Island and Ocean Ecosystems
12 August 2014, Nadi, Fiji - The development of a Pacific Islands Protected Area Portal is underway, the role of which is to provide a doorway for Pacific islands protected areas practitioners to share expertise and benefit from opportunities.
Knowledge exchange will be facilitated through this portal that will act as the main point for accessing the wealth of existing information and will help build capacity to plan, implement and manage protected areas.
The portal will also act as a forum for communication and promotion of opportunities. To ensure the design of the portal meets the many different needs of users, consultation is now underway.
"The portal is aimed at all people in the Pacific islands who work with protected areas, from community groups, individuals right through to government officers doing planning and project design," said Mrs Amanda Wheatley, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Officer of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
"We really want to ensure this portal is as effective as possible, as such, we're planning for it to achieve multiple objectives within international and regional targets."
The Portal also aims to create a 'Talanoa Meeting House', or a virtual network of protected areas practitioners across the twenty one Pacific island countries and territories providing opportunities to 'ask an expert', share stories of success and challenges, and discussion forums.
Now in the final design stages, the call is still being made for those interested to submit input into its content.
"We'd really appreciate your feedback and thoughts. The Portal is not yet live on the internet, but we are carrying out a survey seeking input on what is in place at the moment," said Mrs Wheatley.
"We have an online survey in place and as said, we would like to hear from you."
For more information or if you are interested to take part in the Pacific Islands Protected Area Portal please email [email protected]
The Pacific Islands Portal was featured during a special side event at the Pacific Joint Preparatory Meeting to Convention of Biological Diversity COP 12, Convention on Migratory Species COP 11 and Ramsar COP 12 in Nadi, Fiji from 11 to 15 August, 2014.
Countries represented at the one week conference are the Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Partners and stakeholders from the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, United Nations Development Program, WWF Pacific, UNEP, CBD, CMS, Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES).
Knowledge exchange will be facilitated through this portal that will act as the main point for accessing the wealth of existing information and will help build capacity to plan, implement and manage protected areas.
The portal will also act as a forum for communication and promotion of opportunities. To ensure the design of the portal meets the many different needs of users, consultation is now underway.
"The portal is aimed at all people in the Pacific islands who work with protected areas, from community groups, individuals right through to government officers doing planning and project design," said Mrs Amanda Wheatley, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Officer of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
"We really want to ensure this portal is as effective as possible, as such, we're planning for it to achieve multiple objectives within international and regional targets."
The Portal also aims to create a 'Talanoa Meeting House', or a virtual network of protected areas practitioners across the twenty one Pacific island countries and territories providing opportunities to 'ask an expert', share stories of success and challenges, and discussion forums.
Now in the final design stages, the call is still being made for those interested to submit input into its content.
"We'd really appreciate your feedback and thoughts. The Portal is not yet live on the internet, but we are carrying out a survey seeking input on what is in place at the moment," said Mrs Wheatley.
"We have an online survey in place and as said, we would like to hear from you."
For more information or if you are interested to take part in the Pacific Islands Protected Area Portal please email [email protected]
The Pacific Islands Portal was featured during a special side event at the Pacific Joint Preparatory Meeting to Convention of Biological Diversity COP 12, Convention on Migratory Species COP 11 and Ramsar COP 12 in Nadi, Fiji from 11 to 15 August, 2014.
Countries represented at the one week conference are the Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Partners and stakeholders from the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, United Nations Development Program, WWF Pacific, UNEP, CBD, CMS, Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES).