Press Releases

The Metals Company Welcomes Prominent Sustainability Strategist Brendan May to its Board of Directors

Mr. May is chairman and founder of Robertsbridge, a leading global sustainability consultancy he formed in 2010. He has spent more than 25 years in the sustainability space, initially working on oceans sustainability as CEO of the Marine...

Pacific Islands Voices magnified in the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution

19 April 2024, Ottawa Canada - Of the 66 countries that are members of the High Ambition Coalition to end Plastic Pollution, four are from the Pacific Islands. A commitment was made in November last year by our Pacific Islands Forum Leaders to...

Pacific Tourism Organisation Partners with FSM-Yap to Drive Data Excellence for Sustainable Development

The Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) in collaboration with the Yap Visitors Bureau (YVB) conducted a week-long in-country workshop (June 10-14) focused on data initiatives and the Digital Measurement and Benchmarking Dashboard under the Pacific...

Balancing the scales, addressing the disproportionate impact of marine plastic pollution on indigenous communities in the Pacific

24 April 2024, Ottawa Canada – In the village of Nacamaki on the Island of Koro in Fiji, villagers would at certain times of the year take part in a sacred ancient ceremony where they would make their way to the beach, chant songs, sound the horn...

Three-point Q and A with Head of Delegation from Niue at the INC4 on plastic pollution

25 April 2024, Ottawa, Canada - The fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-4), is taking place from 23 to...

Canada shows the way to address plastic pollution and calls on members to make INC-4 count

23 April 2024, Ottawa Canada - Canada, the host country of the fourth Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-4), is showing the...

TMC Subsidiary Submits Its Largest Deep-Sea Environmental Data Set Yet to International Seabed Authority

TMC's subsidiary, NORI, has submitted comprehensive data to the International Seabed Authority, detailing findings from environmental baseline campaigns from the NORI-D exploration area up to January 2022. The data encompasses 32,617 benthic and...

SPREP to provide support to Kiribati’s single-use plastic reduction priorities

20 March 2024, Tarawa, Kiribati – In the Pacific Island nation of Kiribati, plastic has been identified as the top waste stream needing attention in the Kiribati Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy 2020-2030. An estimated 13 per cent...

Pacific countries convene to align National Biodiversity Targets to Global Biodiversity Framework

18 March 2024, Nadi, Fiji – A historical agreement which sets out an ambitious agenda towards the vision of living in harmony with nature, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, was adopted during the 15th Conference of the Parties to...

Pacific Tourism Organisation Partners with Papua New Guinea Tourism to Drive Data Excellence for Sustainable Development

The Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) in collaboration with the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority (PNGTPA) conducted a week-long in-country workshop (May 13-17) focused on data initiatives and the Digital Measurement and Benchmarking...

Kiribati National Climate Outlook Forum Reconvenes after Eight Years

19 June 2023, Tarawa, Kiribati - After a lapse of eight years, the Kiribati Meteorological Services reconvened the Kiribati National Climate Outlook Forum in Tarawa, bringing together more than 25 participants for two days,13 to 14June, of...

Biodiversity Data from NORI-D Exploration Area Now Available on UNESCO’s Ocean Biodiversity Information System, Increases Biodiversity Records for the Clarion-Clipperton Zone by About 150%

Following the publication of biodiversity data collected from the NORI-D exploration area on UNESCO’s Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) on 22 June 2023, The Metals Company’s subsidiary NORI becomes the single largest contributor of...

Kiribati calls for a strong global commitment to upstream measures to solve the plastic crisis

1 June 2023, Paris France – Thirty-three coral atolls and islands are dispersed among the three groups that form Kiribati, which are the Gilbert, Line, and Phoenix islands. Covering a land area of 810km2, the island groups are spread over a vast...

Pacific Leaders support for High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution

14 February 2024, Auckland NZ - Given the negative impact of plastic pollution on Pacific communities, Pacific Leaders at the 52nd Pacific Islands Forum Meeting in the Cook Islands last year encouraged members to join the High Ambition Coalition...

UN: 2023 broke every single climate indicator

Rachel Mealey: The World Meteorological Organization says things could get worse before it gets better when it comes to the climate crisis. In a new report, the UN Weather Agency says 2023 set new records for every single climate indicator, with...

A Dysfunctional Family: How Australia Can and Should Repair its Relationships with the Pacific by Acting on Climate

The prevailing strategic culture in Australian foreign policy circles that view Pacific Island states in instrumental and paternalistic ways is unproductive. Moving forward, there must be active recognition of the agency of these actors and...

Update from the Division of Sustainable Tourism – Issue 51

Mauri from the SPTO Division of Sustainable Tourism! A new year and new journey! Kicking off January with enthusiasm, we present the first edition of the Pacific Sustainable Tourism Newsbeat for the year. In this edition, Kiribati takes the...

Kiribati Sustainability Champion – Ms Kiarake Karuaki

Driven by passion Kiarake Karuaki strives to ensure that her island home of Kiribati reaps the benefits of community-based tourism and achieves sustainability. She does this through capacity building, awareness, product development, licensing,...

Mauri Mark Standard Assessment Enhances Tourism Quality in South Tarawa

In a proactive move to elevate tourism standards and prioritise sustainability, the Tourism Authority of Kiribati (TAK) recently conducted the Mauri Mark Standard Assessment of South Tarawa Accommodations from January 9th – 10th, 2024. The...

Visitor Satisfaction Survey Consultation to boost North Tarawa Accommodation Experience

As part of targeted efforts to elevate visitor experiences, a Visitor Satisfaction Survey (VSS) consultation was held on January 25, 2024, at the Ocean View Hotel in North Tarawa. Organized by the Research and Statistics Division within the...