THE 8th Pacific Islands Conference on nature conservation and protected areas was opened by Governor-General Sir Paulias Matane yesterday amidst a colourful ceremony of traditional dances.
It was witnessed by more than 400 participants, invited guests and organisers who trooped to the Cameron Secondary School’s Strang Hall, Alotau.
Sir Paulias received a paddle from Cook Islands, the last host of the conference, signifying Papua New Guinea as the new host and the bearer of the action strategy for the next five years.
Sir Paulias announced PNG’s stand in leading the coalition for rainforest nations to reduce emissions from deforestation in developing countries as one of the initiatives the country had taken in nature conservation.
He said PNG, as a member of a number of regional and multilateral environment agreements including the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), was supportive of many of the initiatives of the South Pacific regional environment programme (SPREP).
Sir Paulias urged the conference to deliberate on issues pushed by the rainforest coalition, which PNG believes has merit.
“For a developing country, it would not be logical to push for conservation alone, since the forest and marine resources in most nations contribute immensely towards socio-economic development,” Sir Paulias said.
He commended PNG’s sound policy on biodiversity conservation and its legal framework to manage its biological resources in a sustainable manner.
Sir Paulias had also encouraged members of SPREP and the round table to look into PNG’s policies and the laws on management of biodiversity and environment.