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Week-long Forestry Workshop Begins in Palikir

Palikir, Pohnpei (FSM Information Services): March 9, 2009 - Today, Department of Resources and Development Secretary Peter M. Christian addressed 40 delegates at the opening of the "Getting Maps and Forest Inventory Assessment Data in the Hands of the Users" 5-day Training Workshop at the Central Facility in Palikir, Pohnpei. Since 2005, this is the first Forestry Inventory Assessment (FIA)-related training to be facilitated by the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS) to the four FSM States of Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei and Yap. The target audience for this training is Foresters, Resource managers and GIS personnel from the government and non-government sectors.

In addition to representatives from the four FSM States, partners from the Republic of Marshall Islands participated, and national and regional resource agencies such as the Office of SBOC and the Secretariat of Pacific Community - Land Resource Division assisted in this FIA-related training. "When we think of forests we associate it with high islands, we shouldn't forget our outer islands that have similar issues as like our neighbors from the Marshalls. These forests are highly impacted by climatic change where they can contribute significantly to this training." said Secretary Christian.

The training goals are:

1. To educate and assist GIS specialists and resource personnel on the use of the Forest Service vegetation mapping, and kickoff the Statewide Assessment and Resource Strategy initiative

2. To describe the FIA program, the data collected, and demonstrate how local resource managers can use the data in their own work.

For further information, contact Mr. Gibson Susumu, Agriculture Program Manager, FSM R&D Department. Email contact: Gibson.Susumu@dea.fm.