One of the objectives of the Pacific-American Climate Fund (PACAM) project is to introduce two courses under the Environmental Science programme at UniFiji, says the project coordinator Roselyn Naidu.
“We are going to help build those two courses from the knowledge that we have gained from the field and lab. These two courses, Environment Impact Assessment and Geographical Information System would be a part of the Environmental Science programme offered by Department of Science,” she said.
She explained that the commencement of the two courses would act as a build up to achieving their first objective of the project which is to increase local capacity.
“The first objective is to build local capacity to improve the quality, the knowledge, the training towards climate change adaptation and improve scientific knowledge on the effects of climate change to help develop strategies and policies to protect Fiji’s environment. The outcomes of the project will be passed to communities and larger body of knowledge through the students who have taken up these two courses as part of their undergraduate programme,” she said.
She added that the two courses would be introduced towards the end of the project.
The team has been reaching out to the communities to get more traditional knowledge on these reefs so that the thematic maps produced are verified and enhanced.
“The project team will also have informal discussions with communities which will include; interviews, sharing traditional ideas. These communities have vast knowledge in the coastal resources and the project team will take their view to verify the maps to actual field sites,” she said.
The project period is of three years which started on 15th April, 2015 and will end on 14th April, 2018.
PACAM project is trying to develop accurate, high-resolution base maps of coastal shallow water aquatic resources of two reefs (Cakau Na Sasi and Yarawa) in Votua, Ba and small reefs in Komave, Coral Coast.
The partners include University of South Florida (USF) and Secretariat of the Pacific Community Geoscience Division (SPC-GSD).
