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Solomon Islands media receives training in climate change and disaster reporting

Thursday, 09 July 2015 08:45
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Solomon Islands media training

25 June 2015, Honiara, Solomon Islands

Newsroom journalists received training in climate change and disaster reporting at the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) in Honiara this week.  Coordinated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in partnership with the Secretariat of Pacific Community (SPC), FFA, and the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology, the journalists received valuable training in understanding climate change, disaster risk management, and how these affect one of Solomon Islands’ biggest industries, tuna fishing.

More than ten journalists from local media attended the training, and as part of the workshop, presentations from the Climate Change Division, FFA, SPREP and SPC covered understanding climate change, eco-based adaptation to climate change, the effect of climate change on fisheries, climate change and gender, disaster risk management, and understanding national warning systems from the National Disaster Management Office.

 

Climate change media training

The participants also had the opportunity to visit the Regional Fisheries Surveillance Centre at the FFA, learning about the Regional Observer Program which seeks to enhance Pacific Island countries’ efforts to stop illegal, unlicensed and unregulated (IUU) fishing throughout the region.

Knowledge garnered from the training will help the local media better understand the terms related to climate change and disasters and report more accurately.

The training was funded by the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme through ABC International, as part of the Broadcasters Climate and Disaster Resilience Plan project that has been rolled out across eight Pacific island countries including Cook Islands, Kiribati, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. It is being implemented by SPREP in partnership with SPC, and Solomon Islands is the seventh country to complete this project.

For further information, contact Nanette Woonton at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Dr Kirstie Meheux at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Last Updated on Thursday, 09 July 2015 09:18  

Newsflash

The annual Pacific Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing (GIS/RS) User Conference will be held from Tuesday 25 - 27 November, 2014 in Suva.

The Conference will be held at the Japan Pacific ICT Centre located at the University of the South Pacific (USP), Laucala Campus and will be opened by the Permanent Secretary of Lands, Mr Tevita Boseiwaqa and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s (SPC) Applied Geoscience and Technology Division Director, Professor Michael Petterson.

The theme of the 2014 Conference is “Empowering Pacific Communities through Improved Geospatial Data” where more than 200 participants are expected to converge.

The three-day conference will include plenary presentations and technical sessions to address themes that include but are not limited to using GIS in forestry and landcover, coastal and marine, spatial open source data, disasters, geodetic infrastructure, utilities, and education with case studies from Pacific Island countries. The conference will also showcase the latest technology and applications on GIS presentations.

Dr Wolf Forstreuter, Head of SPC’s GIS/RS Unit commented that this is the only conference in the GIS & RS user community where Pacific Islanders have an opportunity to showcase their GIS & RS applications and meet representatives of spatial data resellers, software, hardware vendors, and scientific specialists. He added, ‘There are some regional conferences in Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia; however, the level of participation by representatives from the Pacific region is often limited at those meetings, as compared to the Suva conference.’