Get up! Stand up! Pacific Island leaders told.

Get up! Stand up! Pacific Island leaders told.

September 22, 2006

Suva, Fiji Islands. Tuna stocks in the Pacific are critically overfished and this is detrimental for the future of Pacific Islanders said PACFAW Trustee/Administrator, Susana Tuisawau .

Reacting to a science report launched by Greenpeace , which states that Bigeye and Yellowfin Tuna will be critically overfished in three years time.

Mrs Tuisawau said women in the Pacific rely very heavily on tuna as their main source of protein.

“There is hardly any alternative source of protein in most Pacific Islands and where an alternative is available it is very expensive,” she said.

Mrs Tuisawau said many women and young girls would suffer as a result of this as they will end up malnourished.

Mrs Tuisawau said most women also work in canneries or as market vendors selling this tuna.
“What happens to these young women and children? And what will be their alternative employment?” she asked.

Mrs Tuisawau said governments in the Pacific must join hands together to adopt these recommendations by Greenpeace’s science report immediately.

“We cannot sit on a timebomb knowing that tuna will be critically overfished and wait for it to explode,” said Mrs Tuisawau

PACFAW was established in July 2001, as a new regional focal point for national women's organisations. PACFAW supports a new program of gender advocacy, with strong focus on strengthening institutional capacity at national and regional levels. PACFAW has programs aiming to: 1) Strengthen national institutions for gender advocacy, building national women's NGO focal point to become more effective in gender and policy advocacy, and 2) Building solidarity and providing strategic leadership on gender advocacy at the regional level, to further strengthen national focal points and to coordinate and consolidate regional NGO positions at regional and global negotiations.

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