University staff recognized for work on Fiji’s implementation of international treaty
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 | Ms Nirupa Ram-Tokuma receives her award during celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the ‘Montreal Protocol Treaty on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer’. |
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To mark the 25th anniversary of the ‘Montreal Protocol Treaty on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer,’Ms Nirupa Ram-Tokuma, alongside others, was recently presented an award for her pioneering strong leadership.
Ms Ram-Tokuma is the Manager, Administration at Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development, which is the flagship agency for Climate Change Modelling Research at the University of the South Pacific (USP).
The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances believed to be responsible for ozone depletion.
Ms Ram-Tokuma was the former National Project Officer for Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) for the Fiji Department of Environment.
In this role, she was responsible for leading Fiji’s implementation of the Montreal Protocol, which Fiji ratified and became a party to in 1987.
During this time, she spent over six and half years working with local refrigeration and air-conditioning industries in Fiji to phase out the use of the globally-banned chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which has a high ozone depleting potential.
Some of her national activities including facilitating over 200 ‘Train-the-Trainer Good Practices in Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Workshops’ for small businesses, hotels, supermarkets and vehicle service centers. This was to make provisions for distribution of recovery and recycling equipment to private sector industries and at the same time to facilitate the work of enforcement agencies to adopt and implement aspects of the Ozone Depleting Substances Act, 1998.
In parallel to this, she set up the Fiji national ozone unit, and conducted numerous awareness activities to raise awareness in schools, tertiary institutions as well as for the general public.
With the financial support from the United Nations Environment Programme Division of Technology, Industry and Environment, the Nairobi-based UN Ozone Secretariat and the Montreal-based Multilateral Fund Secretariat (MLF), Ms Ram-Tokuma coordinated a number of capacity building and technology transfer activities to help the Fiji Government achieve its obligations under the Protocol and to reduce Fiji’s consumption of ODS gradually in accordance with the timelines set out in Fiji Country Programme and the Phase Out Schedules for Article 5 countries as stipulated in the Treaty.
Nirupa’s work at the national level is often used to advocate for success in countries struggling with implementation in the South East Asia region and as such she has travelled widely in those regions.
In the Pacific, Ms Ram-Tokuma has continued to work closely with a number of USP member countries, mainly government line agencies and national ozone focal points to provide legal and technical advisory services. Since 2006, based on her experience she has continued to be called upon to provide her support to these countries when the need arises.
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