PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (PNG Post-Courier, July 19) - Fisheries experts are presently in the country to design a project to help Papua New Guinea and other Pacific states protect biodiversity and minimize the negative effects of fishing.

Consultants Ian Cartwright and Seremaia Tuqiri are working on the design of a project to help Pacific Island states implement the convention of the conservation and management of highly migratory fish stocks in the western and central Pacific Ocean.

The convention, which came into effect on June 19, provides a framework for the effective management of tuna and related species in the region.

Pacific Islands and fishing states would use this framework to cooperate and secure a sustainable future in the region, which contains the world’s largest tuna fishery.

The cooperation would enable economic and other benefits to flow to the island states for the present and future generations.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF), which supported Pacific states over four years to prepare for the convention, has joined forces with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Forum Fisheries Agency, Pacific Community secretariat and the South Pacific Regional Environment Program in the design of a second phase of assistance for Pacific states to implement the convention.

Cartwright and Tuqiri would meet government and non-government stakeholders to assess the implications of the new convention for PNG and identify ways in which the second phase of GEF assistance could help in the implementation of the convention.

"Assistance in areas such as fisheries, law, policy, compliance and scientific assessment and monitoring will be considered," a statement released by the National Fisheries Authority said.

NFA said people and parties interested in knowing more about the convention could attend a public forum on July 21, or contact Ludwig Kumoru at the authority on telephone 309-0442 or mobile 685-0542.

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