Fiji, Sept. 2 -- A Palau youth representative has told Pacific Islands Forum leaders that the region's fuel crisis is not simply an energy problem but a wider crisis affecting food, livelihoods, social stability and Pacific sovereignty.

Speaking during the Forum Leaders' Dialogue with Civil Society and the Private Sector, Shuri Chibana, Youth Coordinator at Palau's Bureau of Behavioural Health under the Ministry of Health and Human Services, said Pacific communities were facing the consequences of deep dependence on imported fuel.

"I have been asked to speak about community impacts of the global fuel crisis

"But our communities do not live these impacts in isolation,

"For our communities, it is not a fuel crisis. It is a food crisis a...