Results for Pacific Islands

Illegal fishing operators will now find it harder to offload and sell the fish they catch, under enhanced United Nations measures to stamp out llegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

The University of the South Pacific (USP) Convention, which legally embeds the university in member countries, was signed by eight country governments including Tonga at the USP’s 84th council meeting in Majuro, Republic of Marshall Islands on 25 May.

The PACER Plus Trade Agreement will be signed by 14 Pacific Island countries including Australia and New Zealand on Wednesday, June 14 in Nuku’alofa, Tonga.

The Pacific Games Council CEO Laurent Cassier, told Matangi Tonga this evening that “as far as we are concerned the projects are still ongoing”. The Pacific Games Council has not received any confirmation from the Tongan Government regarding the cancellation of their hosting of the 2019 Pacific Games as stated by Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva during a radio interview in New Zealand two days ago.

As climate change negotiators meet in Bonn, Germany, between 8 – 18 May, to discuss rules and processes to implement the Paris Agreement, the Chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group, Gebru Jember Endalew is concerned little is being done to support poor and small countries vulnerable to climate change. Underdeveloped Pacific Island nations such as Tonga also lack the capacity to adequately protect their population from natural disasters, increased drought and sea level rises.

Ms Marga Morrisey, a travel expert with Flight Centre in New Zealand has won an 8-day trip to Tonga after entering a draw specifically for travel agents who completed an online South Pacific Specialist Program that provides essential knowledge of the Pacific region as a tourist destination.

A new study has found that 96 percent of women of childbearing age living in four Pacific Island countries who were sampled have elevated levels of mercury in their bodies.

Samoa is leading the Asia Pacific region in statistical data transparency becoming the first country in the area to launch a new National Summary Data Page (NSDP), a one-stop statistics shop for publishing essential macroeconomic data, critical for monitoring economic conditions and policies.

Nine Pacific Islander students in New Zealand were among 13 recipients of the Woolf Fisher First-in-Family AUT Scholarship to study at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT). All of the recipients are the first in their immediate families to attend university and this year five are Tongans.