| Sports |
Ocean stories must
create ripples in the media
Journalists, as guardians of
the public interest should be at the forefront of creating
awareness about ocean conservation.
To maintain the relatively pest-free status of the Pacific
Islands, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community's Land
Resources Division is raising the profile of quarantine in the
lead up to the Pacific Games to be held in Western Samoa from
August 25 to September 8.
The Pacific is one of the last remaining areas of tropical
paradise on earth. It boasts a pristine environment, a rainbow
of unique cultures and languages, and an ecosystem that is the
backbone of the tourism, fishing and agriculture industries.
Nature has blessed the Pacific with this unique environment,
which must be protected to sustain livelihoods and growing
island populations.
Thousands of people will travel to our beautiful region this
year for the biggest gathering of Pacific Islanders since the
Pacific Arts Festival in Palau in 2004. The Pacific Games
(formerly the South Pacific Games) are held every four years,
and will take place in Apia from 25 August to 8 September 2007.
Technical attachments
To help with the clearance of athletes arriving for the Games, SPC
is strengthening Samoa Quarantine by bringing in quarantine
officers from the different regions of the Pacific on technical
attachment. One officer from French Polynesia and three from
Micronesia - Palau, Marshall Islands and FSM - will help with
quarantine clearance of their respective nationals. They will
also accompany Samoa Quarantine officials conducting pest
surveillance and monitoring at Games venues. The technical
attachments will provide much-needed help to Samoa Quarantine as
well as serve as a learning exercise for the regional officers
on quarantine issues at major Pacific events.
This is an initiative of the Pacific Plant Protection
Organisation to foster closer relations with national
biosecurity (quarantine) services of the Pacific Community and
to help each other out in technical capacity building.
Fragile Pacific environments
The Pacific is relatively free of many serious pests and diseases
that are found elsewhere in the world - a huge asset when
negotiating overseas markets for Pacific products. Pests and
diseases pose a threat to crops, livestock. They reduce yields
and adversely affect the quality of agricultural products.
Certain pests and diseases are found in some islands but not in
others - for example, the taro beetle is found in Fiji but not
in Samoa. Sound plant protection practices, including reliable
national quarantine services backed by appropriate legislation,
help reduce the threat posed by plant pests.
For the Pacific Games thousands of visitors will be travelling
to Samoa, and items carried in their luggage could pose a real
threat to Samoa's national biodiversity. The biggest risk is in
the transport of food items, but plant products, cultural items
and unclean sports equipment could also be dangerous.
Educating the public on quarantine issues
Recent incursions of new pests and diseases into some Pacific
Islands have been the result of undeclared quarantine items at
national borders, but X-ray machines are becoming common in
major Pacific airports - and Samoa is one of them. The
technology will pick up quarantine risk items, and if these
items have not been declared, passengers might find themselves
on the wrong side of the law.
To help educate those planning to go to Samoa for the Pacific
Games - and indeed the general traveling public - on quarantine
matters, the Land Resources Division of the Secretariat of the
Pacific Community (SPC) is launching a media campaign in
collaboration with regional heads of quarantine services in the
Pacific. Aimed at getting travelers to declare items to
quarantine, the awareness exercise will include a TV spot, a
radio spot, brochures and strategic placement of quarantine
messages in regional online services and magazines. National
quarantine services will also conduct training of athletes on
relevant issues.
The campaign will be at its most visible in the few days prior
to national contingents leaving for the Games. Usually there is
an air of festivity swirling about at this time as governments,
businesses, sponsors and the general public participate in
send-off celebrations for their teams. Quarantine services aim
to get their serious message across at the same time.
The regional campaign is intended to prevent incursions of pests
and diseases into Samoa. In Samoa itself, the quarantine service
will be conducting its own media campaign targeting the general
public with the message to be on the lookout at Games venues for
possible new pests.
SPC's Land Resources Division is committed to preventing the
spread of pests and diseases by raising the profile of
quarantine at events where thousands of Pacific Islanders
gather, such as the Pacific Games. We need to prevent the
trans-border movement of quarantine risk items if we are to
maintain the relatively pest-free status of the Pacific Islands.
SPC acknowledges the European Union
for its funding of this targeted assistance.
 
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