88
B. Crawley and J. Aston
(3)
Address, on a priority basis, national and international environmental
concerns with a knowledge base for project implementation and follow up
(e.g. NEMS)
PENRIC’s implementation requires:
Institutional strengthening through the provision of training, expertise and
development of facilities.
Integration of scattered institutions, experts and data to maximise economies of
scale and avoid duplication of effort.
Building data and databases which are compatible to facilitate exchange of
data.
Strengthening of human resource development and institutional capacity
building in country.
Set up of national/regional networked and decentralised environmental
resource information systems.
Within the past 3 years, the PENRIC program has devoted much to making its
member countries aware of the importance of information and how tools like GIS and
Remote Sensing can be used to catalyse and formulate decisions on environment and
development issues. Various levels of applications have been developed in the
countries of Fiji, Tonga, Cook Islands, Western Samoa, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands,
PNG, Kiribati and Niue. For example, in 1994, GIS was utilised to develop a Nationwide Vulnerability Assessment for Fiji and Western Samoa as part of a joint venture
between SPREP, Environment Agency of Japan(EAJ) and the Overseas Environmental
Co-operation Center of Japan (OECC).
Regional Institutional Collaboration
PENRIC collaborates with other regional institutions to maintain personal networks
and ensure a level of compatibility amongst the various programmes. Collaboration
between United Nations Environment Program - East Asia Program - Asia Pacific
(UNEP EAP-AP) and SPREP/PENRIC led to the formation of the Regional GIS
Training Centre within the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. Currently, GIS
courses have been offered as pre-requisite degree courses in Geography and Land
Management. This year, the course has been further upgraded to the Diploma level.
The University has plans to develop an exchange scheme with the Asian Institute of
Technology(AIT) for integrating GIS into other disciplines. The University of Papua
New Guinea, University of Hawaii, University of Tonga, University of Hawaii, East
West Center and Landcare New Zealand will be consulted to strengthen this initiative.
Other institutional initiatives include: PNGRIS - the Papua New Guinea
Resource Information System developed by CSIRO; INFORMAP with geographic
mapping capabilities at the native Land Trust Board (NTLB) in Fiji; a Land Use
Inventory Asian Development Bank (ADB) Project in Western Samoa; an ARCINFO
B. Crawley and J. Aston
(3)
Address, on a priority basis, national and international environmental
concerns with a knowledge base for project implementation and follow up
(e.g. NEMS)
PENRIC’s implementation requires:
Institutional strengthening through the provision of training, expertise and
development of facilities.
Integration of scattered institutions, experts and data to maximise economies of
scale and avoid duplication of effort.
Building data and databases which are compatible to facilitate exchange of
data.
Strengthening of human resource development and institutional capacity
building in country.
Set up of national/regional networked and decentralised environmental
resource information systems.
Within the past 3 years, the PENRIC program has devoted much to making its
member countries aware of the importance of information and how tools like GIS and
Remote Sensing can be used to catalyse and formulate decisions on environment and
development issues. Various levels of applications have been developed in the
countries of Fiji, Tonga, Cook Islands, Western Samoa, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands,
PNG, Kiribati and Niue. For example, in 1994, GIS was utilised to develop a Nationwide Vulnerability Assessment for Fiji and Western Samoa as part of a joint venture
between SPREP, Environment Agency of Japan(EAJ) and the Overseas Environmental
Co-operation Center of Japan (OECC).
Regional Institutional Collaboration
PENRIC collaborates with other regional institutions to maintain personal networks
and ensure a level of compatibility amongst the various programmes. Collaboration
between United Nations Environment Program - East Asia Program - Asia Pacific
(UNEP EAP-AP) and SPREP/PENRIC led to the formation of the Regional GIS
Training Centre within the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. Currently, GIS
courses have been offered as pre-requisite degree courses in Geography and Land
Management. This year, the course has been further upgraded to the Diploma level.
The University has plans to develop an exchange scheme with the Asian Institute of
Technology(AIT) for integrating GIS into other disciplines. The University of Papua
New Guinea, University of Hawaii, University of Tonga, University of Hawaii, East
West Center and Landcare New Zealand will be consulted to strengthen this initiative.
Other institutional initiatives include: PNGRIS - the Papua New Guinea
Resource Information System developed by CSIRO; INFORMAP with geographic
mapping capabilities at the native Land Trust Board (NTLB) in Fiji; a Land Use
Inventory Asian Development Bank (ADB) Project in Western Samoa; an ARCINFO