COORDINATING COMMITTEE | contacts
Chair Professor Randy Thaman, USP; Dr Mark D Fornwall, PBIF; Dr Gilianne Brodie, USP-SPC-SPREP; Mr Marika Tuiwawa, USP; Dr Stuart Chape, SPREP; Dr Alan Tye, SPREP; Dr Arthur Webb, SOPAC.

Status PACINET was established in March 2000 when the Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific endorsed the Proposal to Establish PACINET. 

Member countries and territories 21: Samoa, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Guam, Wallis and Futuna, French Polynesia, Fiji, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Niue, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Palau, Northern Mariana Islands, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, American Samoa, Vanuatu and Nauru.

Context There are several important national and regional collections in the region but these need support to ensure their ongoing development, maintenance and accessibility in appropriate forms to various users, the majority of whom are not taxonomists. As well as lack of human resources with taxonomic expertise, there is also a lack of access to a range of tools and services. Libraries and literature are often unavailable, communication and transportation are unreliable, costly or non-existent to some areas, and many potential users do not have access to, nor expertise in, up-to-date computer hardware, software and skills. The lack of human resources is primarily caused by lack of people available rather than lack of training or skills. PACINET is exploring means to overcome this impediment.

Goals and Priorities

• Development and enhancement of information and communication networks.
• Training of taxonomists and parataxonomists.
• Dissemination and development of new technologies such as electronic species identification tools.
• Supporting the Pacific Biodiversity Informatoin Forum in strengthening and developing appropriate databases and methodologies.
• Preservation of traditional Pacific Island taxonomic expertise and strengthening its links with scientific taxonomy.

Current Activities

• Expand PACINET’s regional activities and identify country representatives.
• Conduct needs assessments to learn more about the region’s taxonomic priorities.
• Document the region’s human resources in taxonomy and make this information easily accessible.
• Facilitate and actively lobby for increased taxonomic capacity-building in the Pacific Island region.
• Build partnerships and locate funding opportunities to strengthen the program.
• Expand PACINET’s email information network and website to better disseminate information about taxonomic training opportunities.

Recent Achievements

• Development of concept/scoping documents and collaborative project proposals, e.g. for the documentation of Pacific Island regional human taxonomic resources, and the use and importance of including Pacific Island traditional indigenous knowledge in undertaking resource management.
• Promoting the inclusion of taxonomy in educational curricula for professional development programs on invasive species in the Asia-Pacific region.
• Award of taxonomic research prizes to postgraduate students.
• Establishment of a volunteer work experience program in taxonomy.