The crew members of the three voyaging canoes, Fiji’s Uto Ni Yalo, Samoa’s Gaualofa and Cook Island’s Marumaru Atua are ready to sail off tomorrow to attend the International Union for the conservation of Nature congress in Sydney, Australia.

Samoa’s Gaualofa and Cook Island’s Marumaru Atua arrived in the country on Monday to join team with Fiji’s Uto Ni Yalo to take the message of the Pacific to the congress.

IUCN Regional director, Tahomi Kami, said that this is an important opportunity to let the world know of the impacts of climate change in the Pacific islands.

“The last five years we have some of the biggest declaration in protected areas in history coming out of the Pacific, and the Phoenix islands are big big declaration almost half a million square kilometers, Cook Islands and then you have the Cook Islands Vaka presenting their declaration by the Prime Minister thats a million squares kilometers and then you have some other coming out. Fiji has declared 30% of its marine areas and then you’ve got the micronesia challenge and so the Pacific has taken this big step.”

The crew members had a church service at 3pm today at St. Luke’s Anglican church in Suva.