COOPERATE TO CONSERVE LARGER MARINE AREAS: DASIPIO

The Nation’s first Coral Triangle Initiative Women’s Leadership Award winner Moira Dasipio says Solomon Islands Communities need to work together to create larger marine conservation areas.

Ms Moira Dasipio is among six women recognised in Indonesia on Tuesday night for their combined efforts to create and manage almost 2000 Marine Protected Areas within the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security, C-T-I-C-F-F.

Ms Moira explained creating larger networks of Marine Protected Areas, MPAs will help people and the whole country economically.

Ms Moira says our Islands are smaller in size but still in their natural state which needs a cooperation to maintain the pristine reefs, rivers and landscape.

Ms Moira has been President of Ysabel Mothers Union since 2009 and the only woman to be nominated from the Solomon Islands for the awards.

Her nomination was lodged by The Nature Conservancy, TNC, supported by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change and the Ministry of Fisheries.

Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment Melchoir Mataki says women make up half of the Solomon Islands population where effective resource management policies must include strategies and activities involving men and women.

Mr Mataki says the Solomon Islands Government is committed to the goals set out within the Coral Triangle Initiative on coral reefs,fisheries and food security.

He adds our Coral Triangle Programme promotes community based resource management to manage food and livelihood with important stakeholders, leaders and champions of national conservation efforts.

The Women’s Leadership Awards were presented for the first time since the Coral Triangle Initiative was launched in 2007 to recognise the vital role women play in conserving and managing marine resources.

It stretches from the Philippines in the north, through Indonesia and across the Solomon Islands in the east which sometimes called ‘Amazon of the sea’.