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African swine fever (ASF) is a contagious viral disease that affects pigs and wild boars with a near 100 percent fatality rate. ASF is not transmissible to humans hence; it is not a direct human health concern. However, this alarming disease has economically impacted Asia with millions of pigs culled in China and Vietnam in an effort to control the disease. The threat of ASF reaching the Pacific is real despite...

The project Enhancing livelihoods and food security through fisheries with nearshore fish aggregating devices in the Pacific is supporting seven Pacific Island countries - Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Samoa, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. An inception workshop for the project was held in Nadi, Fiji (3-6 February) and brought together around 45 participants comprised of representatives of national fisheries agencies and fishers from countries under the project, as well as project...

The global trend of urbanization is also happening in the Solomon Islands.  According to some sources, cities and towns such as Honiara, Auki, Gizo and Noro now host two-thirds of all urban Solomon Islanders. Rapid and unplanned urban sprawling in the surrounding rural areas is commonly depleting natural resources, including arable land, and eroding biodiversity, thereby contributing to the unsustainability of current urbanization trend, and increasing the vulnerability to shocks. To raise...

Twenty-two technicians from the various government ministries, UN agencies and other organizations attended an awareness workshop, which introduced the Farm Field Schools School (FFS) approach. The FFS approach is an innovative, participatory and interactive learning approach that emphasizes problem solving and discovery based learning. FFS aims to build farmers’ capacity to analyse their production systems, identify problems, test possible solutions, and eventually encourage the participants to adopt the practices most suitable...