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Highlights
Launch of Pacific Agricultural and Forestry Policy Network
Thursday 16 November 2006, Secretariat of the Pacific
Community (SPC), 36th Committee of Representatives of Governments and
Administrations (CRGA) – Linking Pacific
Island countries and territories (PICTs) to domestic and international markets
more effectively and responsibly and ensuring that agriculture and forestry are
sustainably managed are the aims of the Pacific Agricultural and Forestry Policy
Network, which was launched by Dr Jimmie Rodgers, SPC Director-General, and Mr
Vitolio Lui, SPREP Deputy Director, who was representing the Director of the
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA).
“CTA, SPC and other regional organisations have designed a
road map to create the network, and SPC has been unanimously designated to
coordinate its preparatory activities and host it. This is the end of one
process and the beginning of another that we hope will be equally successful,”
read Mr Lui on behalf of Mr Hansjörg Neun, CTA Director.
With globalisation of the world economy and its markets
resulting in increased competition among countries, the Pacific Agricultural and
Forestry Policy Network (PAFPNet) will help broaden stakeholders’ participation
in regional and national policy development.
The network encourages the participation of community groups,
such as women’s and youth groups, churches and NGOs. It will accelerate regional
harmonisation and rationalisation of standards and grades for trade, and will
naturally forge closer alliances and cooperation between the Pacific Islands
region and other regions of the world.
When describing the network, Mr Inoke Ratukalou, SPC Land Use
and Resources Policy Adviser, said, “PAFPNet will focus on people and outcomes
and will support regional economic cooperation among PICTs through dialogue and
enhancement of regional and national policy themes, such as trade facilitation,
biosecurity and trade, plant genetic resources, sustainable natural resource
management, and capacity building.”
“This is a forward-looking initiative and I want to
congratulate all the bodies involved,” commented Mr George Hoa’au, CRGA delegate
from the Solomon Islands Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. “It is my hope
that it will anchor its facilitation role within the ordinary stories of
communities and peoples. Sometimes regional bodies and even national governments
make policies related to resources over which they really have no control.
Policy bodies and grassroots communities need to be on the same page, and
PAFPNet will help to achieve this.”
He added, “This is the first time a network has included a
research institute from Papua New Guinea, which is encouraging. There is
expertise within the region, for example in New Caledonia, Australia and New
Zealand to name only a few countries, and I would like it to be tapped into as
much as possible.”
For more information,
please contact Mr Inoke Ratukalou, LRD Land Use and Resources Policy Adviser.
Phone: 3370 733, or email:
InokeR@spc.int
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