PACINET Supports Vital Training in Insect Taxonomy for the Pacific Islands

PACINET via the National Science Foundation-funded Fiji Arthropod Survey and the Bishop Museum in Hawaii has provided funding support with assistance from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP) to run the first ever postgraduate course in Insect Taxonomy at the University of the South Pacific. The intensive 8-week course runs during September and October 2006, at the University's Laucala campus in Suva, Fiji. There are seventeen participants enrolled with variable and diverse backgrounds in forestry, agriculture, wildlife conservation and biodiversity assessment. The course has been fostered and organized by the University's Faculty of Science and Technology and is being led by Dr Dan Bickel a senior research scientist from the Entomology section of the Australian Museum, and an expert entomologist with many years of experience in the insect fauna of the Australasian and Pacific Island region.

This course is providing a unique opportunity for the participants to learn about insects and is being delivered by a series of lectures and practical classes. At the end of the course it is expected that participants will have; developed considerable insect identification skills, made their own tropical insect collection and have an improved understanding of the systematics of the most diverse group of animals in the world.

This course forms part of several much wider environmental natural resource management programs, such as the University's Darwin Initiative program aimed at assessing Fiji's megadiverse insect fauna and building the regions taxonomic capacity, particularly in human resources. Such training outcomes are essential for implementing vital biodiversity research and conservation efforts plus ensuring sustainable development initiatives for forestry and agriculture within the Pacific Island region.

Discussions are also being undertaken with the Land Resources Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community to enable additional regional participation in future courses as insect identification skills are in high demand for important regional projects and programs related to plant protection, crop and pest management and invasive species detection.

Further information can be obtained from the Course Coordinator Dr Linton Winder Email: winder_l@usp.ac.fj.