PAFPNet
Pacific
Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) face numerous challenges in maintaining
and improving the productivity of their agriculture and forestry sectors and
protecting their biological diversity. Vulnerability to natural disasters and
geographical remoteness result in a narrow genetic and production base with
limited opportunities to develop their economies by scaling-up production. Yet
globalisation means that farmers in PICTs are increasingly competing with
producers from around the world.
These pressures have led to unsustainable
logging resulting in rapid depletion of valuable forest resources in some
countries. Increased regional and global trade and travel and associated
movement of people (tourists, travelling residents, fishers) have also
heightened the risk of introducing unwanted plant and animal pests, weeds,
diseases and other alien invasive species, threatening the fragile ecosystems
and resource base of PICTs. Greater rural to urban migration is increasing
reliance on processed imports increasing the incidence of ‘life-style’ diseases,
such as diabetes and heart disease. Rapidly growing populations and rising
numbers of humans and animals living in close proximity increases the risk of
zoonotic diseases (diseases transmitted by animals) and pollution caused by
agricultural activities (fertiliser run-off, animal waste).
Climate change will exacerbate many of
these challenges. Related disasters such as tropical cyclones, flash floods and droughts impose serious constraints on
development. Food availability and people’s access to food are among the first
essentials to be affected following such disasters.
Policy makers
need to develop strategies, plans and introduce legislation that ensures PICTs
are well placed to address these challenges. For example;
What
strategies should we be putting in place to ensure that we are protecting our
valuable genetic resource base and utilising it to confront new challenges such
as adapting to climate change and developing new marketable products?
What plans
should be developed to ensure that we are ready to cope with natural disasters
that impact the agriculture and forestry sectors? How can we ensure that
developments in these sectors contribute to increasing resilience?
What policies
can help to boost the consumption of locally grown nutritious staples and reduce
the incidence of lifestyle diseases?
How can we
improve livelihoods by developing products suitable for the domestic and
international markets? What type of policies can help develop these markets?
How can we
protect our resource base from pests and diseases?
The Pacific
Agriculture and Forestry Policy Network was created to facilitate communication,
information dissemination and capacity building for policy makers in PICTs.
Information shared via this network should support the identification,
formulation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of policies that will
help to guide the future development of the agriculture and forestry sectors.
For more information,
please contact Ms. Marita Manley, LRD
Agriculture and Forestry Policy Adviser.
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