By: Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific at COP 15

December 16, 2009

To many the Pacific is known as “The Liquid Continent!”

Most of the Pacific island states are Small Island Developing States (SIDS) characterized by their smallness, narrow coral- and reef-islands which have very low average elevation above mean sea level. Most of our island countries are especially vulnerable because of their geological formation, and the destructive forces of human induced climate change are already causing havoc in our lives and lands.

The Pacific Indigenous Peoples have considered the developmental impact of not only climate change, but also the flawed solutions being employed to address it. The rush to bio-fuel production will barely dent the developed world's appetite for fossil fuels, but has already made the basic food more expensive in many developing states with contentious implications to food security for our peoples.

“We call for real and genuine solutions to climate change, not false solutions like ocean fertilisation, REDD, biofuels and monocultures for plantations that erode and violate the rights of Indigenous peoples and forest-dependant communities, and destroy biodiversity,” said Fiu Elisara, Samoa.

ONE event on the sidelines of the climate talks in Poland dealt with the negative effects of the proposed forestry solution to climate change called Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).

Victor Hugo Vela told of the problems faced by the Chiquotano tribe in Bolivia with the controversial Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action Project.

Into its 11th year, the project is one of the earliest carbon sequestration scheme initia­ted by The Nature Conservancy with the government of Bolivia. It is projected to avoid emissions of 25 to 36 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over 30 years.