Sea-level rise and other natural hazards will be the focus of a conference in Honolulu this week with keynote speakers that originally included the king of Samoa and the former president of the Maldives.
But it’s looking like neither is going to make it to the 13th annual Pacific Risk Management Ohana (PRiMO) conference Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the Hawai‘i Convention Center.
While former President Mohamed Nasheed remains in jail over a political dispute in the Maldives, His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi of Samoa has informed conference organizers about a scheduling conflict that will prevent him from making an appearance.
Conference spokesman Larry Lieberman said the king’s entourage is still planning to attend, and Samoa’s first lady is expected to fill in for her husband’s keynote speech scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Nasheed, meanwhile, will appear only in a film that will be shown at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. He is the subject of the documentary "Island President," which captured Nasheed’s first year in office and his trip to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009, where he lobbied for an agreement on climate change to help save his country. The Maldives, one of the flattest countries in the world, could be underwater by the end of this century if seas continue to rise.
More than 300 people are expected to attend this week’s conference featuring more than 25 sessions and professional development training courses. The theme is "The Rising Pacific: Currents of Change and Solutions for Resilience."
"We’ll also have a number of high-level stakeholders and world-renowned experts, including two Nobel Peace Prize co-laureates, gathering to focus on resiliency planning for island and coastal communities threatened by sea-level rise, disease outbreaks, tsunamis and other natural and man-made disasters," Lieberman said.
Samoa and other island nations and coastal communities, including the Hawaiian Islands, are under increasing threat from rising sea levels and other phenomena.
Other conference events include a panel titled "Tourism and the Pacific — How Resilient Is Hawaii’s Tourism Industry?"; a session titled "Damage Assessment — Lessons Learned After Iselle"; and a field trip focusing on risks and hazard planning for sea-level rise in Hawaii.
Dr. Mark Keim, a disaster consultant and former associate director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will deliver a keynote address at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday.
Michael Lowry, hurricane and storm surge specialist with the Weather Channel, will lead a free hurricane awareness course Wednesday at 1 p.m. The course is sponsored by the University of Hawaii’s National Disaster Preparedness Training Center.
During the conference awards luncheon Wednesday, the UH center will be awarding Jon Matsuoka of the Consuelo Foundation with its 2015 Community Resilience Leadership Award.
The Pacific Risk Management Ohana (PRiMO) is a coalition of organizations with a role in hazard risk management in the region.
CORRECTION: The Pacific Risk Management Ohana conference is this week. An earlier version of this story and the story on page B1 of Monday’s paper said it will be held next week.
