Opening Remark by the Hon. Toeolesulusulu Cedric Pose Salesa Schuster Minister for Natural Resources, Environment and Lands
Regional Technical Workshop on Science and Partnerships for Geohazard Resilience in the Pacific
(Monday 24 February 2025 ,09:30am at Lava Hotel, Apia)
• Reverend
• Director of UNESCO to Pacific States
• Distinguished Delegates, Partners, and Guests
• Workshop Participants
• Ladies and Gentlemen,
1. The Pacific Islands are made of small island states surrounded by the vast Pacific Ocean, and boarders the ring of fire, which is home to more than two thirds of the active and dormant volcanoes on earth.
2. This combination makes the Pacific region a hot spot for many of the geohazards disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis. Coupled this with the active South Pacific Convergence Zone that brings heavy rainfalls and cyclones, resulting in landslides, and flooding, the Pacific Island countries are constantly having to build resilience.
3. I wish to welcome and say talofa lava to the geohazards community of scientists, experts, researchers, decision-makers and international partners gathered for the Regional Technical Workshop on Science and Partnerships for Geohazard Resilience in the Pacific: Towards a Multihazard Early Warning System. to strengthen our regional and national capabilities in geohazard risk reduction.
4. As Pacific Island nations, we are no strangers to the devastating impacts of geohazards. We have a long history of geohazard disasters, but I will only touch on the most recent ones, including the tragic events of the 2009 Pacific Tsunami, the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption and tsunami, the Manu’a Islands of American Samoa’s seismic unrest, with hundreds of earthquakes causing widespread concern and fear among our communities. There is also the deadly landslide in Enga Province of PNG, and the destructive 7.3 magnitude earthquake which struck Port Vila in Vanuatu in December 2024. All sadly resulted in a significant loss of lives and widespread damage.
5. As you all would be aware, these events highlight the critical importance of building resilience against geohazards. Our ability to prepare, respond, and recover from these disasters depends on strong partnerships, enhanced scientific knowledge, and robust early warning systems.
6. It is amongst these reasons Pacific Ministers for Disaster Risk Reduction at their meetings in 2022, 2023 and 2024 acknowledged:
• the need for development partners’ investments to achieve the ambition of the Early Warnings for All initiative in the Pacific and the Weather Ready Pacific Programme;
• stronger coordination on multi-hazard early warning systems at the regional level to effectively support Pacific Island Countries and Territories;
• and increased funding for multi-hazard early warning systems, disaster preparedness and nature-based solutions for resilient coastal infrastructure.
7. This workshop provides a valuable platform for sharing best practices, advancing research, and fostering collaboration to improve our monitoring and preparedness efforts. Over the next five days, you will engage in discussions aimed at strengthening our collective response to geohazards.
8. I encourage you all to use this time to identify key areas of geohazards management that demand the close attention of our regional and international development partners who are present this week, through the development of a Regional Geohazards Strategy that will inform the Early Warnings for All initiative in the Pacific and the Weather Ready Pacific Programme.
9. I especially encourage you to also explore ways to gather and incorporate traditional knowledge into National and Regional Geohazards Strategies. Our ancestors would have developed indigenous systems of early warning, response and recovery to all these geohazards and natural disasters. Therefore I am sure that these information and knowledge must be captured and utilised before they are lost.
10. Another ask of your workshop is, noting that we as small island states with very limited budgets and staff, it is critical that better approaches for sharing information and monitoring is established, but at the same time, building the capacity of our national staff and equipping them with proper resources.
11. For Samoa, we are updating our National Disaster Management Plan 2024 – 2034 to guide national response and national coordination for all types of disasters including geohazards, as well as implementing our Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (MHEWS) Policy to improve our country’s readiness and resilience to all types of disasters including geohazards.
12. Unfortunately, all great plans are held back by the lack of expertise. For Samoa that includes the lack of specialized volcanic expertise, posing challenges in responding to potential eruptions. We also suffer from staffing shortages in weather, climate, and geosciences. Therefore, investing in recruitment, retention strategies, and ICT support can improve national and regional overall resilience to geohazards.
13. I would like to see a formalized regional scientific and technical grouping that can backstop and support our national entities, but also encourage more research that is not just applied for decision-making process.
14. For the Pacific Islands Government Officials, I urge you all to take concrete actions away from this workshop to strengthen your national geohazards management systems through your Meteorological Services and Disaster Management Offices.
15. Ia talolua Tuna ma Fata, ini manū fa’aifo mai lagi, mo i tatou uma, mo nei ma a
taeao.
Fa’afetai tele lava, and I wish you all a productive and successful workshop.
