The Pacific Ocean & Climate Crisis Assessment (POCCA) project team from The University of the South Pacific (USP) began its site re-visits last week as part of the project’s plan to present key outcomes back to the communities.
Starting in Fiji, the team visited the village of Tukuraki in the Ba Province and the villages of Vunisavisavi, Karoko and Vunidogoloa in the Northern Division.
Dr Hilda Waqa-Sakiti, the project team leader said that it was important for the project to present the findings back to the communities that shared their stories and experiences to be part of the POCCA report.
“These revisits back to the communities and stakeholders allows the POCCA project the opportunity to share back with them important findings generated from the POCCA reports, both Volume 1 and 2,” she said.
“This is a very important process that is usually missed in a lot of community engagement work we do here in the Pacific.”
“The POCCA project needed to ensure that time and budget were set aside to return to the communities and our stakeholders, spend time with them to ensure that the outcomes of the report represented what was captured during the community research phase and that their voices were well represented in the POCCA reports for the respective Pacific Island countries.”
The initial re-visits generated positive feedback as communities expressed their gratitude towards the project’s initiative in presenting the findings of the research, further amplifying their voices on the global stage.
Livai Kidiromo, the village headman of Tukuraki praised the project for its initiative, support and consideration of their village, particularly in sharing the information gathered from them.
Similar sentiments were echoed by the villages of Vunisavisavi, Karoko and Vunidogoloa.
In addition, the re-visit was a memorable one for the former village headman of Vunidogoloa, Sailosi Ramatu.
“As the village headman for 23 years and Matani Tikina of Koroalau for over 10 years, I have been an advocate for climate change,’ he said.
“Some people question me for providing information to various groups that have come to conduct research, but nothing has returned to us or even informed us that our voices, knowledge, and information have been given a place that will ensure our support. Numerous people have come to compile the data and include it in books and videos.”
“However, I am grateful to witness this today. I always encourage my daughter-in-law to go to climate change events on my behalf,” he added.
Funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFAT), New Zealand, the three-year POCCA project is a collaborative effort between the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) through The University of the South Pacific’s, Centre for Sustainable Futures (CSF) and the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury.
