April 09, 2024
Pacific voices feel ignored in climate crisis
There’s a call from Pacific nations for the world to listen to what they’re saying about the environmental impact of climate change on their homelands.
About a hundred representatives from Aotearoa, Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands gathered at the Oceania First Voices Regional Forum in Suva sponsored by The World Wildlife Fund.
WWF Aotearoa chief executive Kayla Kingdon-Bebb says indigenous peoples are the most affected but the least listened to when it comes to climate change.
“Many of the indigenous communities across Australia, Aotearoa, and through the Pacific are seeing the same things… cyclone after cyclone in rapid succession, out of control wildfires, floods, droughts. Everyone’s concerned about the eco-systems to persist for future generations,” she says.
Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb says the World Wildlife Fund For Nature is also calling the New Zealand Government’s environmental policies a war on nature and an attack on the treaty rights of Māori.