Islanders urged to think green

By THERESA GARNER

Pacific Islanders are being told that despite their lack of "lilywhite legs, sandals and socks" they can still save the planet.

A new campaign, Saving Paradise, aims to get Pacific Islanders in New Zealand to understand conservation and change behaviour that has a bad effect on the environment.

The Pacific Development and Conservation Trust, which has just given $30,000 to the campaign, said it wanted to break down the invisible walls between Pacific Islanders and the traditional view of conservation in New Zealand.

Trustee Sam Sefuiva said the campaign "takes the palagi out of conservation" and gave Pacific Islanders the responsibility for their own environment. Lilywhite legs were not a prerequisite for conservation initiatives, he said.

"Our ecosystems are being harmed by our ignorance."

One of the targets of Saving Paradise is the illegal importation of plants and animal products from the Pacific into New Zealand.

The Department of Conservation and the Tapa Trust are planning the Pacific Gardens, a huge nursery filled with medicinal plants where each Pacific nation has an area set aside for its flora.

Many of the plants will be those commonly seized by border control officers. The gardens will be established at a yet to be confirmed site in Manukau and be a place where Pacific Island elders can pass on their knowledge of the medicinal uses of the plants.

Department of Conservation spokeswoman Linda Bercusson said it was vital to raise awareness of conservation among Pacific people in an increasingly multicultural society. "This growth and diversity of cultures will put huge pressures on the values New Zealanders place on open spaces and special conservation areas."

Tapa Trust chief executive Melino Maka said the new money would be used to get the 30-minute video called Saving Paradise more widely circulated. So far 180 had been distributed around New Zealand and the Pacific.

Schools are praising the video, which features role models such as All Black vice-captain Tana Umaga and Professor Albert Wendt.

The head of social sciences at Auckland's Penrose High School, Nick Coughlan, said he would use the video in year 9 classrooms as the messages were "superb". "The fact that we can do something about the condition of the Pacific and that animals as well as humans depend on the ocean are two crucial ideas."

MP Winnie Laban, said Saving Paradise was of great importance to Pacific communities and the natural environment. She has said that "in this land, we have not learned the rules. We are not living in harmony with the natural world".

The director of border management for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Neil Hyde, said the level of compliance and declaration from people arriving from the Pacific had improved significantly in the past five years, which he attributed to MAF's Protect New Zealand biosecurity campaign.

About 96 per cent of certified edible plant products and 82 per cent of non-certified plant products were declared. "While it's not 100 per cent, we are moving in the right direction."