From September 3-11, 2021, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) hosted the World Conservation Congress (WCC) in Marseille, France. Held every four years, the WCC is the world’s largest conservation event and environmental decision-making forum, and was previously held in 2016 in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, where the East-West Center was a sponsor. At this year’s event, Pacific RISA PIs Laura Brewington and Zena Grecni where honored to lead two sessions on the climate crisis and impacts in the Pacific Islands region. The WCC was opened with an address by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and a series of in-person and virtual panels and presentations by Hawaiʻi Governor David Ige, the Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde, actor and environmentalist Harrison Ford, photographer Sebastião Salgado, and leaders from government, civil society, indigenous peoples, business, and academia.

“Biodiversity and climate are two sides of the same coin.”

~ Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank

Despite being postponed from 2020 to 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Marseille still hosted an impressive 4,000 global participants and hundreds of sessions, forums, and events centered around the Congress themes of climate change, freshwater, landscapes, governance, oceans, and more. The Pacific RISA team, represented in person by co-lead investigator Laura Brewington, and virtually by PI Zena Grecni, joined a large Delegation from Hawaiʻi that was led by the Hawaiʻi Conservation Alliance Foundation, the KUA movement, and the University of Hawaiʻi Environmental Law Program’s Our Drowning Voices team. The Hawaiʻi State Department of Land and Natural Resources Chair, Suzanne Case, served as head of the Delegation, and dozens of events and presentations were held at the Hawaiʻi-Oceania Pavilion during the first six days of the Forum.

Dr. Brewington was involved in three sessions, which featured updates and achievements toward the Honolulu Challenge that were made by Pacific partners at the 2016 Congress, the synergistic effects of climate change and invasive species and the new Pacific RISCC management network, and partnerships for Pacific Island resilience to climate change. During the session on partnerships, Hawaiʻi Green Growth shared a video highlighting their leading role in Hawaiʻi’s Aloha+ Challenge and the UN Local2030 Islands Network. This was followed by a virtual panel discussion, hosted by PI Grecni, with participants from Guam, American Sāmoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands as they discussed climate research innovations and science-based adaptation initiatives in their islands. In particular, the session spotlighted leadership in building resilience, and the role of governments, practitioners, and researchers in developing the recent series of PIRCA reports for Pacific Islands.

“I don’t think that anyone at this conference is unaware of the impacts of climate change on Pacific peoples, communities, ecosystems, and islands”

~ Laura Brewington, Co-Lead of the Pacific RISA program

During the session on climate change and invasive species, Brewington and collaborators from the Pacific Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change (RISCC) management network shared voices from around the region, describing the challenges and opportunities for research on these synergistic threats. The US Fish and Wildlife Service offered an introduction to disease that threatens the very survival of Hawaiʻi’s native forest birds, as temperatures rise and invasive mosquitoes reach higher grounds. Focusing in on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, the Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center (PICASC) shared a manager’s perspective from the Puʻuwaʻaʻwaʻa experimental forest unit, where the challenges of managing under drought and wildfire are magnified by pressure from ungulates and other disturbances. From Guam to American Sāmoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Pacific RISCC partners emphasized that dealing with the dual impacts of climate change and invasive species in islands is not a “one size fits all” approach, and requires greater collaboration and research to protect Pacific Island natural heritage into the future.

The Congress closed with call for a post-pandemic recovery based on nature, and the IUCN Members Assembly voted on numerous motions to propel countries and the international community toward urgent action on priority themes. Motion 003, to establish a seventh IUCN Commission focusing on the global climate emergency, passed with overwhelming support, thanks to the week’s concerted efforts by Hawaiʻi-Oceania Delegation members and supporters of Our Drowning Voices. Motion 003 will now become a component of IUCN’s general policy and influence the adoption of international environmental instruments, standards, agreements, and conservation best practices.

Watch

The Pacific RISA and partners share a panel on building resilience in Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

Learn about the Aloha+ Challenge and how to get involved with Hawaiʻi Green Growth and the UN Local2030 Islands Network

The US Fish and Wildlife Service shares the agency’s mission and describe the twin threats of climate change and invasive species facing native Hawaiian forest birds

The Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center and the Hawaiʻi Division of Forestry and Wildlife discuss the challenges facing Hawaiʻi’s rangeland managers under changing drought and wildfire conditions

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Division of Fish and Wildlife shares how accelerated habitat loss, combined with the introduction of invasive species, is threatening endemic birds and other native plants and animals found only on these small islands of Micronesia

The American Sāmoa Visitors Bureau describes how climate change is bringing heavy rains, erosion, and damage, from the island’s coral reefs to farmland and mountaintops, but policies to reduce human impacts in those areas are only as strong as the and agencies who people enforce them

The Guam Department of Agriculture shares how the small island of Guam in Micronesia is deeply connected to the Asia-Pacific region through international trade and shipping, while being buffeted by the impacts of a changing climate