Island Nations is a non-profit, civil society organization dedicated to advancing and supporting sustainable development policies and practices that benefit small island states.
Island Nations, as a service organization, will work closely with small island developing states, their various networks and organizations, to help them promote and implement a comprehensive strategy for sustainable development. Acting as a fulcrum to lift their voices and leverage their local, regional, and global influence, Island Nations will work in a spirit of empathy and respect.
Recognizing the traditional knowledge of island peoples, Island Nations will help them strengthen their communication capacity, identify appropriate technologies for transfer and utilization, and advance their social and economic well-being through programs that will promote sustainable energy, environmental protection, and disaster preparedness. This work will be done by teaming with technology, financial and organizational networks, and always in partnership with the leaders and peoples of the islands themselves.
Welcome,
It is said we islanders agree on only two things: one is how similar we are to neighboring islands, and the only other thing we unanimously agree on is — how completely different we are to the islanders downstream.
Seriously though, there are two things we islanders really do agree on: one is the enormous danger posed by climate change. In fact these concerns drew the world’s island governments to form the 43-member Alliance of Small Island States, which with a fifth of the votes in the UN General Assembly, is a political force to be reckoned with.
Indeed, it was the islands alliance which, against heavy opposition, introduced the issue of climate change onto the world stage where in plain view it morphed from “a small islands issue”, when grudgingly it was included into the UN Rio Earth Summit agenda in 1992, into the most serious global problem. Any islander will tell you the seas are rising and that they make plans for moving their families to higher elevations and to distant lands.
Islanders also agree they are particularly worried about the health of the seas which absorbs up to half the carbon emitted into the air by man. Scientists tell us acidification of the oceans is softening the protective calcium shields of shell-fish and other key life forms in the deep and we can feel the ocean’s struggle with acidification as it offers up fewer and less healthy seafood. Most frightening is the deadening of the oceans at an alarming rate which may make it a more clear and present danger than climate change. In fact, we feel ocean acidification is a threat of apocalyptic proportions.
Islanders are keenly aware of sustainable development because we can see the limits of our lands and we know resources are not finite. Many of our peoples have perished because of unsustainable use of resources, so for us sustainable development has been a matter of life and death.
But, because of size, or rather our lack of it, we are good at cooperation and building alliances. This is why the formation of the Island Nations Climate and Oceans Program is such an “island affair”; INCOP draws on the wisdom, strength, faith and hope from all corners of the world to help us deal with the challenges listed below.
Welcome to our team of people who believe that we, all of us in or bordering the oceans, are islanders, and we thank you for your support..
Mahalo,
Lelei TuiSamoa LeLaulu
INCOP is providing crucial and timely support to help find solutions to global warming – the most critical environmental issue of the 21st century – and a crisis that will either be won or lost “on our watch”. The actions we take in the next 4 years are critical to addressing the dire environmental and human consequences of global warming for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and for all nations. INCOP provides advocacy support and helps mobilize technical and financial resources to help Island Nations address their common challenges and find solutions to the catastrophic human and environmental consequences they face from climate change. The 4-year strategic action plan and priority initiatives for INCOP during the 4-year period, 2009 – 2012 include the following:
Oceania Sustainable Tourism Adaptation to Climate Change ( OSTACC )
Island Nations’ other major new initiative is the Oceania Sustainable Tourism Adaptation to Climate Change (OSTACC) Project. OSTACC is being implemented by a consortium that includes: INCOP, The Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific (FSPI), based in Fiji and the region’s largest and oldest sustainable development NGO, the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) a regional intergovernmental agency representing 21 Pacific Island Countries (PICs) based in Samoa, and the Oceania Sustainable Tourism Alliance (OSTA) an NGO based in Fiji and Australia.
The regional OSTACC project works with 13 Pacific Island Countries (PICs) which include: Cook Islands; Federated States of Micronesia; Fiji; Marshall Islands; Nauru; Niue; Palau; Papua New Guinea; Samoa; Solomon Islands; Tonga; Tuvalu; and, Vanuatu.
Background: Growing scientific and economic evidence of the negative climate change impacts and future threats to the tourism sector of SIDS in the Pacific have been documented in recent years. Various initiatives have been started to assist the region to assess and document these vulnerabilities and to find solutions that integrate traditional indigenous knowledge and that are acceptable to local communities while also addressing the economic needs of the public and private tourism sectors. This requires a fully integrated multi-stakeholder approach that combines awareness raising and training, as well as capacity building with local communities, NGOs, the private sector and government agencies.
OSTACC Project Description Summary: The Oceania Sustainable Tourism Adaptation to Climate Change (OSTACC) Project is a regional initiative focusing on climate change adaptation, mitigation and renewable energy initiatives for the tourism sector – the region’s leading economic driver and a sector particularly vulnerable to global warming. OSTACC is designed as a flagship project to help implement the Bali Roadmap and to facilitate consensus within the tourism sector in support of the post-2012 agreement on climate change. As such, OSTACC will provide an urgently needed policy framework, demonstration projects, public-private financing mechanisms and multi-stakeholder communication and outreach initiatives for the successful implementation of regional, national and local adaptation, mitigation and renewable energy projects for the tourism sector in Oceania.
OSTACC is a new initiative that will be closely aligned with the US$13-million GEF-funded Pacific Adaption to Climate Change (PACC) project which is being implemented by the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). PACC focuses primarily on adaptation projects for sectors involving food production and food security, water resources, coastal zone management and infrastructure. OSTACC will complement and leverage PACC resources by developing multi-stakeholder adaptation, mitigation and renewable energy projects for the tourism sector.