Response Trust

Membre de l’Alliance

Nouvelle-Zélande, www.response.org.nz

This network for Responsibility has been generated over the past ten years with links with partners in Small Islands states and the larger countries of the southern part of the ‘Water Continent’ including Australia, Papua New Guinea and Aotearoa-New Zealand.

Responsibilities that we focus on are cultural and environmental interests with special interest in water ecosystems. The vast Pacific Ocean covers more than one third of the earth so water is deeply embedded in our cultures, histories, and horizons. Nowadays, the oceans are increasingly regarded as the last frontier of undiscovered and unexploited resources, and we see the tentacles of strategies to achieve influence reaching into the region from Pacific Rim countries, China, and the US, and from further afield such as the European Union.

An approach of responsibility rather than rights for environmental governance is more in keeping with cultures of the region. However the commercial interests which drive development often over-ride traditional values, or there is a lack of precedent in law to put in place environmental safeguards.

RESPONSE uses the concept of ‘co-responsibility’ to collaborate with organizations working for similar goals. To build relationships with partners in the region we have attended forums and meetings in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, Hawaii and Australia. ESPONSE is a partner and member of : Alliance for Responsible and Sustainable Societies (Alliance-Respons); Environment and Conservation Organizations of Aotearoa NZ (ECO; IUCN Commission for Environment, Economy and Social Policy (CEESP).

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