Article by Davila Talemaimaleya, Learning Coordinator for the Pacific Islands Advisory Board
The Pacific is on the frontlines of efforts to stop the climate crisis, making it pivotal for environmental funders to centre it in their grantmaking. Global Greengrants Fund has been awarding grants to grassroots groups in the Pacific Islands for over a decade, focusing our efforts on the local Indigenous communities, women, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups who are facing the deepest climate impacts, and who are therefore best poised to offer effective solutions.
The Boe Declaration on Regional Security states that “climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific” (PIFS, 2018, pp. 10-11). It highlights the existential threat that PICT’s face, as coastal communities are at greater risk of losing their land, identity, culture, source of livelihood, and subsistence. Moreover, the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent (2022) states that “All Pacific peoples have an undeniable connection to their natural environment, resources, livelihoods, faiths, cultural values and traditional knowledge.” The region needs urgent, immediate, and appropriate action to address the impacts of climate change and biodiversity and habitat loss.
Given the impacts of climate change in the Pacific region, local Pacific communities play an important role in influencing change. Their active involvement in community-led nature-based solutions is essential in initiating, planning, implementing, and sustaining climate resilience projects. These projects not only build the resilience of people in the Pacific, but also help to build a world that can mitigate or even reverse climate change impacts.
The Daulo Commodities Cooperative Society Limited (DCCSL) in Papua New Guinea, a Global Greengrants grantee partner, is a clear example of how inclusive locally-led initiatives can influence change within Pacific communities. DCCSL is a sustainable tree and farming community-based co-operative in Daulo District within the Eastern Highlands Province (EHP) of Papua New Guinea.
DCCSL aims to provide sustainable livelihoods for local communities that protect and revitalise local ecosystems and biodiversity to counter the negative effects of deforestation in the region.
Understanding the importance of reforestation and enhancing capacity development for local communities, and using a grant from Global Greengrants Fund, DCCSL built six greenhouse nurseries for six communities within Daulo district to cater for seedlings and trees such as bulb onions, coffee seeds, Agathis robusta (a.k.a kauri pines), Pinus patula (a.k.a patula pine), Pinus stroubus (a.k.a Easter White Pine), Eucalyptus deglupta (a.k.a rainbow eucalyptus), and other indigenous trees and fresh vegetables.
Under one of its programs, DCCSL also works in partnership with Keremu Mama Fresh Produce, an integrated business arm of DCCSL that supports initiatives focused on the nexus between agriculture, business, and women. Their motto is “supporting women, defeating poverty”. Programs and partnerships like this offer solutions for the region’s increase in inequality and unemployment by providing local communities with income-generating activities through a gender-responsive and whole-of-community approach, ensuring no one is left behind even in climate and environmental justice, and centering these groups’ innovative climate solutions.
DCCSL has also established an eco-forestry and ecolodge that attracts tourists to hike in the Eastern Highlands of PNG, learn customs and traditions, conduct site visits, and plant trees as part of DCCSL’s mission to plant 230,000 trees by 2030 to preserve and protect surrounding ecosystems and biodiversity. This helps to connect people from outside the Pacific with both the direct impacts of the climate crisis and the innovative solutions that grassroots groups in the region are already implementing, contributing to stronger climate movements globally.
DCCSL’s efforts in eco-tourism, sustainable farming, and reforestation demonstrate how community involvement can lead to significant environmental and socioeconomic benefits. For funders like Global Greengrants, it is pivotal that we support inclusive, community-led nature-based solutions like these in regions like the Pacific that are facing deep climate impacts, as well as globally. By uplifting solutions like these, we will create a more sustainable and just future for people and the planet.