Australian-Funded Training for Regional Meteorological Services Staff

18 September 2009


National Meteorological Service Staff from Fiji and nine other Pacific countries will hold a two week workshop in Nadi beginning on Monday to discuss the management of climate information.

The Australian government-funded workshop, under the Pacific Islands - Climate Prediction Project (PI-CPP), will include a component focusing on media training which will involve participation by local journalists from radio, television and print.
The PI-CPP which began in 2002 provides Pacific Island National Meteorological Services (NMS) with the skills to generate seasonal climate (rainfall) predictions and to communicate them effectively, along with other climate information, to governments and industry.

The tool used for climate prediction - SCOPIC (Seasonal Climate Outlooks in Pacific Island Countries) - is a software package developed specifically for the project, and is currently used in the 10 participating countries, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Tonga, Samoa, Niue and the Cook Islands .

The project has an important training component and a number of pilot projects, from various sectors (e.g. agriculture, power generation, health) which use the seasonal forecasts. The project is now in its 2nd Phase which started in 2007 and will end in December 2009. Australia has provided $3,000,000 for the second phase.

Next week’s workshop, to be held at the Fiji Meteorological Services office, will focus on seasonal climate forecasting and risks management.

Participants will include regional meteorological services staff members who have the responsibility of issuing seasonal climate outlooks.

With the assistance of staff from Melbourne’s Bureau of Meteorology, workshop participants will be exposed to tropical forecasting tools for the South Pacific and on climate information in risk management in a number of climate sensitive sectors such as water, health, agriculture and renewable energy.

Resource persons invited to address the workshop include personnel from the Solomon Islands’ Malaria Unit, Vanuatu’s School of Agriculture, the Fiji Sugar Corporation and the Fiji Electricity Authority.

Journalists from the Fiji Times, Fiji Broadcasting Corporation and Fiji Television will also assist two Australian media experts in sessions aimed at providing workshop participants with media skills.

The workshop will be opened by the Director of the Fiji Meteorological Service, Mr Rajendra Prasad.

**ENDS**