2019 STAR CONFERENCE

19/09/2019

The Fijian Government through the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources has recently agreed to extend its support to the annual Science, Technology and Resources Conference (STAR) to be held in Suva from the 19th to 22nd November 2019.

The STAR Conference is a regional event which has been held annually since 1984. It was set up at the request of Fiji along with other Pacific island countries by the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission in conjunction with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO.

A prime function of STAR was to provide a forum where marine scientific researchers and marine resources exploration experts from around the world could come together with counterparts and policy makers from the island countries.

The objective being to improve the data collection and knowledge of the offshore areas of the large and vast ocean areas of the Exclusive Economic Zones of island countries. It is very expensive and highly specialized work.

This objective remains relevant to this day as Fiji like its island neighbors, still lacks the financial resources and human capacity to carry out this work. At the same time, a Decade of Ocean Science has been set aside by the United Nations for 2021 to 2030 with the aim to improve our knowledge of the ocean space which is nearly three quarters of the surface of our planet Earth.

It remains key that Fiji seeks out partnerships to enable a better understanding including exploration of the potential resources both living and non-living of its marine space much of it in deep water. Without these partnerships we will remain largely without an improved understanding to be better informed about, and manage our Exclusive Economic Zone which is some 900,000 square kilometers.
It is a vast area compared with the less than 20,000 square kilometers total area of our islands.

The STAR Conference will be open to the public and for further information contact the STAR website or the Mineral Resources Department.