The Tourism Authority of Kiribati together with the Climate Change Unit from Office of Te Beretitenti were invited to participate in a Local2030 Islands Network of the Data for Climate change resilience Community of practice (CoP) and Sustainable and Regenerative Tourism CoP meeting held in Honolulu, Hawaii from 2 to 6th April 2023.
A total of 115 islanders from 33 island economies from across the Pacific, Caribbean, Indian and Atlantic Ocean actively participated in this event. It also marked the first in person annual convening where technical experts, practitioners, and government leaders from national and subnational islands around the globe gathered together since the Local2030 network first established in 2022.
The Deputy CEO, Reeti Onorio had the opportunity to share Kiribati’s unique outer islands community -based tourism experiences as well as learn about other best practices, lessons learned, discuss avenues of technical training and collaboration support, and exchanged knowledge on sustainable tourism and the transition to regenerative tourism models that can strengthen climate resilience. The program allowed the participants to experience community of practice sustainable programs including aquaculture, cultural and conservation sites, and nature reserves at the Kualoa Ranch, Heahea Fishpond and Genki Balls Ala Wai Project.
TAK sees great potential in further engagement into this wonderful network and plans to improve its membership status. The Local 2030 islands network is the first program that attaches tourism with climate change resilience and TAK would like to take advantage of this engagement for the technical support, capacity development to enhance sustainable and regenerative tourism aspirations for Kiribati tourism.
