Foua Toloa
Ulu-o-Tokelau and Global Ocean Commissioner
Who is Foua Toloa?
Foua Toloa was a Tokelauan politician from Fakaofo who served as Ulu-o-Tokelau, the territory's head of government, from February 2009 to February 2010 and again from February 2011 to February 2012, also holding the Council of Ongoing Government portfolio for Finance, Telecommunications, Energy and Transport during 2011-2012. He became a founding member of the Polynesian Leaders Group when it was established in November 2011 to strengthen cooperation among Polynesian nations and territories on culture, education, climate response and trade. As minister he announced in December 2011 that Tokelau would install a roughly $7.5 million solar photovoltaic system intended to supply about 90 percent of the territory's electricity, framing the tiny nation's renewable-energy switch as a message to the wider world, and he spoke with equal force about the threat of climate change to his people's homeland and identity. He was dismissed as minister in June 2012 after a disagreement with New Zealand's government over the MV Tokelau vessel, yet remained the sole faipule of the nine-member General Fono to be re-elected in the 2014 election. In 2011 he was also appointed the only Pacific Islander among the Commissioners of the Global Ocean Commission, advocating internationally for high-seas conservation until his death in California on 23 June 2015.
Sources: Wikipedia, "Foua Toloa" · Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, "Fisheries leaders mark passing of Tokelau colleague, global oceans advocate" · SPREP, "The Pacific mourns the loss of an Ocean Champion" · Bluebird Marine Systems, "Foua Toloa", Global Ocean Commissioners profile