxic impacts of plastic pollution on public health, food systems, and the oceanic environment.

The hui objectives:

• Exploring plastic pollution on our shores
• Hearing from all stakeholders in a search for solutions
• Discussing potential national strategies for immediate action on long term solutions.

The trans-Oceanic collaboration, between Para Kore promoting the zero waste, Tina Ngata of the Non-Plastic Māori blog, the founders of the United States-based 5 Gyres Institute, and the Algalita Marine Research and Education organisation, receives support from Massey University and Okeanos, Foundation for the Sea.

The tour is creating strategies of for accountable management and plastic prevention. The discussion included understanding the “green washing” of recycling and how to envision a future of stopping all plastics at the source.

Tying plastic pollution into issues of social justice, decolonisation, and food security, presenter Dr Steph B. Borrelle said: “If we are serious about addressing plastic pollution as a global crisis, then we cannot ignore the issue of waste colonialism.

“Countries of privilege burden others with their consumerism then turn their backs on the consequences.”

The PURE tour around the country will continue to facilitate discussions and workshops and showcase the severity of plastic pollution.

The organisers are encouraging involvement from the community, iwi, youth, and educators and will conduct scientific sampling across Aotearoa.

• More information and the event schedule
• Sustainable Coastlines Flagship Hub in Auckland City

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz