A PM appointed IY2017 ambassador … oh, and food fish are going extinct

The cere­mony took place in New York on June 7 “on the side­lines” of the UN Ocean Con­fer­ence, where the PM addressed par­ti­cipants on the value of tour­ism to sus­tain­ably advance the “blue economy” …

We interrupt this news …

The World Bank defines the “blue eco­nomy” as “the range of eco­nom­ic sec­tors and related policies that togeth­er determ­ine wheth­er the use of ocean­ic resources is sustainable”.

With­in the UNWTO press release announ­cing the Sam­oan PM’s ambas­sad­or­ship was the explan­a­tion that the Ocean Con­fer­ence is “an oppor­tun­ity to high­light how tour­ism can effect­ively con­trib­ute to Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goal 14, ‘Con­serve and sus­tain­ably use the oceans, seas and mar­ine resources for sus­tain­able development’”.

“While tour­ism is included in three of the SDGs – SDG 8: ‘Pro­mote sus­tained, inclus­ive and sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic growth, full and pro­duct­ive employ­ment and decent work for all’; SDG 12: ‘Sus­tain­able con­sump­tion and pro­duc­tion’ and [SDG 14], it can advance all 17 SDGs.”

UNWTO had joined the World Bank and the UN Depart­ment of Eco­nom­ic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) to launch the report The Poten­tial of the Blue Eco­nomy: Increas­ing Long-term Bene­fits of the Sus­tain­able Use of Mar­ine Resources for Small Island Devel­op­ing States and Coastal Least Developed Coun­tries. (Find a link to down­load the report at the end of this post.)

Accord­ing to the same UNWTO release, coastal and mari­time tour­ism is one of the key sec­tors of the European Uni­on Blue Growth Strategy. Such tour­ism has a ‘high poten­tial for sus­tain­able jobs and growth”. Tour­ism employs more than 3.2 mil­lion people and con­trib­utes more than one third of the mari­time economy.

“The uni­ver­sal dimen­sion of the SDGs provides the EU regions with the oppor­tun­ity to show lead­er­ship and share best prac­tices to extend and scale up their Blue Growth strategy in oth­er parts of the world, and in par­tic­u­lar through their island ter­rit­or­ies in SIDS regions,” the UNWTO explains.

And in other news …

Mean­while, an Inter­na­tion­al Uni­on for Con­ser­va­tion of Nature (IUCN) press release dated June 8 warned that over-fish­ing and the degrad­a­tion of cor­al reefs across the Carib­bean and Pacific islands are push­ing many fish, includ­ing food sources like tunas and groupers, towards extinc­tion. This is accord­ing to two region­al Red List reports pub­lished by the IUCN.

The Con­ser­va­tion status of mar­ine biod­iversity in the Pacific Islands of Ocean­ia Red List report includes assess­ments of 2,800 mar­ine spe­cies across the 22 island states and ter­rit­or­ies of Ocean­ia, from Pap­ua New Guinea to the Cook Islands – “a vast, spe­cies-rich but largely unex­plored area”. The report shows that 11% of all assessed mar­ine spe­cies in the region are threatened with extinc­tion, includ­ing fish that are import­ant food sources.

The Con­ser­va­tion status of mar­ine bony shore­fishes of the Great­er Carib­bean Red List report includes assess­ments of 1,360 mar­ine bony shore­fishes across 38 Carib­bean coun­tries and ter­rit­or­ies. Around 5% of mar­ine bony shore­fishes in the Carib­bean are threatened due to over-fish­ing, invas­ive lion­fish pred­a­tion, and the degrad­a­tion of cor­al reefs and estu­ar­ies, which provide hab­it­ats and feed­ing grounds.

Accord­ing to the release, islanders in both the Pacific and Carib­bean regions rely heav­ily on reef fish­er­ies and oth­er mar­ine resources for food secur­ity and income gen­er­a­tion. In Ocean­ia, fish con­sump­tion rates are high at about 50 kg per per­son per year, as com­pared to about 8 kg per year for people liv­ing in con­tin­ent­al areas such as Australia.

(Find links to down­load both Red List reports at the end of this post.)

We return to the news …

Back to the head­line news pre­ferred by UNWTO …

The new (ninth (9th)) Spe­cial Ambas­sad­or of the Year, Prime Min­is­ter of Sam­oa, Tuilae­pa Sailele Malielegaoi, said: “The des­ig­na­tion of 2017 as the Inter­na­tion­al Year of Sus­tain­able Tour­ism for Devel­op­ment was due to the recog­ni­tion by the United Nations of the poten­tial of the tour­ism sec­tor to con­trib­ute to the fight against poverty, to help curb cli­mate change, pro­mote gender equal­ity, and foster mutu­al under­stand­ing and peace amongst diverse cultures.

“Tour­ism is a sec­tor that is vital to the live­li­hoods of our people and touches all the three dimen­sions of sus­tain­able devel­op­ment: the social, eco­nom­ic and envir­on­ment­al aspects. As a people-to-people activ­ity, it has helped and con­tin­ues to con­trib­ute to the revital­isa­tion of our cul­ture, cus­toms and tra­di­tion­al crafts, and plays a pivotal role in the pre­ser­va­tion of our cul­tur­al her­it­age and is a force that pro­motes peace and understanding.”

Sam­oan Prime Min­is­ter Tuilae­pa Sailele Malielegaoi. Source: Wikimedia

UNWTO Sec­ret­ary-Gen­er­al Taleb Rifai said: “The Inter­na­tion­al Year is a unique oppor­tun­ity to pro­mote com­mon action and enhance the power of tour­ism to build a bet­ter world. We thank Sam­oa for lead­ing the ini­ti­at­ive for the adop­tion of the UN res­ol­u­tion declar­ing the Inter­na­tion­al Year and for its sus­tained, exem­plary con­tri­bu­tion in pro­mot­ing the value of our sec­tor towards the achieve­ment of the 2030 Devel­op­ment Agenda, par­tic­u­larly for the Small Islands Devel­op­ing States (SIDS).”

The Spe­cial Ambas­sad­ors of the Year are “lead­ers and prom­in­ent per­son­al­it­ies” com­mit­ted to pro­mote the role and con­tri­bu­tion of tour­ism in the achieve­ment of the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda. They are:

• Tuilae­pa Sailele Malielegaoi, Prime Min­is­ter of Samoa
• Juan Manuel San­tos, Pres­id­ent of Colombia
• Ellen John­son Sir­leaf, Pres­id­ent of Liberia
• Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera, Pres­id­ent of Costa Rica
• Mai bint Mohammed Al-Khal­ifa, Pres­id­ent of the Bahrain Author­ity for Cul­ture and Antiquities
• Simeon II of Bulgaria
• Talal Abu-Ghaza­leh, Chair­man of the Talal Abu-Ghaza­leh Organization
• Huay­ong Ge, CEO of UnionPay
• Michael Fren­zel, Pres­id­ent of the Fed­er­al Asso­ci­ation of the Ger­man Tour­ism Industry

Downloads: 

The Poten­tial of the Blue Eco­nomy : Increas­ing Long-term Bene­fits of the Sus­tain­able Use of Mar­ine Resources for Small Island Devel­op­ing States and Coastal Least Developed Coun­tries by the World Bank and UNDESA. (Hos­ted offsite.)

Con­ser­va­tion status of mar­ine biod­iversity in the Pacific Islands of Ocean­ia Red List by IUCN. (Hos­ted offsite.)

Con­ser­va­tion status of mar­ine bony shore­fishes of the Great­er Carib­bean Red List by IUCN. (Hos­ted offsite.)