Cedric Schuster is the Coordinator of Greengrants’ Pacific Islands Advisory Board and works as an environmental consultant in Samoa. Cedric recently visited our Boulder, Colorado, office and shared his thoughts with us about challenges in the Pacific Islands region, how communities are organizing, and why Greengrants’ model circumvents some common problems associated with funding relationships. The Pacific Islands Advisory Board has been making grants throughout Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia since 2002.
We rarely hear about the Pacific Islands in the news. What are the most pressing environmental and social challenges in the region right now?
The biggest issue is large-scale logging. In Papua New Guinea (PNG) and other Melanesian countries, there is a lot of interest from Malaysian and Indonesian logging corporations because the forests are so large. The destruction has been huge.
On the smaller islands, fisheries and marine conservation is a priority. Fishing provides the main income for so many of the small islands. There is a huge potential for over-fishing these resources, especially by the foreign fishing fleets. Furthermore, the economic benefits from fishing are unequally distributed. The tuna fishing industry is worth around $2 billion, and less than 5 percent of the income feeds back into the local economy. The majority goes outside of the region.
Now more than ever, dealing with the impacts of climate change is an imminent priority. Communities are already dealing with increased flooding and erosion. Relocating the entire population of countries such as Tuvalu is now a question of time. We have yet to see any real commitment from the international community on these issues.
There is also quite a bit of political instability in the region. Fiji and the Solomon Islands have witnessed coups and riots against the government. These problems are all related to money, basically – who is paying who. The foreign investors are paying people left, right, and center, and creating friction among local politicians. It is this combination of natural resource extraction, unequal distribution of benefits, and political instability that creates a difficult environment.
Is there any room for public participation on these issues?
Yes, one of the interesting dynamics in the Pacific region is that governments don’t own the land. Most of the land belongs to the people: about 70 to 80 percent is under community ownership and customary land tenure. On the good side, the government can’t tell communities what to do on their land; on the bad side, the government can’t stop investors from going in and buying community land for unfair prices or leasing for logging. The companies are negotiating directly with the communities, and doing so unfairly. There is very little due diligence or appropriate environmental measures taken when these land grabs occur.
There is quite a bit of community participation in decision-making; but, there could be even more. The problem is many people have very little understanding of the issues—the communities are unaware of the implications and effects of some of the resource development plans going on like mining and logging. And these are very remote communities. They can’t see the relationship between a mine in another part of the country and their own community. When they don’t see the direct impact, they don’t participate in the issue. People are isolated from national decision-making.
This is why advocacy and education is so important—to teach people about the impacts these projects can have for their lives and environments.
So, what happens if a community is approached by investors wanting a logging concession?
In some places, the investors usually bring the landowners into town for ‘negotiations,’ which might include putting them up in big hotels and giving them rental cars and showing them a good time. And then they sign away their rights for money that in their eyes is a lot, but really is undervaluing their resources.
When faced by these huge challenges, what is the benefit of working with local community groups?
In our work, we mainly focus on improving local understanding and organizing communities so that they know how to access more information. Then, if they are faced with this type of situation, they know who to call to get a second opinion or how they can get access to better information. In some cases, we work with communities that are taking logging companies to court. This is about empowering communities.
In terms of our increasing focus on climate change, we’ve been working with community groups to deal with the specific impacts of climate change. The governments already know this is a priority, but don’t have the funds to do anything about it. For example, in one community we funded a project to redirect a river channel that has been flooding more frequently, and then piped water inland for a safer community resettlement site. We used to think that small grants couldn’t make an impact for a problem as big as climate change, but it’s now clear to us that communities do have a role to play.
Can you tell us about an example of how this work can be effective?
CELCOR, Damien Ase’s organization (an advisor on the Pacific Islands Board), assisted a community in a case against a logging company that then pulled out of the license agreement as a result of the pressure. With Greengrants funding, they were able to get a legal opinion on the case and push it through the courts.
Another strategy is doing awareness campaigns in communities and promoting alternatives to large-scale logging. In one case, a community used Greengrants funds to build a tree nursery for reforestation of logged areas, and other neighboring communities saw the benefits of this and also said “no” to logging. They’re now coming to Greengrants with requests to pursue other alternative environmental activities, like building an eco-lodge. It shows that it can, indeed, be done.
What do you see as the benefits of Greengrants’ small grants model?
Communities are not afraid to come to us with requests for funds because we don’t require a lot of writing or a lot of bureaucracy in terms of accessing and using funds. A lot of these communities go to other donors, other so-called ‘small grants’ programs, and they have to fill out so many forms and complete so many requirements. These are traditional communities; they are not used to writing and are being asked to learn how to write in a language and a format that is not part of their everyday life. There are more than 500 languages and dialects in PNG alone! They don’t know how to do it in the right way. In the end they get blamed for using the funds incorrectly or unsuccessfully. Most other donors in the region only fund ‘professionals,’ and the communities get cut out of the funding. Greengrants is so flexible and approachable and can move quickly to get funds out. Plus, it is one of the only sources of funding for traditional or rural communities. At Greengrants, there is more personal communication with the applicants—we know them. If we don’t trust them, we don’t fund them. It’s not about how well the application is written—it’s about empowering communities.
At what point in your life did you know that you wanted to dedicate your career to environmental work?
As a child I had always liked the outdoors, which I experienced through Boy Scouts. As I grew older, the traditional environment that I knew as a child changed considerably and I was disturbed by the damage going on. And then I became involved when Samoa started the Division of Environment and Conservation. I’ve worked for government at the national policy level. Then, I joined the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) movement because I thought I could use this avenue to address environmental challenges from a different angle. And now, I’ve joined the private sector as an environmental consultant to work with those who have generally been the primary polluters. I hope to make them change some of their ways by incorporating environmentally-friendly solutions into their business practices—changing the system from within.
When you’re not working as a consultant and for Greengrants, what other pursuits do you enjoy?
As part of my traditional village council of chiefs, I’m working toward village development including environmental projects, sports (as a rugby coach), and youth development. I’m also on the board of a national environmental organization called O Le Siosiomaga Society, and I’ve worked with several local lawyers to establish a legal NGO called Simple Law. There’s always another challenge! And, I spend a lot of time with my family raising my kids, who are 10, 8, 6, and 2 years old.