{"id":405480,"date":"2024-02-22T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=405480"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Pilot-sites-for-coconut-rhinoceros-beetle-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Pilot-sites-for-coconut-rhinoceros-beetle-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilot sites for coconut rhinoceros beetle control"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea<\/strong>\u2014The Papua New Guinea Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle task force team have agreed to set up pilot coconut palm demonstration sites to test out best control measures against the invasive Coconut Rhinoceros Beetles which have been aggressively attacking coconut trees in parts of Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n

Principal scientist and CRB expert Dr Trevor Jackson says the goal of the CRB task force is to coordinate efforts to understand the distribution of the different biotypes of CRB and improve management response to limit damage from the pest in Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to monitor the initial pilot sites intensively to see which ideas work for those communities and which don\u2019t work so well so we can make solid recommendations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initiative is part of the Pacific Awareness and Response to Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle project funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and implemented by the Pacific Community in partnership with Ag Research NZ and PNG partners National Agriculture & Quarantine Inspection Authority, Kokonas Indastri Koporesen and PNG Oil Palm Research Association which make up the CRB task force team.<\/p>\n

The team has been meeting every year in PNG since 2020 to share their experiences and findings, which included advances made in establishing the current distribution status of the CRB; pest damage surveys, particularly along the Central-Gulf coastlines, to determine the extent of the CRB infestation in PNG; trials investigating potential biocontrol agents that could control and contain the coconut pest.<\/p>\n

PARC project manager Dr. Mark Ero says Port Moresby has suffered a massive loss in coconut palms over the years, with coconuts now becoming expensive and being sourced outside the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur message for the people of PNG is that this is a new strain of the pest, and it\u2019s quite invasive from what we\u2019ve seen. It is very hard in a country like PNG to regulate the transport of plant materials and other goods, which is one of the reasons why it has spread very quickly, so we need to work out a response that needs to be implemented country-wide. We do not want this situation to spread to other parts of PNG.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to notify local authorities like NAQIA or KIK if there\u2019s a problem, to engage in recommendations for cleaning up the breeding sites and work together to get this under control.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pilot sites are expected to start quickly, with the first mapping of the sites and the first activity already set up by NAQIA.<\/p>\n

The task force team will hold their 5th CRB meeting at Madang Province this week. (PR)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

New Zealand High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea Peter Zwart, right, paid a visit to one of the pilot demonstration sites for the invasive coconut rhinoceros beetle.<\/p>\n

-SPC
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PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea\u2014The Papua New Guinea Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle task force team have…<\/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-405480","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\/405480","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=405480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}