Beacons of Community-led, Nature-based Climate Solutions

Pacific island communities are some of the best people to help us address climate change. There we find powerful nature-based climate solutions when communities lead the work, and when we integrate tech and science support while respecting their traditions.

The best existing solutions reach less than 20% of the places where they are needed. We have an incredible opportunity to meet urgent climate adaptation needs with existing solutions - if we scale and improve nature-based solutions to their full potential.

We are mobilizing a global community network and toolbox that fluidly integrates Pacific Traditions with science and tech. Ocean Guardians leverages the strengths of three organizations with decades of experience across eight Pacific Countries and 500+ communities. Integrating Pacific Traditions with science and tech, moreover, helps countries meet international standards for nature-based solutions, contributing tremendously to national climate strategies.

The Watershed Intervention for Systems Health (WISH) project recognizes that there are common drivers associated with water-related disease risk in coastal human populations and ill health in downstream ecosystems. The WISH team employs a systems approach to reduce these risks through evidence-based, participatory design of integrated watershed management interventions at nested scales. When the interventions are implemented together in a portfolio approach, they can provide co-benefits to ocean health, human health, and climate mitigation and adaptation. Watershed interventions include: nature-based solutions (e.g., forest protection, forest restoration, river bank stabilization, soil conservation measures); improvements to water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure (e.g., dam and reservoir upgrades, pipe replacements, raising toilet back end systems to international standards); and human and animal behavior modifications (e.g., fencing livestock, regularly clearing drains, hand washing). The WISH project seeks to scale and replicate the model through development of sustainable financing vehicles and knowledge mobilization.

The project consists of creating a network of locally managed marine areas within the islands of the Marquesas archipelago based on a modernized version of the ancestral management tool rahui. New regulation would enable and empower the community to define and implement the appropriate management measures for the resources they rely on themselves. The implementation of this new tool will include the capacity building of community members in fields such as marine biology and traditional fishing techniques.

The tool will also reserve resource access to the community, but will allow invited guests provided they agree to the local rules in advance. Hence, there is also a good opportunity to develop blue tourism based on the community heritage.

Since this will be a new tool, the purpose of the project is to use the Marquesas islands as a pilot site.

The proposed project brings together the Aquatic/Blue Food Action Coalition, Blue Food Assessment, and the Pacific Community to transform local food systems to provide blue foods directly to school feeding programs. Sourced from local small-scale, sustainable fisheries and/or local small-scale aquaculturists who are pioneering innovative methods such as integrated shellfish and seaweed cultivation, the project will provide a sustainable source of micronutrients while simultaneously improving local water quality and biodiversity, mitigating the local impacts of climate change such as acidification that can harm fisheries, and potentially even directly sequestering atmospheric carbon. The project will create a local food production and consumption circular program that, through its dependability, can reliably support the livelihoods of small-scale blue food producers and increase the resilience of Pacific communities while improving food and nutrition outcomes for local children.

Digital Earth Pacific will deliver an operational earth and marine observation system that takes decades of freely available satellite data and makes it easier to access and use, empowering decision-makers across the Pacific. Powered by Microsoft’s Planetary Computer, Digital Earth Pacific will enable people to reach tools and technologies that routinely monitor and track challenges such as coastal erosion and sea-level rise, deforestation, illegal fishing and much more. It will make data free, open, and ready-to-use – and help overcome long-term challenges such as climate change, food insecurity, and disaster management. Leveraging this technology will drive the development of decision-ready products that will support concise, analyzed information for decision makers, while providing critical data and information to support national, regional, and global commitments such as the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, the Paris Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals.