Results for Environment

A video study showing a time lapse of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai island was published on Tuesday by America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The video study by NASA shows the transformation of the volcanic island from 2015 to 2017.

“Biodiversity conservation is a pre-condition for achieving sustainable development,” says Cristiana Pasca Palmer, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity on World Environment Day, 5 June. “We know that human health ultimately depends on the ecosystem products and services – fresh water, food and fuel sources – required for human wellbeing and productive livelihoods.”

Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement is a “grave moral injustice” say Pacific civil society groups, asserting that “His decision is a clear sign of his continued support of the fossil fuel industry which directly threatens the lives of communities living in the Pacific islands.”

Pacific Islands urgently need a Pacific-wide ban on asbestos and other toxic substances to protect our islands from being used as a dumping ground for products that other countries around the world have banned, SPREP's Director General, Mr Kosi Latu has warned, saying "The Rotterdam Convention has failed Small Island Developing States."

“The pollution on this planet has never been worse. The impact of our people has never been more deadly. But the time to fix it has never been better,” said Mr Ibrahim Thiaw, Deputy Executive Director, UN Environment in Geneva, Switzerland, on 24 April. Two toxic substances on the international "watch list", paraquat and chrysotile asbestos, are particularly relevant to Tonga.

It’s rare to find female sailors in Tonga, but 'Aunofo Havea Funaki is not your average Tongan woman - she has been working in a male dominated marine industry in the kingdom for the last 26 years. A passionate advocate of sustainable tourism, 'Aunofo is concerned about the amount of whale watching operators in Vava’u and how they operate. By Eleanor Gee

Whale watchers around the world can help scientists track the journey of individual whales by taking photos of the underside of their tails, said Ted Cheeseman, co-founder and CEO of Happywhale, a website platform used to help identify whales using pictures. “The underside of a whale’s tail has markings unique to each whale, just like finger prints are to humans."

“All Tongan waters are declared a sanctuary for whales ...The ban against the hunting and killing of whales in Tongan waters remains in force,” Tonga's Acting Prime Minister, Hon Siaosi Sovaleni said at the opening of an international "Whales in a Changing Ocean" conference today in Nuku’alofa.

To combat climate change effectively, governments need to ensure that they have access to the best available science in order to make the best policy decisions and to be able to allocate the right resources, policy makers from over 100 countries learned in Bonn, Germany this week.