Association Affairs

Pacific Basin Information Forum: Workshop Summary

A workshop was convened in Tsukuba Japan on October 4-5, 2003 under the auspices of the Pacific Science Association' Task Force on Biodiversity. This venue was selected to leverage collaboration for the workshop on "Joint Forum on Biodiversity Information: Building Capacity in Asia and Oceania" sponsored by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI). More than forty attendees were present, representing intergovernmental organization, nongovernmental organizations, Asian and Pacific Island organizations, and educational institutions.

The purpose of the workshop was to pull together interested individuals from the region to discuss the creation of a regional (Asia/Oceania) information system called the Pacific Basin Information Forum (PBIF). The attendees supported the idea of creating such a system and developed the strategy, list of projects, identified project teams for priority projects, and selected a leadership team.

PBIF would begin as an information system developed under the Pacific Science Association, and plans were made to become a formal regional node for GBIF by GB9 meeting in New Zealand during the fall of 2004. The concept will be discussed at various venues such as the SBSTTA meeting in Montreal and the next two GBIF meetings. The initial web site will be located adjacent to the Pacific Basin Information Node (PBIN).

Publications

Sustainable Agriculture in the Pacific and Asian Regions

The 10th Pacific Science Inter-Congress was held at Guam in June 2001 and hosted several symposia. Twelve papers from the symposium "Sustainable Agriculture in the Pacific and Asian Regions" have been published in the University of Guam journal Micronesica, Supplement 7, January 2003. The first grouping of five papers deal with social issues; the second, with horticulture issues in Micronesia; and the third, with plant protection issues in sustainable agriculture. The volume is edited by R. H. Miller of the Guam Agricultural Experiment Station. The symposium was sponsored by the Tropical and Subtropical Agricultural Research, Pacific Basin Administrative Group, CSREES, USDA and the University of Guam Agricultural Experiment Station. [For further information contact Christopher S. Lobban, Micronesica Editor, clobban@uog.edu.] Another symposium convened by the University of Guam College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, "Invasive Species and their Management", was published in Micronesica, Supplement 6, July 2002 and reported in Pacific Science 57(2):244.

Regional Reference

The Marine Biodiversity of Guam and the Marianas

This 682-page work is the culmination of many years of intense investigation in to the marine biodiversity of the archipelago and is edited by Gustav Paulay, currently at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Guam has the best documented marine biota in Micronesia and affords a glimpse at the great biodiversity of Pacific Island reefs. The environmental setting and the marine habitats are briefly reviewed, followed by 34 chapters authored by nearly 50 individual specialists. Numerous new species are described from the recently collected material. This work is an invaluable tool for anyone working in the marine realm of the Pacific. [For further information contact G. Paulay at paulay@flmnh.ufl.edu.]

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Executive Board

PRESIDENT
Prof. Kr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa
VP, Science Council of Japan
Tokyo, Japan
kurokawa@is.icc.u-tokai.ac.jp

VICE-PRESIDENT
Dr. Mahendra Kumar
University of the South Pacific
Suva, Fiji
kumar_m@usp.ac.fj

SECRETARY-GENERAL/
TREASURER
Dr. Nancy Davis Lewis
Director of Studies
East-West Center
Honolulu, Hawai'i
LewisN@EastWestCenter.org

PAST-PRESIDENT
Dr. R. Gerard Ward
Australian National University
Canberra, Australia
rgw420@coombs.anu.edu.au

ORDINARY MEMBERS
Prof. Chang-Hung Chou
National Pingtung University of
   Science and Technology
Taiwan, China
choumasa@mail.npust.edu.tw

Academician George B. Elyakov
Pacific Institute of Bioorganic
   Chemistry...