A blog maintained by Tevita Kete, PGR Officer

Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Suva, Fiji Islands

 

   

This weblog documents the activities of Pacific Agricultural Genetic Resources Network (PAPGREN), along with other information on plant genetic resources (PGR) in the Pacific.

The myriad varieties found within cultivated plants are fundamental to the present and future productivity of agriculture. PAPGREN, which is coordinated by the Land Resources Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), helps Pacific countries and territories to conserve their crop genetic diversity sustainably, with technical assistance from the Bioversity International (BI) and support from NZAID and ACIAR.

SPC also hosts the Centre of Pacific Crops and Trees (CEPaCT). The CEPaCT maintains regional in vitro collections of crops important to the Pacific and carries out research on tissue culture technology. The CEPaCT Adviser is Dr Mary Taylor (MaryT@spc.int), the CEPaCT Curator is Ms Valerie Tuia (ValerieT@spc.int).

 

 

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PAPGREN coordination and support

  • IPGRI
  • ACIAR
  • NZAID
  • CTA
  • SPC
  • PAPGREN
  • CEPaCT

     genebank locations
    Click on the thumbnail to see a map of the locations of Pacific genebanks. Click here to download a regional directory of genebanks in the Pacific, including information on their location, contact details and holdings.

    PAPGREN partners


    Mr William Wigmore
    Director of Research
    Ministry of Agriculture
    Department of Resources & Development
    P.O. Box 96
    Rarotonga
    Cook Islands
    Tel: (682) 28711-29720
    Fax: (682) 21881
    Email: cimoa@oyster.net.ck

    Mr Adelino S. Lorens
    Chief
    Agriculture Pohnpei
    Office of Economic Affairs
    P.O. Box 1028
    Kolonia
    Pohnpei 96941
    Federated States of Micronesia
    Tel: (691) 3202400
    Fax: (691) 3202127
    Email: pniagriculture@mail.fm

    Dr Lois Englberger
    Island Food Community of Pohnpei
    Research Advisor
    P.O. Box 2299
    Kolonia
    Pohnpei 96941
    Federated States of Micronesia
    Email: nutrition@mail.fm

    Mr Apisai Ucuboi
    Director of Research
    Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forest
    Koronivia Research Station
    P.O. Box 77
    Nausori
    Fiji Islands
    Tel: (679) 3477044
    Fax: (679) 3477546-400262
    Email: apisainu@yahoo.com

    Dr Maurice Wong
    Service du Developpement Rural
    B.P. 100
    Papeete
    Tahiti 98713
    French Polynesia
    Tel: (689) 42 81 44
    Fax: (689) 42 08 31
    Email: maurice.wong@rural.gov.pf

    Mr Tianeti Beenna Ioane
    Head, Research Section
    Division of Agriculture
    Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agricultural Development
    P.O. Box 267
    Tarawa
    Kiribati
    Tel: (686) 28096-28108-28080
    Fax: (686) 28121
    Email : agriculture@tskl.net.ki; Beenna_ti@yahoo.com

    Mr Frederick Muller
    Secretary
    Ministry of Resources & Development
    P.O. Box 1727
    Majuro 96960
    Marshall Islands
    Tel: (692) 6253206
    Fax: (692) 6257471
    Email: rndsec@ntamar.net

    Mr Herman Francisco
    Director
    Bureau of Agriculture
    Ministry of Resources & Development
    P.O. Box 460
    Koror 96940
    Palau
    Tel: (680) 4881517
    Fax: (680) 4881725
    Email: bnrd@pnccwg.palaunet.com

    Ms Rosa Kambuou
    Principal Scientist PGR
    NARI Dry Lowlands Programme
    Laloki Agricultural Research Station
    P.O. Box 1828
    Boroko
    National Capital District
    Papua New Guinea
    Tel: (675) 3235511
    Fax: (675) 3234733
    Email: kambuou@global.net.pg

    Ms Laisene Samuelu
    Principal Crop Development Officer
    Crops Division
    Ministry of Agriculture, Forests, Fisheries & Meteorology
    P.O. Box 1874
    Apia
    Samoa
    Tel: (685) 23416-20605
    Fax: (685) 20607-23996
    Email: lsamuelu@lesamoa.net

    Mr Jimi Saelea
    Director of Research
    Department of Agriculture and Livestock
    P.O. Box G13
    Honiara
    Guadalcanal
    Solomon Islands
    Tel: (677) 27987

    Mr Tony Jansen
    Planting Materials Network
    Kastom Gaden Association
    Burns Creek, Honiara
    P.O. Box 742
    Honiara
    Solomon Islands
    Tel: (677) 39551
    Email: kastomgaden@solomon.com.sb

    Mr Finao Pole
    Head of Research
    Ministry of Agriculture & Forests
    P.O. Box 14
    Nuku'alofa
    Tonga
    Tel: (676) 23038
    Fax: (676) 24271
    Email: thaangana@hotmail.com

    Mr Frazer Bule Lehi
    Head of Research
    Department of Agriculture & Rural Development
    Private Mail Bag 040
    Port Vila
    Vanuatu
    Tel: (678) 22525
    Fax: (678) 25265
    Email: flehi@hotmail.com

    Other links

    Other CROP agencies
    Forum Secretariat
    University of the South Pacific
    SPREP

    Pacific biodiversity
    Biodiversity hotspots
    Breadfruit Institute
    Hawaiian native plants
    Intellectual property rights
    Nature Conservancy
    PBIF
    PestNet
    SIDS
    WWF South Pacific Program

    Other Pacific organizations
    Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific
    Micronesian Seminar
    Te Puna web directory

    Pacific news
    Cafe Pacific
    CocoNET Wireless
    Island Directory
    Pacific Islands News
    Pacific Islands Report
    Pacific Islands Travel
    Pacific Time
    South Pacific travel
    Time Pacific

    Interested in GIS?
    DIVA-GIS

     

  •  

    Sunday, January 22, 2006


    More on Hawaii taros

    Exploitation of Hawaii's taro plant prompts outcry: Researchers say indigenous flora should be mined for medical purposes

    By PAUL ELIAS
    Saturday, January 21, 2006
    Associated Press

    HONOLULU -- On an idyllic spit of lush landscape at the University of Hawaii sprout the massive heart-shaped leaves of hundreds of taro plants.

    Native Hawaiians hold the plant sacred in cultural lore, which is why many are now demanding that the university relinquish three patents claiming ownership to taro varieties developed by one of its scientists.

    It's just the latest collision between indigenous people and commercial interests over so-called biological prospecting, the growing practice of scouring the globe from the Amazon to the deep ocean for exotic plants, microbes and other living things with biological properties ripe for commercial exploitation.

    A United Nations University report concluded that 62 per cent of all cancer drugs were created from bioprospecting discoveries. The patenting of such living things has exploded in the past few years from less than a dozen in 2000 to more than 100 last year, according to University of Hawaii researcher Stuart Donachie.

    "There are things here worth looking for," said Dr. Donachie, who has discovered five new bacteria on remote islands in the state. "They could provide something new that benefits society."

    For example, the key ingredient in the breast cancer drug Taxol, made by Bristol-Myers Squibb, is taken from the bark of the yew tree, while Wyeth's kidney transplant drug Rapamune comes from Easter Island soil.

    Such bioprospecting is on the rise and has huge potential for good, according to the researchers going to sea, climbing mountains and trekking to obscure corners of the world in search of exotic and undiscovered life.

    The expeditions could ultimately make hazardous waste cleanup more affordable, reduce pollution and make better medicines -- if genetic discoveries can be exploited and controlled.
    Pharmaceutical companies view bioprospecting as an alternative for drug development to their traditional, chemistry-based manufacturing process.

    Other companies are looking to nature for industrial applications, such as using an enzyme found in deep-sea vents to streamline ethanol production, while still others are hunting Antarctica for useful microbes.

    But tough ethical questions are being raised about allowing private companies to patent and profit from Mother Nature: Who owns the living thing that yields the revenue? Are companies simply pirating local knowledge and resources from indigenous people?

    Legislation in the Hawaii legislature to ban bioprospecting has stalled, although lawmakers are expected to soon release an inventory of all bioprospecting agreements that the University of Hawaii has with industry.

    A long history of colonialism in the remote bioprospecting hotspots of the world has also created mistrust of prospectors -- even if most mining projects only involve scooping up a smidgen of DNA to tease out novel enzymes and proteins to make new products.

    "We are taking spoonfuls or handfuls of dirt or water and we aren't disturbing the environment or depleting the resources in any way," said Martin Sabarsky, a spokesman with San Diego-based Diversa Inc., which has rights to mine University of Hawaii discoveries for novel genes.

    "We are finding things that haven't been found before and we think that adds value in many different ways," Mr. Sabarsky said.

    Many Hawaiians accuse the University of Hawaii -- which in 2003 began sending Diversa exotic microbes unearthed by researchers in volcanoes and elsewhere in the state -- of giving away things that belong to the Hawaiian people and cannot be sold.

    "It's not about the money so much," said Le'a Kanehe, a lawyer with the nonprofit group Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism. "It's really about our relationship with the land. Our rights aren't being recognized."

    Nowhere is the bioprospecting issue more contentious than in Hawaii, the most biologically diverse state in the country and home to more than 22,000 species of plants and animals. Close to 9,000 of those species are found only in Hawaii.

    The patenting of the taro plants is just the latest dust-up between native Hawaiians and the school.

    Eduardo Trujillo, the researcher who developed the three disease-resistant strains and patented them, said his work saved the sacred plant from devastation.

    "The patents are intended to protect the new hybrid taro cultivars for exclusive use by our farmers," he said in an e-mail reply to questions.

    According to Hawaiian legend, the first cosmic couple gave birth to a stillborn, Haloa, from whose gnarled body sprang the broad-leafed taro plant, whose roots also happen to yield one of Hawaii's best-known foods -- poi.

    The Hawaiian people, it is believed, came from a second brother, making the taro plant part of their common ancestry.

    "Our genealogy arises from the taro," Hawaii activist Mililani Trask said. "The taro patents are a desecration."

    Bioprospecting is mostly unregulated, especially in international waters, and there are mounting calls in the North America and at the UN to establish legal frameworks for such work.

    "With more pharmaceutical companies turning to exploring other new technologies as sources for new drugs," the United Nations noted last April, "it is becoming increasingly clear that poor countries might never realize the full benefits of their genetic endowments."

    * Comments:

    Greetings from Lae, Papua New Guinea. I write to inform you that I have been keeping a close eye on the development taking place in Hawaii on Taro. The struggle between the traditional Hawaiians and patenting of taro will certainly create a situation in the region particularly in the small Island nations that depend on taro as one of the export commodities.

    In PNG, after our recent trip to Fiji, we are waiting for our Provincial Government to official launch the “Commercialisation” of taro this will be history as we see one of our traditional root crops enters the commercial arena. In commercializing our taros, we give our farmers the opportunity to value their taro the same way they value their coffee, cocoa, coconut, vanilla, etc, but within our control. Commercialising our taro, would also address the issue of income generation and employment opportunity.

    In this regards, the ownership of traditional gene pool for taro and other traditional root crops which PNG also has the genetic diversity will bound provide interesting arguments as the situation in Hawaii become increasingly echoed throughout the Pacific. PNG’s NARI has so far released 4 Taro Leaf Blight resistant varieties which our farmers and passionate taro eaters are trying to get use to. The genetic materials came from some of traditional taros. So there we are. Patenting, ownership of original materials, all remains to be seen when the matter is becoming an issue throughout the region.

    Thank you for keeping us informed,

    Stephen Mesa
     
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