Solomon Islands Attends UNCCD-COP16

By Sharon Nanau in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 

The Solomon Islands delegation is gearing up for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD-COP16), set to officially begin on December 2, 2024.

Led by the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Hon. Franklyn Derek Wasi, the three-member delegation will present the country’s concerns on issues vital to its agricultural and environmental sectors.

The UNCCD is the global voice for land and one of the three major UN treaties known as the Rio Conventions, alongside climate and biodiversity.

In an interview with SIBC news Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Permanent Secretary Dr Samson Viulu said Solomon Islands climate change impacts on the agriculture sector makes it important that the country voices its concerns in the international forum.

“A lot of the issues which affects us in terms of drought and land degradation impacts the Agriculture sector. It is important that we participate in the conversation and the discussion on the issues that affects us. We have to input our concerns directly in these conventions as this is where the decisions are made and these decisions will affect our development not just Solomon Islands but all small developing countries,” he said.

Dr. Viulu stressed that despite the seemingly small scale of the country’s challenges compared to larger nations, the effects of environmental changes on Solomon Islands’ fragile ecosystem have profound local, national and regional consequences.

He said Solomon Islands, with its limited resources and vulnerability, needs to engage in these global discussions to ensure its concerns are heard and to secure funding for climate adaptation and resilience-building efforts.

“Given Solomon Island small size and the high vulnerability of our ecosystem, a small impact on our ecosystem will have negative impacts on our economy that’s why it is important despite the issues maybe small at the global stage for us it is nothing to do with the global scale but it’s to do with the challenges we face at the local, national and regional scale.”

The UNCCD is the only legally binding framework set up to address desertification and the effects of drought therefore, decisions made during meetings of the conference of the parties are legally binding and member states or parties are obliged to implement these decisions.

Solomon Islands became a party to the UNCCD when it ratified the convention in 1999.

Since then, Solomon Islands has struggled to attend meetings of the UNCCD due to lack of funding.

SIBC news understands Solomon Islands attendance in this year’s meeting is funded by the Saudi Arabia government through the UNCCD fund.

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