Water, Sanitation,Food Security, Waste Management

UN Small Island

Developing States

Sept 1-4, 2014

SiIDS 3Sustainable Development GoalsRIO+20 UNFCCCMauritius ImplementationBarbados Plan of ActionMDG’s Rio1992 Brundtland

THEME: Common and Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities

Contentious!

SDG’s: Taking into account different national circumstances, capacities and priorities

Indigenous Knowledge and Resilience

• Indigenous knowledge contexts of SIDS Pacific• Pacific imagination – Water continent • Relational • Obligation, duty, responsibility• Community priorities• Connection to cosmos, interdependence of all

living things

Reciprocity and LeadershipReciprocity

Water shares a genealogy with land who in turn shares a genealogy with man, the cosmos and the gods.  This genealogy is sacred and invests a legacy of responsibility on all living things (trees, clouds, volcanoes, water, animals, people) to respect through reciprocity, the divine balance or harmony they share.  This is what Samoans call the va tapuia – the sacred relations. H.H. Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi

Leadership

Power/wisdom is acquired through working with others and working the land. For instance Logovae refers to power as ‘both a gift and a burden’ and adds that ‘while it is a privilege, responsibilities are its constant companion

Climate: A Matter of

National Security?

Floods, DroughtsSalination of Water & SoilsSeverity of Hazards

Climate and Water

Three key areas • food security and production• water resource management • coastal protection.

Coast and Oceans

Water and Food Security

• Imagine if you had 2 glasses of water, and egg, two slices of toast, fruit and toast, how much water would you have used?

• (FAO) estimates that it takes 135 litres of water to produce one egg,

40 litres of water to produce one slice of bread and 65 litres per 100 grams of fruit and vegetables. Chickens, wheat, fruit and vegetables need water to grow, but not as much cows as pigs. It takes 208 litres of water for one glass of milk and 2,182 litres to produce half a kilo of pork. It is this relationship of water to food security

• In atoll countries, limited water and poor soil mean much of the fruit and vegetables people eat need to be imported, driving up costs

Indigenous Management of WaterSili Village

Hawaiian use of Trusteeship law

Fiji LMMNA

Vanuatu Village and Catchment strategies

Community Decision-making

Community Decision-making

Custom LawCustom law, its institutions and processes, are

being increasingly recognised in international

instruments.

Articles 5 and 34 of the Declaration on the Rights

of Indigenous Peoples propose recognition of the

right of indigenous people to maintain and

strengthen their legal systems and juridical

customs, in accordance with internationally

recognised human rights standards.

Custom is a system of law for customary

communities, coexisting with state-made law and

drawing its authority from the fact that it is the

law that preceded the state. (Coverging Currents)

SIDS 3 PARTNERSHIPS

Partnerships for Water

SDG’s for All Countries

• No reference to UNDRIP; Includes effects of colonization (Para 15)

• Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture

• Goal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

• Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries• Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and

production patterns• Goal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of

terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Food Security

Privilege the integrated systems

of Indigenous tradition in

development