Attachments
Introduction
The joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the people of the Pacific in relation to their environment, are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the Church. They are therefore the concerns of Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand – the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ agency charged with promoting justice, peace and true human development.
The Pacific Ocean or Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa covers one third of the world’s surface – a vast area of the world with relatively few people living in it. However, from within our place in the Pacific, voices are speaking out – some loud, some soft – with increasing concern and anxiety about what the future holds. They are concerned about how local and global environmental changes are affecting and will continue to affect the lives of people – in their gardens, in their forests, and out at sea.
Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has a special concern for the people in this part of the world, mandated by the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference to make Oceania a priority in our work. Environmental issues are often at the forefront of concerns in the communities with whom we work, through our advocacy, development and aid programmes.
These issues include the legacy of environmental damage from the past, such as the ongoing impact of colonisation and past nuclear testing. There are the present-day impacts of mining, deforestation, overfishing and pollution. And there are early warnings of issues with long-term, unsettling implications, such as changing temperatures, eroding coastlines and unpredictable weather.
This report gives a voice from the people on environmental changes in Oceania.
There are many reports assessing the situation and challenges facing the Pacific from a scientific or economic perspective – this report does not do that. Instead, we asked our Pacific partners and contacts to tell us what environmental challenges they are facing in their daily lives. We were also particularly interested to find out how they were responding to those challenges and what solutions they felt were needed.
The peoples of Oceania face very different realities – from the challenges of small islands and atolls, to bush-clad mountainous countries such as Papua New Guinea, to the large and complex economies of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
However, what communities have in common across the region is experience of widespread environmental changes – observable on a daily basis over large parts of the Oceania landscape. But the peoples of Oceania are not sitting back as passive observers.
They are exercising their traditional kaitiakitanga or guardianship of their lands, waters and resources, as best they can and often under very difficult circumstances.
As a Catholic agency, Caritas understands the environment as God’s gift, to be treasured and protected for the sake of the poorest and most vulnerable, both today and for future generations. God entrusted all of creation to human responsibility, charging us to care for its harmony and development. This includes appropriate use of science and technology, in such a way that respects men and women, and all other living creatures.
The Bishops of Oceania have a long record of speaking out on environmental issues, asking us to practise responsible and loving stewardship of God’s creation. Pope John Paul II represented this concern in his letter to the Church of Oceania Ecclesia in Oceania, reminding us of our special responsibility as guardians of the Pacific Ocean on behalf of all humanity. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the Catholic Bishops have reminded us that those most affected by environmental issues such as climate change are often those who have contributed the least to it. In his inaugural homily last year, Pope Francis called on us all to “be protectors of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment”.
This report draws on that religious tradition and on the traditional wisdom and insights of tāngata whenua of this region. Uncle Henare Ngaia, kaumātua of Taranaki and of the Catholic Hui Aranga, explains that both Genesis and Māori accounts of creation teach us that human beings are the pōtiki, the youngest members of the environment in which we live. That means we have a duty of care towards our elders – the mountains, oceans, rivers, plains and creatures of our region.
Protecting the environment and finding solutions to the environmental challenges of our day, means first facing up to the reality. We have asked our sources to describe for us what the environmental changes mean for them. From large-scale industrial mining, forestry and commercial plantations, to the loss of food crops, water supplies and places of beauty, their stories collectively awaken and challenge us.
We may be tempted to feel overwhelmed and helpless by stories of environmental degradation. To understand a way forward, we must first acknowledge and lament for what has been lost and repent for past actions and attitudes that have led to it.
Then we can look ahead to the future.
There are many stories of hope, of communities and individuals working with each other and what resources they have to try to restore and repair their own environments, to connect with others and to restate an ideal and a vision of a world where people live in accord with the natural environment. We tell stories of what people are doing to reclaim control, and we conclude our report with recommendations for future action – by government and regional decision makers, by communities and by individuals.
We ask you to join us in listening to the voices of Oceania speaking about their experiences, their fears and pain, as well as their hopes and dreams for the future of their home and their ocean environment. They are small communities, small voices within a vast and vulnerable region, but strong in love and determination to protect the fragile world in which we live, and all its peoples.