The rise in sea level affects the population of Rapa Nui and erodes the platform of the ancient moai statues many of which are on the coast, explains EFE Marcela Hey, member of the Local Sea Council, working on a climate mitigation plan.
Hey, greet in the Easter language, the language spoken by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, while explaining within the framework of the Our Ocean Conference 2024 (Our ocean) in Athens the problems faced by the inhabitants of this island administratively dependent on the Valparaíso Region.
As a member “elected by the people” for him “Koro Nui or te Vaikava Rapa Nui” (Sea Council) says, “we have created a climate change plan”, with the aim of mitigating its impacts, which represents “a serious problem” for the island of just 163.6 square kilometers and which is located in the South Pacific.
Plan actions include administration and development “of the marine protected areas (MPA) that have been created and cover 790 square kilometers and the fight against plastic pollution”he explains, because “we are in one of the Pacific gyres, where garbage arrives and affects the entire island.”
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
To fight against this pollution, they are carrying out “actions that are not only at the local level, but with the collaboration of other national and international institutions”, one of the reasons that brought Hey to the Conference in Athens, to be able to collect aid and look for projects that work in that area.
“The idea is to raise awareness among large companies who have this key to plastic and propose that if we do not close it, we will have the consequences precisely in these small islands in the Pacific”, many of which live “mostly from tourism” like Easter Island.
In addition to the impacts for people living on the coast, he highlights, “one of the platforms (ahu in Rapanui language) is eroding, where our statues, our moai, sit, many of which are right on the coast.
Another impact is the “decrease in fishing, which is very important for us,” especially for the “illegal fishing by tuna boats that pass through the island and are placed at mile 201″, the limit of national jurisdiction.
To carry out surveillance and inspection tasks throughout the area, they are working with national authorities to establish “an in situ monitoring system and to be able to detect these vesselswho cannot enter the existing 200-mile and protection zones.
The representative of the RapaNui Council points out that they are also validating the climate change action plan locally rather than nationally, because the national plan in Chile is made under the vision of the continent, not under the vision of what they need.
“Our next step, It is precisely to seek the resources to be able to carry out actions for climate mitigation. for the benefit of the 8,000 people who live on the small island, including foreigners, for whom stay limits of 31 days or longer if they have a work contract have been established, in a residence law specific to the Rapanui people.
POPULATION “VERY” ATTACHED TO NATURE
The law was made because “the island is very small and fragile”with , garbage, water and energy problems, which is why it cannot accommodate so many people and overexploitation.
In February, Hey participated in the scientific expedition aboard the Falkor too, of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, in which he confirmed “the great biodiversity that exists on the seabed from the coasts of Chile, by the Salas y Gómez and Nazca underwater mountain range that ends in Rapa Nui”, so they intend to protect the high seas areas and support the Biological Diversity Agreement beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ, for its acronym in English).
The Rapa Nui population is “very attached to nature”he says, with a lively culture, including young people who have formed the group of local leaders Haka Nononga, in which environmental issues and local problems are discussed, and participated in the last Dubai COP27.
In addition, they aim to educate children in environmental and cultural principles who within 10-15 years will have their consciousness focused on caring for Rapa Nui. “in the protection of their culture and preserve the traditions that have been maintained until today.”
