SPC Geoscience Division

The 2012 STAR Conference will be held in Noumea, New Caledonia from November 3rd to 6th, and hosted by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and L’Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD). As in recent years, there will be a joint session with the Circum Pacific Council.

The STAR Conference will immediately precede the 2nd Meeting of the SPC Applied Geoscience and Technology Division (SOPAC Division) and the 42nd Meeting of the SPC Conference of Regional Governments and Administrations (CRGA). Note that no membership is required to attend the meeting and no conference registration fee is charged.

STAR was founded in 1984 as a vehicle to assist the international research community to provide advice to SOPAC. A strength of STAR has been its ability to mobilise science to address the national needs of Pacific island nations and provide, as an independent and voluntary body, an important scientific and advisory role. SPC has requested the continuation of this relationship following the integration of SPC and SOPAC in January 2011.

Thus, as in recent years, STAR’s Programme Monitoring and Evaluation Groups will continue to provide independent commentary on SPC/SOPAC’s work programmes, and all delegates to the STAR conference are invited to attend the SOPAC Division meeting that will follow STAR and contribute their technical expertise to the discussions.

President of the Republic Of Palau, His Excellency Johnson Toribiong, National Authorising Officer, Darren Fritz, Distinguished Guests, Ladies & Gentlemen

On behalf of the Director-General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Dr. Jimmie, Rodgers, I extend a warm welcome to all who are here to witness this occasion. This unveiling ceremony of a plaque to recognise the key stakeholders in the establishment of this National Emergency Operations Centre in Palau. The key stakeholders namely the Government and people of Palau as beneficiaries, the European Union as the development partner, and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (more commonly referred to as the SPC) as your facilitating regional organisation.

Mr President, It gives me great pleasure to be here today to participate in this important ceremony. I am accompanied by Mr Amena Yauvoli the Manager of the SPC North Pacific Regional Office, he of course is well known to many of you.

I have had the privilege over many years to 2005 to work with Palau in my capacity as Deputy Director of SOPAC, then the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission. In March 2007, I was here as a consultant for SOPAC, and my mission was to work with the Office of the Vice President and staff of the National Emergency Management Office (NEMO), to develop the implementation plan for a Project which included the construction of a National  Emergency Operations Centre. In my capacity here today as the Director of SOPAC, now the Applied Geoscience and Technology Division of the SPC, it gives me a unique pleasure to be able witness the completion of this building.

President Manny Mori and Dr. Russell Howorth, director of the Applied Geoscience and Technology Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, officiated in the ground breaking ceremony on February 17, marking the commencement of construction of the new national Emergency Operation Center at Palikir, National Capital in the Federated States of Micronesia.

The new Emergency Operation Center is to be constructed by APSCO construction at a cost of about $220,000 which will assist the FSM Office of Environment and Emergency Management (OEEM) in disaster preparedness and coordination. This project is funded by the European Union through the Disaster Risk Reduction project implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) has embarked on a programme to build capacity in mapping land/forest cover in Fiji using very high resolution satellite images. The programme has three phases consisting of both theory and practical work, including ‘ground truthing’ (on-site verification of data from satellite imagery) exercises to be held later this month.

The training, which is jointly organised by SPC’s Land Resources Division (LRD) and its Applied Geoscience and Technology (SOPAC) Division, involves participants from the Fiji Department of Forestry and SPC.

The ground truthing exercise will be undertaken in Drawa – a model area for sustainable natural resource management located in Vanua Levu that covers about 6,400 hectares of indigenous forest.

The first phase of the training exercise focuses on enhancing and analysing satellite images of Drawa forest to classify it into different forest types and using the information to conduct forest inventory for the estimation of forest carbon stock per unit area of each forest type.