Source: The Post Courier

By TODAGIA KELOLA

FOR the first time in the country’s history a national workshop has been organised by the Department of Environment and Conservation to review a four-year 
marine resource plan for the country.
The PNG Marine Resource program is a four year plan that was launched by the then minister for Environment & Conservation Benny Allen in 2010, and which ends this year.
When it was first launched in 2010, the PNG Marine Program had five goals in which the Department of Environment and Conservation and other key stakeholders had to achieve within the four year time frame.
The five goals are Seascape, Eco-system Approach to Fisheries Management, Marine Protection, Climate Change and Threatened Species.
The workshop will review the plan and come up with a new four year plan for all stakeholders to achieve so as to maintain and sustain our rich marine resources. They will also discuss the challenges and potential development of these rich marineresources.
Attending the workshop will be the Department of Environment & Conservation, PNGs 14 maritime provinces, the National Fisheries Authority, the Office of Climate Change and Development and Key NGOs like, SeaWeb, WWF and TNC. In the next 5 days these organisations will review the Marine Program and reveal how they have all performed in implementing the Programs 5 goals.
About 45 technical advisers from these organisations will participate in the workshop and one of the key outcomes of course will be to recognise and endorse plans for the nation’s Marine Program for the next 4 years.