Greenpeace closes Fiji office

The environmental watchdog Greenpeace is closing its Pacific regional office in Fiji at the end of the month.

The four member office is to be replaced by a smaller scale presence involving a Greenpeace representative roving the Pacific.

The programme director of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Ben Pearson, says the closure after nearly 20 years is nothing to do with domestic Fiji politics, nor is it a funding problem.

“Greenpeace Australia New Zealand will continue to devote substantial resources to the Pacific particularly the oceans campaign so there’s no way this should be seen as us withdrawing from the Pacific at all.

“It’s just a matter of having a bit of a review and a change in the way we actually allocate resources in the region.”

Greenpeace says its pullout from Fiji does not mean a softening of its efforts in the region.

Pearson says Greenpeace will continue to focus its efforts on dealing with ocean crises like overfishing.

“We will also continue to do work on issues like climate change.

“The structure that we’ve set up, the resources that we will allocate to the region are going to be easily sufficient for us to continue to win campaigns and to really deliver on environmental protection in that region.”

Pearson says Greenpeace is putting in place a new system to be known as Pacific Net to cover the Pacific. -- SUVA