Students, staff and researchers at The University of the South Pacific (USP) will be able to continue their work towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 14, Life Below Water, after the institute’s Department of Marine Studies received a fully equipped boat valued at FJD$260,000 from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) today.
Today’s handover at the USP Laucala Campus’ Marine Studies in Suva, Fiji, was made possible under JICA’s Technical Cooperation Project on Pacific Islands Capacity Enhancement for achieving SDG14, commonly known as SDG14 Project, based on an agreement between Fiji’s Ministry of Fisheries and USP.
USP and JICA has a long history, mainly in the fields of fisheries and ICT, beginning with the construction of the Marine Studies facilities through the grant aid in 1996 and the establishment of the JAPAN-ICT Centre at the Laucala Campus in Suva, Fiji, in 2009.
Resident representative of JICA in Fiji, Satoshi Wakasugi, highlighted that the procurement of the boat began in 2021; however, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the process took longer than initially expected.
“I believe the boat will greatly contribute to the appropriate coastal fisheries management and the conservation of sustainable marine resources and as one of the symbols of cooperation between JICA and the USP.”
As part of the ongoing partnership between the two organisations, JICA has dispatched individual experts from 2009 to 2018, including over 30 Japanese volunteers, to USP campuses in Fiji and other regional countries in various fields, such as fisheries, statistics, and animal husbandry.
The new boat, VARIVOCE USP-JICA, handed over to USP’s Marine Studies, will join the fleet of vessels used for research and training.
The boat VARIVOCE is named after an important fish, commonly known as Humphead Wrasse, an endangered species under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
USP’s Deputy-Vice Chancellor Research & Innovation, Professor Gurmeet Singh said, “The vessel will play a significant role in strengthening logistics support to current projects and will be useful for undergraduate fieldwork and postgraduate and scientific research endeavour”.
The long-standing 26 years of association and partnership between USP, JICA and the Government of Japan have resulted in various development projects at USP, including the institute’s Marine Studies infrastructure and necessary equipment.
The current Marine Studies complex in Laucala, Suva, Fiji, is a gift from the Government of Japan handed over to USP in 1998.
