Coral Triangle's stand on climate change threats

Updated November 24, 2009 14:08:14

Coral Triangle countries have a powerful voice on climate change to take to Copenhagen next month. The Triangle is found within the territories of -- the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. It is the world's richest marine area, containing 76 per cent of all known coral species, 37 per cent of all known coral reef fish species and 53 per cent of the world's coral reefs. The Coral Triangle islands have held a series of meetings identifying three critical threats to their marine ecosystem: sea-level rise, ocean acidification and coral bleaching. These threats will form the basis of their call for binding targets on carbon emission reduction at next month's UN climate change summit in Copenhagen.

Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: Gordon Darcy Lilo, Solomon Islands' Environment and Conservation Minister

LILO: Well the basis of the report that has been given to us basically points to the fact that if the current kind of pressure that is going on in this Coral Triangle is not reduced we will face these threats. In particular in the areas of sea level rise, that is actually is evident, absolutely evident. Islands are actually experiencing quality of water with increased salination of the waters that they've been using, agricultural areas that are the basis of food production and food security for people have also been affected. These technical reports point to the fact that it's a real threat facing the countries in the Coral Triangle.

HILL: Now as we heard earlier the Australian government's just struck a political deal with its opponents to get its long delayed climate change legislation through parliament. Are you encouraged by this sort of development in the developed countries, that they are trying to get some sort of a deal together internally?

LILO: Well we are quite concerned about it, as you know if they cannot cut back on the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gas up to the level that we are demanding and that is by 2015 it should peak then and then reduce, then it would mean that some of these islands that we are living on will be gone or will be facing serious threats. And the pressure will be on us is that we will have to find ways to relocate them and it will be a huge social and economic cost to some of these very small, fragile economies.

HILL: Now you say that you're trying to get these Coral Triangle countries to go to Copenhagen with a united voice. It doesn't appear at this stage as if a globally binding agreement is in fact going to be reached at Copenhagen. Are you disappointed by the lead-up to this whole meeting that there doesn't seem to be a global consensus that yes, this is a crisis and we need to do something about it now?

LILO: It's a real concern to us and these are concerns that we can't just take them lightly. But I think the point that we are very much committed to do is to basically to continue to press, to press the world leaders to understand that what we are talking about are real realities of our survival, and even if it takes some time for them to fully understand that or basically for them to listen to the fate of some of these very small island states, all the good and better. But the development that is happening and unfolding at the moment it's not really encouraging as far as we are concerned, but that will not stop us to flag this issue and then to speak out in a very, very strong way to get them to understand that our survival and the survival of the people in the small island states is at stake.

HILL: Well how important are coral reefs to a country like Solomon Islands? I mean you have some quite large islands, there's plenty of land area, places without villages, even without coral reefs how much of an impact would it have if the coral reefs were severely impacted by climate change?

LILO: Very much, very much, because I mean you're talking about almost 80 per cent of the people are basically relying on the coral reefs for their livelihood, food security and so forth. And therefore it's a real concern for people in the small countries like Solomon Islands. But at the same time there are options that can be considered and that is instead of continuing to put heavy dependence and reliance on a food supply out of these coral reefs, we could look at alternative ways of earning income, like for instance protecting the pristine environments of these coral reefs and the marine ecosystem as a way of attracting tourism and as a way of earning alternative incomes for the people. So these are the options that we need to go through and it's very much entrenched in the original plan of action and the national plan of action under the Coral Triangle.