It is essential that a meeting of the heads of forestry agencies in the Pacific is held regularly to allow critical discussion on national and regional forestry issues and identify appropriate responsive actions.
These comments were made by Deputy Director General of Secretariat of the Pacific Community Ms Fekitamoeloa Utoikamanu while delivering her keynote address to officially open the Heads of Forestry Meeting currently underway in Nadi, Fiji.
“Such a meeting encourages active discussions, information exchange, and sharing of experiences between countries and with the various supporting agencies.”
“The theme for this meeting is “Forests, Climate Change and Markets” which reflects appropriately of the present time and the strong relationship that binds our valuable resource with the issues on hand.”
She added the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), the international body on forestry, recognizes climate change as a global issue which affect the world’s forest resource and this was one of the main themes in its 8th Session held in New York early this year.
“The sustainable management and development of agricultural and forest resources including biosecurity and trade in its member Pacific countries and territories is the main focus of the Land Resources Division of SPC.”
“LRD, in collaboration with partner agencies, will work closely with its member countries in developing sound forest policies that will effectively address major issues such as climate change and trade.” Utoikamanu said.
The deputy Director General also added that SPC will work with international and regional partners and institutions to pursue the development of capacities in forest policy processes.
“This will strengthen and provide better representation of Pacific issues and help garner support from the international community and bodies.” She added.
Many of SPC’s member countries like Kiribati, Tuvalu, Marshall Islands and other small islands states are already experiencing the adverse effects of sea level rise and the intrusion of salt water on their inland water supply resulting in soils becoming less fertile in nutrients and more pests and diseases are becoming evident in our island environment.
As a result of this adversity, erosion of genetic resources is a real concern with a number of important crop and tree species and distinct populations now threatened or nearing extinction in many of our countries.
To help address the issue of climate change and develop the capacity of its member countries, SPC in collaboration with German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) is implementing a regional initiative on adaptation to climate change.
Although this is limited to a few member countries initially, it is hoped that knowledge and experience learnt from the programme will be disseminated to other member countries.
Further LRD is taking a leading role in the area of conservation, distribution, improvement and use of plant genetic resources in the region with the opening of new Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees (CePaCT) building. The Centre includes a tree seed unit to strengthen the role of SPC in distributing and exchanging crop and tree germplasm, to improve the productivity of farmers and tree growers.
The areas of focus will include the development and introduction of salt-tolerant crops, drought-resistant cultivars, diversification of crops, protection of mangrove ecosystems, integrated catchments and coastal management systems, foreshore re-vegetation and protection, protection and replanting of littoral vegetation.
Another important regional initiative that SPC LRD is actively engaged in is the implementation of the European Union funded Facilitating Agricultural Commodity Trade Project or FACT.
This Project aims to assists selected commercial ventures and producers group into export-oriented, market-driven enterprises and promotes and increase trade in agricultural and forestry products from the Pacific countries.
SPC’s Land Resource Division, in close collaboration with German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), ACIAR and European Union have organised this four days meeting.
These comments were made by Deputy Director General of Secretariat of the Pacific Community Ms Fekitamoeloa Utoikamanu while delivering her keynote address to officially open the Heads of Forestry Meeting currently underway in Nadi, Fiji.
“Such a meeting encourages active discussions, information exchange, and sharing of experiences between countries and with the various supporting agencies.”
“The theme for this meeting is “Forests, Climate Change and Markets” which reflects appropriately of the present time and the strong relationship that binds our valuable resource with the issues on hand.”
She added the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), the international body on forestry, recognizes climate change as a global issue which affect the world’s forest resource and this was one of the main themes in its 8th Session held in New York early this year.
“The sustainable management and development of agricultural and forest resources including biosecurity and trade in its member Pacific countries and territories is the main focus of the Land Resources Division of SPC.”
“LRD, in collaboration with partner agencies, will work closely with its member countries in developing sound forest policies that will effectively address major issues such as climate change and trade.” Utoikamanu said.
The deputy Director General also added that SPC will work with international and regional partners and institutions to pursue the development of capacities in forest policy processes.
“This will strengthen and provide better representation of Pacific issues and help garner support from the international community and bodies.” She added.
Many of SPC’s member countries like Kiribati, Tuvalu, Marshall Islands and other small islands states are already experiencing the adverse effects of sea level rise and the intrusion of salt water on their inland water supply resulting in soils becoming less fertile in nutrients and more pests and diseases are becoming evident in our island environment.
As a result of this adversity, erosion of genetic resources is a real concern with a number of important crop and tree species and distinct populations now threatened or nearing extinction in many of our countries.
To help address the issue of climate change and develop the capacity of its member countries, SPC in collaboration with German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) is implementing a regional initiative on adaptation to climate change.
Although this is limited to a few member countries initially, it is hoped that knowledge and experience learnt from the programme will be disseminated to other member countries.
Further LRD is taking a leading role in the area of conservation, distribution, improvement and use of plant genetic resources in the region with the opening of new Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees (CePaCT) building. The Centre includes a tree seed unit to strengthen the role of SPC in distributing and exchanging crop and tree germplasm, to improve the productivity of farmers and tree growers.
The areas of focus will include the development and introduction of salt-tolerant crops, drought-resistant cultivars, diversification of crops, protection of mangrove ecosystems, integrated catchments and coastal management systems, foreshore re-vegetation and protection, protection and replanting of littoral vegetation.
Another important regional initiative that SPC LRD is actively engaged in is the implementation of the European Union funded Facilitating Agricultural Commodity Trade Project or FACT.
This Project aims to assists selected commercial ventures and producers group into export-oriented, market-driven enterprises and promotes and increase trade in agricultural and forestry products from the Pacific countries.
SPC’s Land Resource Division, in close collaboration with German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), ACIAR and European Union have organised this four days meeting.
No comments:
Post a Comment