JIRCAS Workshop on “Sustainable Resource Management and Environmental Conservation in Pacific Islands” will be held in conjunction with “Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Physical Hydrology,” at Ishigaki on 16 November 2018.

Pacific islands located in tropics and sub-tropics have many common environmental conditions such as intensive rainfall, highly erodible land, low fertile soil. Besides, coral reef on their coasts are very important resources to be conserved for their tourism and fishing industries. In this region, it is an urgent issue to develop and disseminate environment-friendly agricultural technologies with sustainable management of natural resources.

Currently, JIRCAS is conducting a research project “Development of Sustainable Resources Management Systems in the Water-Vulnerable Areas in Asia and Pacific Islands”. Under this project, in Ishigaki island, Okinawa prefecture, we are trying to develop crop cultivation techniques to control soil erosion at our experimental slope field and a technique to reuse sediments trapped in sediment ponds. In Republic of Palau, we are conducting studies aiming for sustainable resource management in watersheds and environment-friendly agriculture. The results from our study will be not deployed only in Okinawa and Palau, but also exploited in other Pacific islands that have similar environmental conditions and problems. In this workshop, we share recent situation, research trends and results in Pacific islands. We will discuss what approaches are applicable to realize agricultural growth with sustainable environment and resource management in the islands, and how much our efforts shall contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Come and join the workshop.