Latest news with #Kiribati
NHK
a day ago
- Business
- NHK
China pledges support for Pacific island nations to address climate change
China has pledged to continue its support for Pacific island nations to address climate change. Beijing apparently intends to strengthen its influence in the Pacific region by stressing that it takes a different position from the US on global warming. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his counterparts from 11 island nations, including Kiribati, the Solomon Islands, and Nauru, gathered in the city of Xiamen in China's Fujian Province. The countries wrapped up the meetings and issued a joint statement on Thursday. The statement refers to strengthening trade relations, and continued Chinese support for Pacific nations to deal with the challenges posed by climate change. China's support contrasts with the reluctant stance of US President Donald Trump's administration on the issue. The Trump administration has withdrawn the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change. It has also frozen some US aid programs in the Pacific region. The move has triggered widespread concerns.
RNZ News
a day ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Kiribati's considerable kava consumption
Vanuatu kava growers at work Photo: Hilaire Bule Kiribati was the world's largest consumer of Vanuatu kava in 2024. The Vanuatu Daily Post reported that last year the country imported 280 metric tonnes of kava from Vanuatu. Michael Louze, former chairman of the Vanuatu Kava Industry and a kava exporter to the United States, said when you break it down, it's about four kilograms of kava per person annually if half the population drinks. "Some drink more, some less. But even at that level, it's a solid figure for a country this size." In 2023, China was the world's largest importer of raw kava, but 99 per cent of it went towards extract production for re-export. "China was never a market for kava," Louze said. "It made more sense for the bulk product to go through China. But in Kiribati, it's different. They're drinking it - no processing, no re-export. Pure consumption." But one Kiribati kava bar owner, Kantaake Robapi, said there's too many of them now. "Each village has a kava bar. There are too many kava bars in Kiribati. "You pay AUD$150 [approximately US$97] for a licence. The Ministry of Health checks the premises - the toilets, tools for cleaning kava. Once they approve, you pay your fee to the Tarawa council." Kiribati's Minister for Women, Youth and Sports, Ruth Cross Kwansing, has raised concerns about kava's effects on society. Kwansing told the ABC the impact of high kava consumption is being felt at homes. "If fathers aren't home with their children and their wives, then obviously they're not looking after their families and their children," she said. "If they're spending all the money on kava, then where's the funds that the family needs for food and basic essentials?" She said men were exhausted from late-night kava drinking and not able to cut toddy or go out fishing and were not productive at home. Meanwhile, Tonga is calling on fellow Pacific kava producers to follow its lead in restricting the export of kava for extraction - a move that has sparked strong pushback from Vanuatu and Fiji, the region's two largest kava exporters. Tonga's positioncomes from concerns over cultural erosion and potential misuse, and promotes the idea that kava should only be consumed in its traditional, drinkable form - not processed into extracts for capsules, powders, or supplements abroad. There's also worries about a shortage in Vanuatu. Louze linked the shortage to several causes: the increasing number of kava farmers joining seasonal work programmes in Australia and New Zealand, damage caused by Tropical Cyclone Harold on Pentecost in 2020, and growing demand in the Port Vila market. A kava plant takes more than five years to mature before it can be harvested. "People in Port Vila are consuming tons of kava every week, but they are not planting it," he said. "The population is growing rapidly, and more young men and women are drinking kava daily." But he also said farmers cannot go wrong with planting kava with demand both locally and internationally growing, and prices have never been so high.
Reuters
2 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Pacific Islanders are fighting to protect the ocean. Now the world must, too
May 28 - The ocean is our lifeblood. It is our provider, the foundation of our cultures, and our home. But it is changing before our eyes. Growing up in Samoa, an island nation ringed by a vast blue horizon, it became clear to me early on that my life, and the life of my community – our stories and culture – were inextricably linked to the ocean. Our lives are woven into the ocean, and when it suffers, we suffer too. The latest UNESCO State of the Oceans report confirms what Pacific Islanders have known for years: the rate of ocean warming has doubled in just 20 years. Villages are disappearing as rising seas creep further inland and saltwater intrusion destroys our crops and drinking water sources. More frequent and intense cyclones are displacing families and wiping out infrastructure. Entire nations, such as Tuvalu and Kiribati, face the terrifying prospect of becoming uninhabitable within a generation. And yet, Pacific Islanders' calls for urgent action to restore our greatest climate ally, the ocean, continue to be met with half-measures and empty promises. The upcoming United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) is a major moment for leaders to change course. We need leaders to deliver on their commitment to protect at least 30% of the ocean by 2030 (30x30), which means doing so with urgency and accountability. If we don't act now, these impacts will spread far beyond the Pacific, threatening coastal communities around the world. The question is: will they? When I began my climate work in Samoa, I thought we were alone on this journey. But I quickly uncovered the opposite: people in the Pacific are not only enduring the impacts of the climate crisis – we are leading the response. Travelling across the Pacific Islands, documenting the lives of communities, I discovered people and projects weaving Indigenous knowledge into the modern day to adapt and rebuild. From Tuvalu to Palau, from Fiji to the Cook Islands, we are planting, restoring and protecting. We are fighting to save what we love. Take Tuvalu, for instance. Despite being labelled a 'sinking island', Tuvaluans are not surrendering. Local youth groups are planting mangroves as natural barriers against rising tides. These tangled roots do more than hold the soil, they hold hope. They buffer coastlines from storm surges and nurture fish nurseries, restoring marine life the way our ancestors once did, long before scientists confirmed the value of such ecosystems. In Fiji, communities on Leleuvia Island are taking a different approach. There, I visited a coral nursery where marine scientists and locals work side by side to cultivate heat-resistant coral species, such as the 'Pink Lady'. These corals are surviving where others bleach and die. Once mature, they're replanted onto damaged reefs, bringing colour and life back to once-ghostly underwater landscapes. These gardens of resilience show exactly what climate adaptation can look like. Palau, too, is showing the world what's possible. This small island nation has protected 80% of its offshore waters, creating the world's first national shark sanctuary and banning destructive fishing across an area larger than France. There, conservation is more than just policy: it's personal. Visitors must pledge to 'tread lightly', guided by the words of Palauan children. And it works. The reefs here teem with life. The people here understand: protecting the ocean is about protecting your future. And in the Cook Islands, the Marae Moana ocean governance framework draws on both Indigenous wisdom and modern science to protect their vast waters for generations to come. Their approach to managing fisheries, seabed mining and even plastic pollution is rooted in community voices, intergenerational stewardship and balance. It's not just about drawing lines on a map. It's about ensuring that the ocean continues to provide, as it always has. These are not just inspiring anecdotes. They show that 30x30 is not a fantasy – it's happening. But we need more of it, faster and at scale. Today, globally only 8% of the ocean is designated as protected and not even 3% of the ocean is deemed to be effectively protected, leaving almost all of the ocean vulnerable to harmful industrial activites such as seafloor trawling and offshore drilling. The crisis unfolding in the Pacific is a warning for the world. If global leaders fail to take action, coastal cities from Miami to Manila will also face rising waters and increasing extreme marine storms. Ocean acidification will strip marine ecosystems of life, collapsing fisheries that millions depend on for food and livelihoods. At the U.N. Ocean Conference in June, I am joining with the Together for the Ocean campaign, calling on governments to scale ambition, create and enforce marine protected areas, and ensure finance flows towards ocean conservation with direct access for Indigenous Peoples and local communities. As a priority, leaders need to step up to protect our shared ocean: the high seas. Until 60 countries ratify the High Seas Treaty, it won't become international law. Twenty-one nations have stepped forward already, but more must follow. No more excuses, no more delays. The solutions exist. The knowledge exists. The urgency could not be greater. Governments must be held accountable to their pledges.
Al Jazeera
3 days ago
- Business
- Al Jazeera
China hosts Pacific Island nations in bid to bolster diplomatic, trade ties
China is hosting a high-level meeting with 11 Pacific Island nations as it seeks to deepen ties and build what it calls a 'closer' community with 'a shared future' in the strategic region. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is chairing the meeting in the city of Xiamen on Wednesday. The president of Kiribati, Taneti Maamau, and top diplomats from Niue, Tonga, Nauru, Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Fiji and Samoa are attending. The two-day meeting is the third such gathering, but the first to happen in person in China. Al Jazeera's Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, said the diplomats are expected to discuss trade, infrastructure development, poverty alleviation, sustainability and climate change. 'For China, this is an opportunity to extend its influence and expand economic ties at a time when the United States is showing very little interest in this region, and we know increasingly that many of those countries are more aligned on China on things like investment, infrastructure, trade and even security assistance,' she said. The meeting comes as United States President Donald Trump's cuts to foreign aid and the threat of tariffs fuel global uncertainty. Analysts say this has left the door open for China to step in. 'This lack of certainty makes the US a very challenging partner to work with,' said Tess Newton at the Griffith Asia Institute. 'Whereas other partners including China can offer, well you know we were here yesterday, we're here today, and we expect to be here tomorrow.' The Chinese foreign ministry, announcing the meeting last week, said the objective of the meeting was to 'jointly build an even closer China-Pacific Island countries community with a shared future'. Analysts say that for Beijing, that translates to greater economic aid, diplomatic engagement and the pursuit of a regional security pact. China has already signed a security accord with the Solomon Islands in 2022, a year after deploying police to the ground in the capital, Honiara, following a series of riots there. Beijing has also sent advisers to Vanuatu and Kiribati and wants to lock in a similar pact with other island nations. 'What China is trying to do … is to insert itself as a security player and in some cases through the angle of contributing to the individual security needs of Pacific countries such as policing,' said Mihai Sora, director of the Pacific Islands Program at the Lowy Institute in Australia. The meeting in Xiamen is 'an opportunity for China' to push its goals 'in its own space, on its own turf and on its own terms,' he added. The topic of Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China claims as its own and lies off the coast of Xiamen, is also expected to be discussed at this meeting. China has been gradually whittling away at the number of countries in the Pacific that retain ties with Taiwan, and in January of last year, Nauru also switched recognition to Beijing. Taiwan now has three remaining allies in the region – Marshall Islands, Palau and Tuvalu. Al Jazeera's Yu said the region is of strategic, military and diplomatic significance for China. 'If you look at the region, these countries are very small, their economies are small and only one of them has a population that exceeds one million. That is Papua New Guinea,' she said. 'But the region is strategically extremely important to Beijing because it's home to crucial shipping lanes, deep sea cables, deep sea ports and potential mineral deposits underwater. Militarily, it could be strategically important, because if there could be any conflict in the future, this area could be important in terms of launching potential forward attacks on US territory, and also US ally Australia is very close by.'
ABC News
3 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Kiribati womens minister says kava abuse is wrecking families
A government minister in Kiribati is worried the amount of kava being imported and consumed is threatening the country's development and peoples' way of life. The concern was sparked by a Vanuatu Daily Post newspaper report saying Kiribati was the number one export destination for Vanuatu-grown kava. Last year Kiribati imported 280 tonnes of kava from Vanuatu, enough to make two-point-four million litres of the mildly intoxicating beverage, the paper said. That's an alarming amount for a country with a total population of 130-thousand people according to Ruth Cross Kwansing, the minister for women, youth and sports.
