Following the World Ocean Day, the Coral Triangle Day will be celebrated on June 9th this year.
Under the theme, Driving Blue Recovery for a Sustainable Coral Triangle, the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) will be conducting several activities to mark the day.
According CEPA’s Executive Manager Marine, Yvonne Tio, PNG is in the epicenter of the coral reefs in the world and we are fortunate that we have these assets that we have to look after.
She said, “The Coral Triangle Day event will also be hosted out of the Motupore Island. There will be a beach cleanup around the island as well as mangrove planting. There will be coral and seaweed planting demonstration by the local community within the Bootless bay, getting the communities to plant mangroves in their own set ups. Three villages have already confirmed for that event.”
“There have been a lot of stakeholders interested, and we are encouraging others in NCD and Central who are interested to come along. We are also encouraging provincial governments who are interested to commemorate this day to come up with an event to show an appreciation for marine life that we have in the country,” she added.
PNG is a part of the Coral Sea Initiative that comprises of countries within the coral triangle, which is the epicenter of global marine resources. This includes PNG, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Timor Leste and Solomon Islands.
CEPA’s Director for Sustainable Environment program, Kay Kalim said the Coral Triangle Day commenced when these 6 Countries came together and agreed, based on the World Oceans Day, to come up with a Coral Triangle Day.
She said, “The Coral triangle Day will be on the 9th of June, while the Oceans Day is on the 8th so we try to do a lot of things jointly, especially in the region, especially to advocate for marine protection.”
Kalim added that these countries have in place a regional plan of action which is implemented locally through National Action plans and that also assists in-country implementation of marine activities.
She said, “We have very good corporation from schools, communities as well as political will in helping us achieve some of the global agendas in country. We have also had a lot of help from our partners, UNAID who have been assisting all 6 countries in the Coral Triangle Initiative on our implementation of marine programs.”
Kalim also said that through the PNG marine Program, PNG is really delivering on what is contained in the regional plan of action as part of our regional contribution to managing and protecting marine resources.
