{"id":403012,"date":"2023-12-11T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=403012"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Cantor-highlights-DOI-investments-in-Pacific-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Cantor-highlights-DOI-investments-in-Pacific-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"Cantor highlights DOI investments in Pacific visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Assistant secretary for Insular and International Affairs Carmen G. Cantor concluded a weeklong trip to the Pacific, where she met with regional leaders and U.S. government interagency partners to highlight the Department of the Interior\u2019s commitment to the insular areas and Freely Associated States.<\/p>\n<p>In Honolulu, Hawai\u02bbi, Cantor and staff from the department\u2019s Office of Insular Affairs hosted interagency partners and U.S. Embassies\u2019 chiefs of mission at the biannual Federal Working Group on the FAS. The meeting facilitated the exchange of best practices, addressed program delivery challenges and discussed pooling federal resources for crucial projects. Over 35 federal program personnel from 20 agencies attended.<\/p>\n<p>Traveling to Guam, Cantor met with Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio, engaged local leaders, and conducted site visits to key projects receiving funding from OIA. These visits included a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Guam Trades Academy, where she highlighted the positive impact of solar panels on reducing operational costs and discussed the suitability of renewable energy technology for Guam\u2019s environment. Other OIA-funded visits encompassed the governor\u2019s complex building renovation and the Micronesian Resource Center One-Stop-Shop, aiding individuals and families migrating to Guam from the FAS.<\/p>\n<p>Cantor also visited a project site funded by the America the Beautiful Challenge initiative, focusing on improving ecosystem and community health and food security by removing invasive species, particularly little fire ants, an invasive species that poses an environmental, economic, and human health threat on the island. The project involves community outreach to empower private landowners in controlling LFA and preventing its spread.<\/p>\n<p>While in Guam, Cantor also participated as a special guest in Operation Christmas Drop, the longest-running humanitarian mission operated by the Department of Defense and regional allies. OCD delivers essential supplies to remote insular areas, a tradition that started in 1952 and highlights the United States\u2019 ongoing commitment to the Micronesian region while providing a multilateral training opportunity for Pacific allies.<\/p>\n<p>The assistant secretary also visited the Northern Mariana Islands, where she met with Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and academic leaders to discuss disaster recovery issues, specifically addressing building construction and renovations was areas destroyed by Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018. The visit included a site visit to an OIA-funded pier rail and Ranger docking station project on Managaha Island. <em><strong><em>(DOI)<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p> <figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/ec5c993e664843c02b4d4813017e0e1d.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and Lt. Gov. David M. Apatang met with Department of Interior assistant secretary for Insular and International Affairs Carmen G. Cantor and Abdiel Rozu, special assistant to the assistant secretary, about a number of issues, including the status of OIA-funded projects, CNMI economic initiatives, convening 902 talks, and other matters. They were joined by Harry Blanco, field representative for the Department of Interior Office of Insular Affairs<\/p>\n<p>-OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/5144c3a432cc807ee3cdc77c033cc35c.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><br \/>Cantor2.jpg<br \/>Cantor3.jpg<br \/>Cantor5.jpg<br \/>Cantor6.jpg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Assistant secretary for Insular and International Affairs Carmen G. Cantor concluded a weeklong trip to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-403012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}