Response - Charter for Human Responsibility

Te Au o Te Moana: Responsibilty for Healthy Water Ecosystems

Te Au o Te Moana is a project created in response to the pollution and degradation of our aquatic ecosystems and in recognition that we need a complex integrated response to a complex integrated problem. The initial meeting in Samoa was a multidisciplinary forum on aquatic ecosystems  for collaborative planning. It contributed to an ethos of responsibility for  aquatic ecosystems and  biodiversity in the Pacific, including intergenerational responsibility. It constituted the first step of a 5 year project that will implement case studies or action research that will work with whole systems for integrated governance and management for the health of aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity enhancement

Purpose and key aspects Te Au o Te Moana - Across Oceania:

• Reference to an ethics of Responsibility
  Responsibility is an ethical approach to the environmental crisis, with awareness and action  relating to our individual and collective impact on peoples and places. Responsibility is complementary to Human Rights, and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and expands the scope of international and local action for sustainability.

• Multidisciplinary  knowledge management.
  Across Oceania -Te Au o Te Moana is a collaborative, multidisciplinary, whole systems approach to governance and management of water ecosystems.

  Following the Samoa meeting, participants are invited to continue to be involved  through case studies  and research, based on current  work programmes, on aspects of aquatic systems. An ongoing collaborative dimension will be supported by the Across Oceania project.

  Indigenous knowledge of the Pacific region along with science and other ‘stakeholder interests’ are included in the initiatives for water and biodiversity enhancement.

• Integrated governance
  This is a whole system approach  to guide the decision making path. It is  leadership based on an ethics of responsibility and collective accountability. It includes prioritizing indigenous  systems of governance and management and elevating indigenous interests in environmental outcomes.

Organisation

The Samoa Meeting was hosted by RESPONSE Trust and  Afeafe o Vaetoefaga, Pacific  Academy for Cultural Restoration, Research and Development based in Nofoalii, Samoa, and Aotearoa-New Zealand.