Espy Log, Week 4: Samoa

17 July 2009

apia-harbour.jpgWe've just had another update from Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza. The ship is currently touring the Pacific to document efforts in Pacific Island nations to adapt to climate change impacts. This update is from Emily. We've been and gone from Samoa, and are now making our way slowly west across the north of Fiji towards Vanuatu, our next destination. Samoa was a short but very busy port visit. The Esperanza arrived on the morning of Monday, 6 July. We arrived at the pilot station at 6am to see a huge, golden full moon setting behind the mountains around the country's capital, Apia. We docked at around 8am alongside an enormous US naval ship that has been travelling the Pacific doing health aid work. It made our ship look very small and cheerful. We were then welcomed by the Prime Minister and the local NGO umbrella group, the Samoan Association of NGOs (SANGO). There was more traditional dancing and an appearance by Miss Samoa. In his speech, the Prime Minister expressed his pride in Samoa being one of the first countries in the world to sign onto the Kyoto Protocol. He encouraged Samoan NGO's and Greenpeace to keep working together to push the climate change issue in the regional and international arena. On Tuesday, we had a public open day on board the ship. Despite being quite a long way out of town, and inside a security port, we still managed to get over 200 people visiting the ship over the course of the day. On Wednesday evening we hosted a climate change quiz night, organised by Greenpeace and SPREP (South Pacific Regional Environment Program) based in Samoa. This year is 'Year of Climate Change' and SPREP has been organising a range of Climate Change education and adaptation projects around the region. The quiz night was a great success – about 60 people came from local NGOs, SPREP and the local media. It proved both educational and a lot of fun. On our last day, Thursday, we had local school groups come and visit the ship. About 250 high school students came for a tour of the ship and to learn about climate change. samoa-jackson.jpgWhile all this busy activity was happening with the ship, our ever intrepid documentation team was out and about collecting more testimonials and images of climate activists in Samoa. Here are some of the people we met:
  • Vaasiliifiti Moelagi Jackson is a Samoan High Chief and the National President of the Samoan Association of NGOs (SUNGO). She is actively working to educate and mobilise Samoans to stand up and get active on climate change.
  • Fiu Elisara started Samoa’s first environmental organisation and has been to many international negotiations to discuss climate change impacts in the Pacific. According to Fiu, climate change has become 'a life-and-death' issue for the Pacific islands.
  • Malae Sa'ili is a second generation Samoan chief. He grew up in the small village of Tafitoala, and he wants his children and grandchildren to grow up here too. Earlier this year, for the first time, the ocean came all the way across the road into his house.
  • For the last six years, Aska Hirabe from Hawaii has visited Malae and his family. So moved by her visits, Aska has started a Masters thesis about the climate change impacts on the village. She hopes that her findings will convince leaders that urgent action is needed to halt climate change and the devastating effects it is having in the Pacific.
Added to all this busy activity, many of the crew also embraced the local culture by getting tattoos – both traditional and non-traditional. One of the well-known local tattoo artists came to the ship – I think a total of 12 people were tattooed over two days. On Friday morning, the Esperanza left port in the early hours of the morning for the six-day transit to Vanuatu – more on that in the next update. Cheers Emily and the team on the Esperanza.