Islands and Oceans Net (IO Net) 1st General Meeting
Outcome Summary
Islands and Oceans Net Secretariat
Ocean Policy Research Institute
Ocean Policy Research Institute, The Sasakawa Peace Foundation (OPRI, SPF) organized the
Islands and Oceans Net (IO Net) 1st General Meeting with the Australian National Centre for
Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong and the University of Tokyo
Ocean Alliance at the Ito International Research Center, University of Tokyo from 25 – 26 May
2015.
IO Net is an international collaborative network for the organisations and individuals (called
“Partners”) who support the Joint Policy Recommendations “For the Better Conservation and
Management of Islands and Their Surrounding Ocean Areas” and collaborate and cooperate on
a voluntary basis to implement it
190 participants including 27 from overseas attended the IO Net 1st General Meeting. At the
opening session, Mr. Hiroshi Terashima, President, OPRI, SPF which serves as IO Net
Secretariat underlined that the IO Net is an international collaborative network for the
organisations and individuals that collaborate on a voluntary basis to promote the better
conservation and management of islands and their surrounding oceans, and stated that this
meeting was intended to facilitate the development of concrete projects to implement the
Joint Policy Recommendations. Prof. Stuart Kaye, Director, ANCORS stated in his video
message that he welcomed the launching and the operationalization of the IO Net. Prof.
Toshiyuki Hibiya, Director, University of Tokyo Ocean Alliance affirmed his determination that
the University of Tokyo Ocean Alliance will carry out advanced academic research and play a
proactive role in promoting sustainability in the Pacific island countries.
Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman, The Nippon Foundation stated in his keynote speech that the
alarming phenomena that threaten human existence have emerged in the ocean and been
progressing silently and steadily and the time has come now for establishing an international
organization that addresses ocean issues comprehensively. As an honourable guest, H.E. Mr.
Anote Tong, President, the Republic of Kiribati stated that the Pacific island countries have
been greatly affected by climate change and variability and the fate of the island countries
hinges upon the collaboration of international community and expressed his expectation to
the activities to be carried out under the IO Net. Honourable Mr. Kazuyuki Nakane,
Parliamentary Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Japan welcomed the undertaking of the IO Net
that can forge the close long term relationship between Japan and the Pacific island countries.
At this Meeting, Mr. Hiroshi Terashima, President, OPRI, SPF, Prof. Alistair McIlgorm, Capacity
Development Coordinator, ANCORS and Mr. David Sheppard, Director-General, Secretariat of
the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) presided the Meeting as Co-Chairs.
At the sessions, the participants had fruitful discussions on the challenges faced by the small
island countries and the proposed future activities based on the presentations made by the
participants from the Pacific island countries, Japan and international organisations under the
agenda of the conservation and management of islands, management of islands’ surrounding
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oceans, responses to climate change and variability, and capacity development and
institutional strengthening.
The points raised in the discussions are reflected as an indicative list in Annex I: Points of
discussions.
At the wrap-up session, the participants discussed the launching of concrete projects under
the operational guidelines of the IO Net and affirmed the direction of future activities. They
have also confirmed that the interested partners of IO Net will discuss and materialize various
project proposals for their implementation and the IO Net Secretariat (OPRI, SPF) support
partners to develop and implement the projects through collecting and sharing of related
information and making and circulating a list of proposed projects. The list of possible projects
was discussed as shown in Annex II. The IO Net Secretariat has subsequently developed the
revised list of the proposed projects shown in Annex III to be circulated to the IO Net partners
for their review. The IO Net Secretariat invites the IO Net partners to submit comments on the
list and also welcomes the submission of new project proposals.
The Meeting was a great success and highly fruitful as many participants have attested their
enthusiasm and commitment to promote international collaboration for undertaking the
proposed activities to implement our Joint Policy Recommendations “For the Better
Conservation and Management of Island and Their Surrounding Ocean Areas”. The coorganisers would like to cordially express appreciation to those who attended and supported
the Meeting and ask for continuous support to future activities of IO Net.
<Inquiry>
Further details of the future activities for the IO Net will be posted at
http://blog.canpan.info/ionet-jpn. Please address any further inquiry to the IO Net Secretariat
(ionet@spf.or.jp、Dr. Keita Furukawa, Senior Researcher k-furukawa@spf.or.jp and Mr.
Masanori Kobayashi, Researcher, m-kobayashi@spf.or.jp、Ocean Policy Research Institute,
The Sasakawa Peace Foundation)
Islands and Oceans Net Secretariat – Ocean Policy Research Institute, The Sasakawa Peace
Foundation Attention: Dr.Keita Furukawa and Mr. Masanori Kobayashi
Address: Toranomon 35 Mori Bldg, 3-4-10, Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0001 Japan
Tel: 81-3-5404-6855, Fax: 81-3-5404-6801
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Annex I: Points of discussions
Island management strategies
 Important to understand the topographical types of islands and their socio-economic and
cultural characteristics as well as their vulnerability,
 Essential to reinforce an integrated approach to land, coastal and marine management,
 Island vulnerability should be addressed in the island management strategies to integrate
ecosystem based adaptation and resilience development in island management,
 Interventions need to be tailored to meet the needs and conditions of various island
countries,
 Need to review existing national and regional island management strategies and
initiatives (e.g., marine parks),
 Important to support the activities to develop policies and strengthen institutions for
promoting the conservation and sustainable management of islands’ natural resources
and coastal areas,
 Vital to continue and link activities to monitor islands’ change and promoting sub-regional,
regional and international cooperation
Coral, mangrove and ecosystem conservation
 Integrated coastal management is useful,
 Sea grass should be included in the subjects with coral reef, mangrove and other
ecosystems,
 There is need to review and conduct island ecosystem assessment,
 Important to upscale marine protected areas and regulation of activities at the terrestrial
and coastal areas,
 Useful to develop financing mechanisms for conservation and sustainable use of
ecosystems and natural resources at the terrestrial and coastal areas,
 Important to facilitate and enhance impacts of capacity development activities,
 Essential to upscale conservation of wide ranging indicator flora and fauna such as sea
grass,
 Vital to facilitate mutual learning among partners on good practices including the sharing
of good practice in Japan with island countries
Renewable energy
 Important to consider the feasibility of wide ranging renewable energy sources such as
solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and tidal power generation and ocean thermal energy
conversion,
 Essential to facilitate capacity development for enhancing the feasibility of using
renewable energies
Sustainable inter-island transport
 Useful to understand the current status of inter-island transport,
 Suggested to consider measures for improving efficiency and economic viability in interisland transport,
 Worth trying to improve energy efficiency in inter-island transport
Waste management
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Important to facilitate the development and implementation of policies and improve the
institutions and infrastructure for environmentally sound waste management,
Useful to facilitate the development and improvement of national policy and
implementing institutions for waste and hazardous substances in harmony with the
international agreements such as the Stockholm Convention and the Minamata
Convention,
Marine debris issues can be considered along with the waste management related issues
Setting a baseline and boundary of the territorial seas and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
 Important to develop policies and institutions in pursuance with the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),
 Useful to promote international cooperation for supporting the Pacific island countries in
undertaking relevant activities
Fishery and marine biodiversity management
 Important to promote sustainable use and conservation of fishery and marine biological
resources,
 Essential to develop and implement effective management strategies,
 Vital to integrating natural and social sciences,
 Useful to strengthen the control over illegal, unreported and unregulated fishery,
 Worth utilizing the criteria for the Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas
(EBSAs)
Seabed mineral resources exploitation and marine environment conservation
 Important to develop policies and institutions for undertaking environmental impact
assessment regarding mineral resources exploration and development,
 Useful to foster international cooperation for capacity development
Adaptation to climate change/variability and disaster reduction
 Essential to develop effective policies and institutions for resilient land conservation and
management, and disaster reduction,
 Vital to promote sound land use and conservation by local communities with the
understanding of local characteristics,
 Useful to foster international cooperation for strengthening resilience to the natural
disasters such as cyclone and others that relate to climate change and variability,
 Important to promote international cooperation in monitoring global climatic and
oceanographic conditions
Capacity development and institutional strengthening
 Important to focus on the priority of Pacific island countries and ensuring their ownership,
 Worth utilizing successful cases,
 Essential to understand the linkages of sectors, policy agenda and geographical areas,
 Indispensable to utilize the networks of NGOs, youth groups, and existing national,
regional and international mechanisms,
 Imperative to promote multi-faceted and up-scaled capacity developing,
 There is a need to take into account additional values to be generated under IO Net,
 Necessary to identify concrete deliverables,
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Vital to link with international initiatives (e.g., climate change programmes, biodiversity
conservation initiatives),
Financing mechanisms can be a useful topic,
The activities should be developed as a part of the strategies to operate IO Net,
Indispensable to promote the sharing of good practice and build partnership by engaging
stakeholders including the private sector
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Annex II: List of Possible Projects
As of 26 May 2015
Area / Project Proposal
2-1 a. Development and Implementation of Management Strategies
(1) Island Classification and Long-term Monitoring for Building Island Management
Strategies
- Assessing characteristics, vulnerability and risks involved in different types of
islands
- Developing integrated island management strategies in the pilot countries, case
studies will be undertaken, need to fill gaps between islands and national policy,
regional strategies, global initiatives and disaster risk reduction
- Appling ecological engineering in revising land use plan and implementing longterm monitoring
- Improvement of national ocean policy / strategies
- Objects: Reversing coastal degradation, improving catchment water
quality, reducing impact on ocean, avoiding sectorial approach
- Filling gaps between science and implementation
- Important to take into account;
- that SIDS already have strategies, but ICM
- a need for better implementation
- a need to advance strategy development in concurrent with its
implementation
- a need to avoid duplication of what is already there
- socio-economic and anthropogenic factors in implementing projects
Proposed partners: OPRI, ANCORS, Island states, U of Tokyo Ocean Alliance, U of
Auckland, SPC, PIFS, USP, SPREP
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Area / Project Proposal (cont.)
2-1 e. Coral Reef, Mangrove and Ecosystem Conservation
(2) Coastal Ecosystem (Coral Reef, Mangrove Forests and Seagrass bed) Conservation
Project using ICM Package
- Selecting case study sites (can be local, sub-national and/or national)
- Reviewing existing management systems and problems in the targeted area
(conservation of ecosystem, disaster prevention, waste management,
landowner system etc.) through including evaluating local conditions and
interviewing stakeholders
- Implementing local ICM strategies, organizing ICM committees and compiling
ICM plans with modification along with local ecological, social situations
- Capacity building for community organizers
- Networking study sites (regional workshop?)
- Consider;
- that the naming of “ICM” can be adjusted in accordance with locally
popular terminology,
- a need to think “what should be done”,
- socio-economic and anthropogenic factors in implementing projects,
- 2-1 a.’s Eco-engineering can be relevant,
- scales and boundaries of ecosystems
Potential partners: OPRI, ANCORS, National and local government of island states, SPREP
2-1 c. Implementation of Waste Management
(3) Community Based Waste Management using ICM Package
- Appling ICM approach for waste management
- Reviewing specific national /regional waste management strategy
- Filling gaps between strategies and community based management
- forming a local committee with local community members
- drawing up a suggested work plan
- advocate national policy changes
- Capacity building for community organizers
Networking study sites (regional workshop?)
with: ISACI, National Environment Service of the Cook Islands, OPRI
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Area / Project Proposal (cont.)
4-1 e. Coral Reef, Mangrove and Ecosystem Conservation
(4) Networking Coastal and Marine Ecosystem and its expansion
- Strengthening MPA network from land to sea (ridge to reef)
- Need to start from assessment
- Need evidence based consideration e.g. ICRI will make a meeting and
has protocol to be followed
- Livelihood of local people also should be included
- Stakeholder participation should be already built in national action plan
of CBD
- Sustainability of MPA should be addressed include financing issue
- Exploring varieties / types of large ecosystem conservation and sustainable use
- Exchanging idea and extracting best practices to share (Series of regional
workshop(s)?)
Proposed partners: Island states, PICRC, ICRI, SPC, PIFS, USP, SPREP ANCORS, OPRI,
Area / Project Proposal (cont.)
2-2 c. Improvement of Transport among Islands
(5) Trial for enhancing sustainable transport between islands
- Reviewing marine transport problems in and between Island States
- From socioeconomic, heritage and cultural viewpoints
- Planning restoration strategies and its implementation action plan for specific
cases
- Implementing economical and eco-friendly sustainable transport systems
- Wind supported vessels
- Optimization of shipping route and operations
Proposed partners: USP, IC Net, OPRI
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Area / Project Proposal (cont.)
3 Capacity Building and Institutional Strengthening
(6) Information sharing and Training workshop for IO Net Partners
- Consider;
- that there are already many on-going initiatives for capacity building,
- that capacity development can be associated with specific projects,
- that problem identification should be done to set a clear target of each
project.
- area / location identification is also important,
- a need to build capacity at the national level,
- there are formal and informal style for training / information sharing
- that a first step can be to identify a problem through dialogues with
stakeholders and to report it back to IO Net
Possible themes for capacity development;
- Networking marine protected area
- Scale of management
- Variation of conservation and sustainable use
- Sustainable Fisheries Management
- Coastal small fisheries and offshore commercial fisheries
- Enhancing monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS), Market based
management etc.
- Interaction of Science (Natural, social and economic)
- Response and adaptation to climate change and variability
Proposed partners: All?
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Annex III: Revised list of the proposed projects
As of 11 June 2015
1. Island management strategy pilot project
The proposed project is aimed at (i) examining topographic conditions of Pacific island
countries and categorizing these countries based on their island types, (ii) facilitating the
development and implementation of island management strategies in the Pacific island
countries willing to undertake the project activities.
Proponent partners: OPRI, ANCORS, Pacific island countries willing to undertake the
project activities
2. Island resilience development pilot project
The proposed project is aimed at (i) developing islands’ resilience to natural disasters and
adaptation to climate change and variability through enabling policies, institutional
frameworks, early warning systems and other relevant measures, (ii) supporting
ecosystem and community based resilient society development in the countries that are
willing to undertake the activities of this proposed project.
Proponent partners: OPRI, ANCORS, Pacific island countries willing to undertake the
project activities
3. Integrated coastal and ocean management pilot project
The proposed project aims at (i) promoting the application of integrated coastal and
ocean management in the Pacific island countries through consolidating the environment
and development and involving local communities, (ii) facilitating the development and
implementation of integrated coastal and island management plans in the islands and/or
communities within the Pacific island countries that are willing to undertake the project
activities.
Proponent partners: OPRI, ANCORS, Pacific island countries willing to undertake the
project activities, SPREP
4. Environmentally sound waste management pilot project
The proposed project aims at (i) undertaking multi-stakeholder policy dialogues on
environmentally sound waste management suitable for Pacific island countries, and (ii)
facilitating innovative approaches to waste management in the selected Pacific island
countries or communities.
Proponent partners: ISACI, SPREP
5. Renewable energy development pilot project
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The proposed project aims at (i) promoting environmentally sound and culturally
rewarding livelihood through utilizing renewable energies in the Pacific island countries,
(ii) exploring options of renewable energy sources in the Pacific island communities, and
(iii) experimenting innovative approaches to utilizing renewable energies in the
communities/island of the Pacific island communities that are willing to undertake the
project activities.
Proponent partners: Samoa, SANGO, SPREP
6. Geothermal and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) project
The proposed project aims at (i) examining policy, institutional, technological and financial
gaps in geothermal and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) application, and (ii)
examining the implication of geothermal and OTEC application to national energy policies
and energy market and usage.
Proponent partners: SPC, JAMSTEC, OPRI
7. Inter-island sea transport improvement project
The proposed project aims at (i) supporting the continuation and improvement of interisland sea transport in Pacific island countries, (ii) facilitating multi-stakeholder policy
dialogues on inter-island sea transport, and (iii) developing and experimenting a plan for
improving inter-island sea transport and examining its socio-economic benefits.
Proponent partners: IC Net, USP, OPRI, the Pacific island countries willing to undertake
the project activities
8. Marine protected areas and ecosystems networking pilot project
The proposed project aims at (i) promoting the conservation of ecosystems, marine
protected areas (MPA) and coastal and terrestrial protected areas, and enhancing the
networking of such ecosystems with the ecosystem based approach, (ii) exploring ways
for up-scaling conservation measures and sites (e.g., Ecologically or Biologically Significant
Marine Areas, EBSAs), and (iii) examining the feasibility and potential benefit of
introducing and/or upscaling conservation measures and networks.
Proponent partners: PICRC, CBD Sec, the Pacific island countries and organization willing
to undertake the project activities
9. Sustainable fishery promotion project
The proposed project aims at (i) curtailing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU)
fishing through regional fishery organisations and the labelling systems in the market such
as the one of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), (ii) identifying policy and
institutional gaps in achieving sustainable fishery, and (iii) facilitating multi-stakeholder
policy dialogues for sustainable fishery.
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Proponent partners: Fisheries Research Agency (FRA) of Japan, PIFS, ANCORS
10. Sustainable management of deep seabed mineral resources project
The proposed project aims at (i) assessing policy and institutional framework for
promoting environmentally sound deep sea mineral resource exploration and
development and safeguarding marine environment, (ii) supporting capacity development
for sustainable deep sea mineral resource exploration and development and marine
environment safeguarding, and (iii) facilitating multi-stakeholder policy dialogues at the
national, regional and international levels.
Proposed partners: SPC, JAMSTEC
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