Inaugural Meeting of Global Green Island Summit (GGIS) 2018 to be Held in Jeju
Jeju agreed with Hawaii in Okinawa

On March 28 at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province agreed with environmental working staff from the State of Hawaii, USA, and the local government of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, that it will hold a Summit for Local Governments together with the inauguration of GGIS.

The GGIS, was agreed by the Jeju governor, the governor of Hawaii and the local governor of Okinawa as follow-up to establish a global green partnership at the World Conservation Congress (WCC) held in Hawaii last year. It is a cooperative network where heads of each island discuss biennially the main environmental issues of the islands such as climate change, waste, and energy, to seek optimum solutions.

They agreed that the first GGIS will be held in 2018 in Jeju, which is a global environment-oriented city. To this end, governors of Jeju, Hawaii, and Okinawa decided to make joint efforts such as sending letters in joint names asking twenty major islands around the world to take part in the GGIS inauguration and the general meeting to be held in Jeju next year. In addition, the second meeting for the preparations will be held in Jeju early next year.

 During the working-level talks Kim Yang-bo, director of Jeju Environmental Conservation Bureau, said:

❍ “This opportunity helped Hawaii, Okinawa, and Jeju to join forces to take the lead in environmental conservation of the world’s major islands, and became an important starting point to share pending issues and successful cases and form solutions in the field of environmental conservation that the world faces. We are going to prepare thoroughly to make the event a success.”