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survey are encouraging, scientists say the Kakerori won't be out of the woods until numbers get to about 500. Cook Islands has declared the Takitumu Conservation Area on Raratonga a sanctuary for the birds, as destruction of its habitat is one of the reasons the bird became threatened in the first place.
Pacific Beat

FIJI:European sugar money Fiji will be drawing up a national strategy for the future of the sugar industry, in a bid to take advantage of special funding by the European Union. The European Commission has set aside A$64 million for next year, to help ease the impact of the sharp drop in the price the EU will be paying for sugar from developing states. The strategy is a requirement, before funds will be made available. Last week, the head of the European Commission's Pacific Delegation called a meeting with the Fiji government and other segments of the sugar industry.
Pacific Beat

Debunking the Myths of Remittances
Temporary work opportunities for Pacific islanders in Australia could make a greater contribution to Pacific island economies than foreign aid. That'll be the message delivered this Monday to the Asian Development Bank Conference on Remittances and Poverty Reduction in the Philippines by Australian academic Richard Brown. Remittances already play an important role in Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Cook Islands and, increasingly, Fiji. Pacific Island governments have, for years, been pushing Australia to offer temporary work visas, but the Australian government has been reluctant to agree.
Pacific Beat

Japan's Proposed launch site
The government of Kiribati says it knows nothing about plans by Japan to build a rocket launching pad on Christmas island. Apparently a report by an advisory panel on the Japanese space industry has identified Kiribati's Christmas Island as a possible site for the launch pad. The Japanese space industry has an existing relationship with Kiribati, having built a satellite-tracking station on Christmas Island more than 20 years ago.
Pacific Beat

PNG: Revised Australian Aid Program
In Papua New Guinea, the minister of police has attacked the revised Enhanced Cooperation Program aid package between PNG and Australia. The original package had included 200 Australian police officers, who were to have worked in PNG with immunity from prosecution under local laws. But the deal was scuppered when the country's Supreme Court ruled the granting of immunity had been unconstitutional. The new, scaled-down aid package was signed recently, but PNG's police minister says that the new deal doesn't go far enough.
Pacfic Beat

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