STATEMENT BY
H.E. MR. BAILEY OLTER
PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA
CHAIRMAN OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC FORUM
TO THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON
ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
12 JUNE 1992
Check Against Delivery
Mister President, Mister Secretary-General, Excellencies,
I am honored to make these remarks as Chairman of the South
Pacific Forum, on behalf of the fifteen member-countries in our
Pacific Region whose heads of government comprise the organization.
The Forum members are Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States
of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand
Niue, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Tonga, Vanuatu
and Western Samoa. The Heads of Forum Governments meet once a
year to discuss issues of common interest, to strengthen regional
cooperation politically and economically, and on security and
environmental matters. A permanent Secretariat, based in Fiji,
acts under the guidance of the member governments to support,
among other things, a wide variety of development and aid programs.
As a region the countries of the Forum are custodians of a
large portion of the Earth's surface. Our combined Exclusive
Economic Zones occupy 30 million square kilometers, an area more
than four times the size of the great country of Brazil. Yet,
given our widely dispersed, relatively small islands, our limited
human resources, and generally low state of economic development,
our capacity to protect the fragile environment against damage
from all sources is constrained.
Nevertheless, over many years the Forum and its member countries
have shared the international community's growing concern with
the environment of our planet. Communiqués of its annual
meetings have indicated that concern in a wide variety of policy
statements, which have been followed up by the Members' active
participation throughout the UNCED preparatory process, as well
as in the negotiations for the Framework Convention on Climate
Change and the Biodiversity Convention. In an ideal world, many
of our Forum Members would have preferred stronger Conventions,
particularly on climate change, with clear commitments to reduce
carbon dioxide emissions. Nevertheless, a number have signed
or intend to sign on the basis that the Conventions enable at
least a beginning of our collective efforts to achieve real improvements
in the areas covered.
Many of us occupy some of the smallest habitable land areas
on Earth and we are vulnerable to natural and human-induced disturbance
of both the local and global environments. Our daily lives are
heavily affected by the prevailing climate, physical characteristics
of our islands and the resources of land and sea. When the intensity
of tropical storms increases, as we have seen in recent years,
we have nowhere to go. Destruction and death result. When months
of complete drought come, as many of us are experiencing even
now, the suffering that takes place would be hard to believe
by those who hold fond notions of Paradise in the Pacific.
Climate change and sea level rise caused by global warming
are the most serious environmental threats to the islands in
the Pacific Region. Our cultural, economic and even our physical
survival are directly at risk. Yet, we have not created the problem
which threatens to destroy us, nor even materially contributed
to it. Moreover, the solution to the problem is not within our
capabilities, but lies instead with those who purchased their
own development with polluted currency that the rest of us dare
not use.
The Pacific Region is one of the World's troves of biological
diversity. The many thousands of islands are rich in terrestrial
and marine ecosystems. The Forum has recognized the fundamental
importance of these biological resources to the people of the
Pacific Region and of the World, and has endorsed the development
of agricultural, forestry and fisheries practices which encourage
the maintenance of biological diversity. It is the Region's hope
that the Biodiversity Convention will be of great significance
in preserving vulnerable resources for future generations.
The countries of the South Pacific Forum strongly support
Agenda 21 as a whole, and the chapter on Oceans in particular.
We especially welcome the decisions to call a series of conferences
commencing in 1993 on sustainable development of small islands,
and a conference to promote effective implementation of Law of
the Sea Convention provisions on straddling fish stocks and highly
migratory species. We also see great value in the adherence by
all nations to the principles of the Rio Declaration.
We are hopeful that the World's emerging sense of environmental
ethics as demonstrated by this Conference will enable our Region
at last to overcome a particular problem that for years has intensified
the vulnerability of our island existence. I refer to the attitude
of many developed countries that the Pacific Island Region is
a great, unpopulated void which offers opportunities to the rest
of the World for convenient disposal of toxic, radioactive or
otherwise harmful wastes, and for the conduct of any dangerous
or obnoxious activity that cannot for reasons of public safety
be carried out on home territory.
These are very real and continuing threats to our Region.
Atomic and hydrogen bomb testing has been suspended now for many
years in the Marshall Islands, but horrible disease and disfigurement
are still suffered by many Marshallese. Moreover, instances continue
to occur which show that our Region is regarded as an attractive
site for environmentally undesirable or dangerous activities.
A case in point is Johnston Island, where the United States
is carrying out a program to incinerate stockpiles of chemical
weapons shipped from Germany and other points. In the 1990 Communiqué,
Forum countries declared "that the Pacific Ocean and the
islands in it should not continue to be used as a convenient
area for the development, storage, dumping or disposal of hazardous
materials, including chemical weapons, particularly from outside
the Region. " Consequently, we are relying on assurances
by the United States that the scope of the operations at Johnston
Island will remain limited to the current program and that the
facility will be dismantled as soon as that program has been
completed.
Another matter of current interest is a planned long-term
arrangement between several developed countries that seems likely
to involve ocean shipments through the Pacific Region of highly
refined plutonium. The Forum is seeking detailed information
on this project prior to discussing its implications at the upcoming
annual meeting in the Solomon Islands.
Mr. President, countries of the Pacific Region have long opposed
the use of islands within the Region for the conduct of nuclear
weapons testing. We do welcome the recent decision of France
to suspend its testing in the Pacific, and urge that, in the
spirit of Rio, the suspension of testing be turned into a permanent
ban.
We of the South Pacific Forum devoutly hope this historic
Summit and its mechanisms will at last make the World realize
the Pacific is both valuable to future generations for its vast
resources and home to present generations of peoples who have
never willingly accepted that their backyards be made dumping
grounds or testing and disposal areas. Since our small size and
wide dispersion has in the past denied us the political power
to protect ourselves against these forces, we look forward henceforth
to a world order in which new environmental imperatives will
teach others the inequity of past attitudes and practices.
Finally, Mr. President, let me express the very sincere gratitude
of all the Forum Members for the World's strong attendance and
participation at these meetings. It gives us hope. Special thanks
go, of course, to those such as the Secretary-General of UNCED,
without whose selfless dedication and determination we would
not be here. Finally, the host country - the Government and the
wonderful people of Brazil - have earned for themselves a special
place in History by opening their warm hearts and their beautiful
country for this occasion, one that will be remembered for all
time.
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