SPC Geoscience Division

Source: Matangi Tonga Online. Republished With Editor's Permission.

The Pacific Islands need to protect their deep sea minerals, Tonga's Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Samiu Vaipulu told a Pacific-ACP States Regional Workshop on Deep Sea Minerals Law and Contract Negotiations that opened at the Fa'onelua Convention Centre, in Nuku'alofa today on March 11.

Representatives of 15 Pacific States are attending the week-long workshop.

Mike Petterson the Director of SOPAC, the Applied Geoscience and Technology Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), said today that the workshop will focus on the legislative and regulatory aspects of deep sea minerals.

He said the workshop is aimed at sharing information on a number of developments that SOPAC is working on, including developing legislation for the extraction of deep sea minerals. "What we want achieve is largely capacity building, as like any other economic activity, Pacific states are a little bit compromised by multinational and well-resourced companies coming in," he said.

"We need to know how to negotiate and drive a hard deal. We have to prepare ourselves as best we can by developing our negotiating skills, along with a network of people that we trust and know, and to work with industries and countries that we feel that will be responsible and want a long-term working relationship, and for our communities to benefit while the environment is protected as best we can."

Mike said some Pacific Island countries already had legislation for deep sea minerals. But it was a new thing for the Pacific Islanders to consider who has the rights to the minerals, who gains from it and how can we put in place a transparent system, while looking at the environmental issues, he said.

He said for decades the main issue had been the lack of knowledge as to where minerals are, what type of minerals are out there, as there are many deposits to discover in the ocean.

"But we are now at a point where there are few areas in the Pacific that have been identified to be attractive and that's a breakthrough. Now it is becoming an economic reality and to make sure that countries maximize the benefits, which is never easy and requires hard work so we want representatives to walk away armed with more knowledge and be aware of the range of issues we have to cope with," he said.

Welcome to the first edition of Snapshots for 2013!

It's taken us a while but we've finally been able to get something together to give you some understanding of the work being undertaken by the SPC/SOPAC Disaster Reduction Programme. These are just tidbits of a wider range of initiatives, the developments of which, we hope to share with our readers over the course of 2013.

The year has gotten off to a bang but unfortunately not the kind that we would have wanted. The disasters that affected both Samoa and Fiji as a result of Tropical Cyclone Evan in December required some immediate attention early in January. Through a collaborative effort with the SPC/SOPAC Water and Sanitation Programme, we deployed two staff to assist Samoa's post disaster needs assessment . In February, we provided similar assistance to Fiji (just coming to completion as this goes to print so watch this space for news on the Fiji post disaster needs assessment). We also, per the tireless contribution of Litea Biukoto, were able to support post disaster assessment work in the Solomon Islands which was impacted by an earthquake and  tsunami in early February.

So, there's been no let up this - made even more interesting since other activities continue as scheduled. Alas, such is the life of those of us in this line of work. We have a number of interesting stories in this edition. The Pacific Disaster Net has reached a significant milestone; our work in French Polynesia is making significant progress; the B Envelope project continues to add another success to its portfolio of activities, and more.

I hope you enjoy reading our stories and please 'stay tuned' for more as we progress in the coming months.

Download Full Issue

Mosese Sikivou
Deputy Directory, Disaster Reduction Programme

H.E. Linda Te Puni, New Zealand Consul General in New Caledonia, and Dr Jimmie Rodgers, Director-General of SPC, have signed a new grant funding agreement totaling NZD 6.1 million.

The funding consists of New Zealand’s annual contribution (approximately half of the total) and a grant for regional services in the areas of Oceanic Fisheries, Coastal Fisheries, Land Resources, Statistics, Ocean and Islands (geoscience), and Public Health. Details are below.

Membership assessed contribution NZD 3,045,000 and Purchase of regional services NZD 3,055,000 – broken down as follows:

Ms Te Puni stated that all of the programmes supported by New Zealand in 2013 address issues that are central to the development of the Pacific region, and that the funding demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to contributing to the Pacific region’s development agenda through its bilateral and targeted regional assistance.

Prof. Michael Petterson has taken up his appointment as Director of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) Applied Geoscience and Technology Division (SOPAC) succeeding Dr Russell Howorth, whose tenure with the organization officially ended on 31st January 2013

Before taking up this position with SPC, Prof. Petterson, who is from the United Kingdom, held a Professorship of Applied and Environmental Geosciences at the University of Leicester, from 2009, before which he was Director of Science, Skills and Facilities at the British Geological Survey for five years.

Holding a PhD in geology (1984) and a post graduate certificate in education (1985), Prof. Petterson is a chartered geologist, a chartered engineer, Fellow of the Geological Society of London, Member of the Institute of Materials, Mining and Metallurgy, life member of the Association of Geoscientists for International Development, Member of the Society of Economic Geologists, and he is a member of the STAR network.