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James Movick of FFA

By Ana Uili of MEIDAC, Tonga

15 August, 2017, Honiara, Solomon Islands, PMC-4 – Coordinate regional ocean and climate research and observation to meet regional needs is the call from the Director General of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) to stakeholders and officials at the Pacific Meteorological Council (PM).

Mr. James Movick made the comment during his presentation on an overview of FFA’s observer programme at the 4th PMC meeting in Honiara, Solomon Islands.

He said the region needs to ensure that the research generated is something that can be used by academic institution and government for policy making to generate knowledge and capacity for the future.

“We do need to address this whole issue of building capacity of our own people and of our institutions and the sustainability of all this.”

Mr. Movick said a system of peer-review and this should be considered as well.

“We don’t have in the region a system of clear peer-review particularly one that is engages Pacific Islands. True, international articles will be submitted to the International Journal like ocean or science but we do need to engage our people more.

“We do need to ensure that these analyses, these research results that are used in regional policy making meet the test of peer-review among the people within the Pacific Island region, so that it can have the context and the understanding that is associated with that.”

He stated that the ocean geographic research in the Pacific Island region draws a lot attention from outside service providers but this has raised some important questions.

Mr. Movick stressed the importance of ensuring that research carried out covers regional interests to drive the agenda to ensure that research address the issues that are vital to the Pacific.

“Those things that we need to integrate in the region are, in fact, subjective to research so we’ve got to drive that agenda to ensure that research address the issue of phenomenon that are important to us and the changes that are taking place in the region.”

Mr. Movick noted that fisheries observers and instruments on fishing boats are crucial to collecting ocean and climate data, which has implications on training, cost of operations and risks faced by fisheries administrations. – #PMC4 #PacificMet

 

The Fourth Pacific Meteorological Council is being held in Honiara, Solomon Islands from the 14 – 17 August co-hosted by the government of Solomon Islands, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This will followed by the Second Pacific Meteorological Ministers Meeting (PMMM) on the 18 of August.

The PMC and PMMM is supported by the Government of Solomon Islands, SPREP, WMO, Government of Australia through the Climate and Oceans Support Programme (COSPPac) and Pacific Australia Climate Change Science and Adaptation Planning Programme (PACCSAP), Government of Finland, National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United Nations Development Programme through the Resilience in the Pacific (SIDS) project.

The PMC consists of members of the Pacific National Meteorological and Hydrological Services supported by its technical partners, regional organisations, non-government organisations and private sectors.

This article was developed by a Pacific Media Team of Reporters currently providing coverage on the Fourth Pacific Meteorological Council in Solomon Islands. This activity coordinated by SPREP is supported by a partnership between the Government of Solomon Islands, SPREP, Australia funded project (Climate and Oceans Support Program (COSPPac) and UNDP Disaster for Pacific SIDS (RESPAC) project.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) or the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)both of which provided funding for generating media articles.

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