Enhancing Collaboration on Biocontrol of Weeds in the Pacific
Facilitators: Indigo Michael and Annette Mwayawa (BSI, NZ)
Key question and/or issue
How can we enhance collaboration on biocontrol of priority weeds in the Pacific?
Background information
Recent funding support from the New Zealand Government has meant that nearly half of the countries in the Pacific are now involved in weed biocontrol programmes or are showing interest in getting involved. A number of organisations internationally have contributed to Pacific biocontrol projects to date, but there are still a large number of priority target weeds in the Pacific requiring considerable work to develop biocontrol agents for them. This workshop will be an opportunity to bring together for the first time people who are working on/have worked on/are interested in working on biocontrol for weeds which are priorities in the Pacific, with people from the Pacific who are involved in implementing biocontrol in their countries. This is a great opportunity to consider how to enhance and build on existing collaborations, share lessons learnt and consider how Pacific countries can also do more to assist each other. It will also be of interest to those undertaking biocontrol in other developing countries and to those concerned about the same weeds in other in other parts of the world.
This will be a facilitated discussion. We expect to produce a brief summary of key opportunities for enhanced collaboration.
Note we can provide a list of priority weeds for the Pacific to share in advance.