Raiatea welcomes the European Union's Ambassador for the Pacific
Fight against invasive species, production of organic seedling soil from copra waste, a communal composting platform...
After Moorea, the Ambassador of the European Union for the Pacific, His Excellency Sujiro Seam, went to the island of Raiatea to visit the activities carried out in the framework of the PROTEGE project.
He was accompanied by a delegation composed of representatives of the Government of French Polynesia (Minister Tearii ALPHA, Directorate of Agriculture, Directorate of Culture and Heritage, Delegation for International, European and Pacific Affairs), the municipality of Taputapuātea, the constituency of the Leeward Islands and the Pacific Community/PROTEGE.
After being welcomed by Tavana Moutane from the municipality of Taputapuātea, the delegation visited the educational vegetable garden at Avera school, which was developed thanks to the INTEGRE project (10th regional EDF). The teachers praised the usefulness of the garden, which, in addition to providing families with vegetables, is a real tool for learning reading, arithmetic, science and languages.
The delegation then visited the commune's composting platform, which provides compost to the inhabitants, farmers and the commune's schools and whose modernisation was partly financed by INTEGRE and PROTEGE through the purchase of equipment.
On the way, the delegation visited a vanilla processing center and noni fields, emblematic crops with high added value on the island.
In order to illustrate the action plan to combat invasive species within the Taputapuātea Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO site inscribed in 2017, a forest plot with a marae cleared of invasive trees was presented to the delegation. Afterwards, a guided tour of the marae and a presentation of the Puohine Fishing Restricted Zone (PRZ) were organised, followed by a lunch hosted by the municipality.
Finally, the delegation visited Thierry Lison de Loma's farm, Vaihuti Fresh, supported by several European projects. The farmer was able to demonstrate the project developed by PROTEGE to produce organic seedling soil, made from coco peat as part of the copra culture’s waste recovery ?
The delegation in Taputapuātea.
