00:00Well, the U.N. Oceans Conference continues, meanwhile, in the French city of Nice.
00:04And with the very ambitious summit set to close on Friday, all attention is, of course, still on whether or not those present will have anything concrete to show for their lofty, ambitious declarations.
00:15Now, French Polynesia pledged to create the world's largest marine protected area to safeguard its seas in hopes to encourage others to pass similar measures.
00:24For now, though, there are arguably few signs of groundbreaking progress.
00:28For more, we're going to cross now to our special envoy there, Antonia Kerrigan.
00:31She's been speaking to a Samoan activist. Antonia, over to you then.
00:38Yes, that's quite right, Jeannie.
00:40So with a high ambition summit underway, I am joined by a climate activist, Brianna Fruin.
00:47Brianna, you're from Samoa, a climate vulnerable island nation.
00:51Why are conferences like this so important to you?
00:53It's important because our ocean is feeling the impact of the climate in the same ways our islands are.
00:59So to protect our planet and our islands from sinking, we have to protect our ocean.
01:05OK.
01:06And the Samoans have had a huge level of ambition when it comes to marine protected areas.
01:12Tell us about Samoa's ambitions, its goals that it's already set and the commitments it's made,
01:18and how public opinion has been galvanized to support that long term.
01:22Absolutely. So just before UNOC, our government of Samoa announced that we have nine new marine protected areas.
01:29And so those nine new protected areas allows us to reach the 30 percent goal of protected oceans.
01:36And by 2030, we actually want to make sure that 100 percent of our ocean is either protected or sustainably managed.
01:43And all of this is done with local communities taking the lead in how we actually need to manage our oceans.
01:50We often hear when we talk about marine protected areas and protected areas in general,
01:55the indigenous communities have something to offer that is historically not been listening to.
02:01The Samoan example has been trying to address that.
02:04Absolutely. So all 52 districts were consulted with this marine spatial plan that has been just announced,
02:11as well as radio galvanized, schools galvanized, to try and get everyone understanding what this plan means
02:19and also having their input into this plan.
02:21So it's one that doesn't just belong to the government, but belongs to us as Samoans.
02:25Excellent. And another thing I'd like to ask you at a conference like this one,
02:30of course, Samoa's climate CO2 emissions and overexploitation of the sea would be a drop in the ocean compared to the bigger players.
02:39So what is it that Samoans are looking for from the international community at an event like this one?
02:44What kinds of commitments?
02:45Yeah, I think for the Pacific as a whole, if we see some of our Pacific islands like Samoa,
02:50like Marshall Islands, who've shown climate and ocean leadership,
02:53we look to the world to match that, to show up in the ways that our leaders have shown up
02:58and to make sure that we can actually reach the 30 by 30 goal by 2030,
03:02because it's vital for our ecosystems on Earth.
03:05In terms of the on-paper protection of marine protected areas that sometimes doesn't quite correlate
03:12with what's happening on the ground or out at sea,
03:15do you have faith in the kinds of announcements we've heard this week?
03:18I've found faith at UNOC in local communities who have shown the real life examples
03:24of how they're protecting their ocean and how they're protecting the areas that they hold sacred.
03:30And so I believe that if we're able to find ourselves in a space where we are involving
03:35indigenous communities, involving local communities that are coastal,
03:38that's where the change will happen, because the implementation at the end of the day
03:42doesn't happen at UNOC, it happens in the communities that are going to be the ones
03:46that are moving and shaking.
03:48There's of course a climate justice conversation to be had,
03:51there's of course a matter of financing, there's of course a matter of polluters paying.
03:54Do you think that financially polluters have shown that they're ready to put their money
03:59where their mouth is, just very briefly?
04:01No, there's a huge gap that needs to be closed.
04:05There's a financial gap that we need to close in order to protect the ocean that we know is critical.
04:11Critical. Well that's Samoan climate activist Brianna Fruin.
04:15Thank you very much. Back to you in the studio.
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