Posted: 18 July 2006
200-plus biosecurity experts to meet next week
More than 200 biosecurity experts are to meet in the Bay of Islands next week for the biggest conference of its kind in the region in a decade.
The July 26-28 New Zealand Biosecurity Institute conference/training seminar – dubbed ‘B Spacific’ – will examine progress in island biosecurity, management border protection systems and the marine environment in the South Pacific.
Brett Miller, a Northland-based Biosecurity Officer helping to plan the Waitangi conference, says New Zealand is just one part of the broader Pacific neighbourhood and the gathering will afford an invaluable chance to learn from a variety of experts.
“We all need to work together to expand our knowledge and share our stories.”
Mr Miller says the annual conference was last held in Northland in 1996 in Whangarei.
Key overseas speakers for this year’s conference include; Daniel Vice from the United States Department of Agriculture; Pete Holloran, a United States based biosecurity researcher; Amy Lovesey, from Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Jane Morton, an Australian pest plant researcher.
New Zealand speakers include Auckland-based invasive species expert Alan Saunders; the Environmental Co-ordinator for Te Runanga o Ngatihine, Kevin Prime; Northland Regional Council Chairman Mark Farnsworth, Labour MP Dover Samuels and National Party biosecurity spokesperson Shane Arden.
Conference delegates will also have the opportunity to take part in field trips to sites including the Puketi Forest and Lake Omapere for a first-hand look at Northland biosecurity issues.