A four-part webinar addressing and sharing many projects across the Pacific relating to the environment and climate change, and why future projects should receive funding and support will continue today, with Dr. Teina Rongo from Korero o te Orau being selected as one of the panelists.

To set the stage for uplifting Indigenous voices and priorities during the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26), International Funders for Indigenous Peoples (IFIP) is partnering with Nia Tero to offer a four-part webinar series focused on Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change.

Day one of the webinar took place on Tuesday and focused on Climate Financing and Philanthropy. Part two will take place today with the focus being on Climate Change and the Pacific.

This pre-COP webinar series will feature indigenous leaders from around the world that will discuss the issues, needs, and self-determined priorities relevant to their work and their communities.

Amongst these leaders who will each have a chance to speak throughout the series will be Dr. Teina Rongo, chairperson for local environmental NGO, Kōrero o te `Ōrau, and the first Cook Islander to receive his Ph.D in Marine Biology.

Rongo will present and speak today on several of Korero o te Orau’s projects which have been inspired by the vision of using traditional knowledge and practices in hopes of retaining cultural identity, reversing biodiversity loss, and strengthening the resilience of communities from the imminent threat of climate change and the pressures of development.

Korero o te Orau have delivered multiple environmental science and climate change programmes to young Cook Islanders in primary and secondary schools throughout the years.

Rongo explained how each of the programmes have fallen under Korero o te Orau’s umbrella programme Atui’anga ki te Tango which aims to connect participants with their environment and natural resources.

“The underlying goal is to help people connect to their environment and resources through traditional practices. By practicing traditional ways, that practice alone has a strong relationship with the environment. We are not only reviving the culture and language, we are also protecting the environment that is under threat from climate change, development and more,” he said.

“To cope with climate change we have to go back to our traditional ways. For us it’s the only way to solve and address the issue of climate change. We tend to go look for more Westernised solution problems which usually just create more problems. What we are saying is why don’t we just go back to the basics and how we used to live.”

Ultimately the webinar will be about coming together and sharing all the different projects from different environmental leaders across the Pacific and helping the donors understand the push for these traditional systems to be implemented today and how they relate to the issue of climate change.

“If we revive our traditional practices it will certainly help us cope with the challenges of climate change both in terms of how we manage our resources, our traditional ways of fishing, our practices on land, agriculture. We want them to be sustainable and eco-friendly. It’s about reviving these practices and bringing awareness to it and helping people practice them. We are basically sharing what we have been doing and how it’s relevant in building our resilience to climate change,” Rongo said.