HON. TABUYA ACKNOWLEDGES SUP PARTNERSHIP
[music] Bulvakaviti. Uh today I want [music] to acknowledge a very important partnership that the ministry has with [music] the great work that SUP Against SUP is doing for 28 days. What's SUP Against [music] SUP? It's the standup panel against single-use plastics. I want to especially acknowledge the Reverend James Bwan as well as Graham Taylor who are on day 11 now on the stand up paddles around Vitvu. They uh finished from Nandi [music] yesterday and they are up to VC bunda today to get the oceans on the agenda of preop [music] and COP 31. Now why is this important for you and me? We [music] live in the large blue ocean continent and we need to protect it. So as Pacific peoples where our oceans connect us, our message is [music] very strong as we go to COP 31 this year. We need to protect our oceans. We need to use it sustainably and we need to with one voice get the oceans onto the COP 31 [music] agenda. We thank the Fiji Council of Churches whose initiative we [music] are partnering with and we are happy to sponsor them. So, thank you uh Padre [music] and to your team. Uh remain safe and uh we ask our people, please look after our oceans. Don't litter. Put your litters [music] in the bin. Do not throw it in the rivers because they end up in the sea. We are not [music] just here for ourselves. We are not the owners of the ocean. We are the custodians of the ocean and for our coastal communities to remain clean and free of plastics and [music] rubbish because we are preserving our oceans for generations to come. It's our source of food. It's our source of livelihood. It's also what connects us in terms of transportation. [music] So we need to look after our oceans. Viti, you and me, that's our responsibility.