Fijian ambassador selected for Int'l Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food & Agri

In another milestone achievement during the 39th Session of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) Council held in Rome, Fiji through the Minister for Agriculture, Rural & Maritime Development & National Disaster Management, Hon. Inia B. Seruiratu has been selected to be among the founding members of Goodwill Ambassadors for the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Hon. Seruiratu as a Goodwill Ambassador was chosen among high profile public personalities such as eminent Scientists, Diplomats and Agriculture Ministers into this new role which was warmly accepted and endorsed by the Prime Minister, Hon. Josaia V. Bainimarama who is the Head of the Fiji delegation in this Council meeting. 

The Circle of Goodwill Ambassadors was initiated by the High Level Taskforce of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture at its second working session on 24 September 2014 held in New York on the margins of the 69th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. The task and role of Goodwill Ambassadors is to inspire broad, positive and committed action in support of the Treaty’s implementation and the resourcing of its Benefit-sharing Fund (BSF) as well as to generate public awareness about the Treaty’s pivotal role in agricultural, food biodiversity issues. This is a milestone achievement for Fiji and the Small Island States within the South West Pacific Region. Fiji acceded the Treaty in July 2008, and in addition to this; Fiji has also ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1993 and recently the Nagoya Protocol in 2013 that facilitates the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) mechanism of the CBD. Fiji is the only country in the Pacific that has ratified all these three Treaties and Convention. The CBD is managed by the Department of Environment, while the Treaty is managed by the Ministry of Agriculture.

http://www.thejetnewspaper.com/2015/06/15/fiji-joins-goodwill-ambassado…;