Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

WERA 1004 is a consortium of the 6 Pacific Land Grant colleges (American Samoa Community College; College of Micronesia [covering the Federated States of Micronesia - Pohnpei, Chuuk, Kosrae, Yap, Palau Community College, and the College of the Marshall Islands], Northern Marianas College, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Guam, and the University of Hawaii.

We meet semi-annually. At each meeting, we discuss opportunities for collaborative projects that will impact our region, with a focus on climate change, food security, energy security, invasive species and biological threats, and health and lifestyle impacts. WERA 1004 is a opportunity to share research resources, extension materials, and build bridges between the faculty, researchers, and staff at the six Land Grant Colleges. Our partners are committed to fostering harmonious conditional among their communities, environments, and economies, for the mutual benefit and the best interests of the US and Asia-Pacific region.

Objective 1: Increase the abilities of current ADAP-affiliated staff and provide training for potential future staff, students and potential Land Grant students. ADAP provided funding for staff members to pursue education opportunities. Two American Samoa Community College (ASCC) staffmembers graduated this year: Ms. Marie Chan Kau, majoring in General Agriculture and Ms. Masela Talatau, majoring in Natural Resources. At College of Micronesia (COM), Robert Jackson successfully completed his online MA degree program with SDSU. At Northern Marianas College (NMC); Patricia Coleman graduated with her BA in Education in May. The University of Guam (UOG) continues to provide financial assistance to employees pursuing their masters degree. Currently, three individuals are receiving financial assistance. ADAP funded opportunities for high school students to experience college though short, summer learning opportunities. The American Samoa Community College is offering its 4th ADAP Summer Institute on June 2nd - August 18th, 2008. There are twenty-four students attending the 2008 summer institute program. The twenty-four students are juniors & seniors selected from both private and public high schools. The American Samoa Community College Division of Community & Natural Resources organized its first Leadership & Management Development Institute on June 18  20, 2008. There were nineteen participants attending the training: two ASCC Human Resources Office staff, two staff from the Youth & Womens Affairs Government Office and fifteen middle managers and staff of the ASCC Division of Community & Natural Resources. The three-day training was comprised of three main workshops: 1. Youth Leadership & Management; 2. Culture Leadership & Management Effectiveness; and 3. Women Leadership & Management. The workshops all concentrated on the effectiveness, decision-making and communications skills of a Leader or a Manager. Objective 2: Increase the efficient of delivery of ADAP programs. ADAPs Management Services Project provides administrative services and program support that are essential for planning and implementing of ADAP activities. The five Land Grant institutions collaborate on research, extension and training activities using funds and protocols established within the Management Services project. The UH-based Home Office is responsible for organizing, planning, coordinating and providing overall support services for the ADAP project. UH administers the USDA grant through the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii (RCUH). Funds are allocated to the ADAP institutions in accordance with the plans of work, but distributed on a cost reimbursement basis. The Home Office maintains a fiscal system consistent with the needs of participating fiscal institutions, RCUH and USDA. Home Office staff prepares technical and administrative reports that promote the functions and accomplishments of ADAP. During the period 10/2007 to 09/2008, ADAP organized two Board of Directors meetings, maintained three ADAP websites: the ADAP website (http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/adap2/), the Pacific Region Avian Influenza website (http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/adap2/Avian_Flu/index.htm) and the Pacific Islands Networking website (http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/adap2/Pacific_Initiative/index.htm). Objective 3: Facilitate the development of projects that meet the needs of our Pacific island agriculture and community systems. ADAP continued the Bioenergy Feedstock Assessment Project to provide the foundation for developing solutions to reduce fossil fuel importation to the Pacific Islands. To that end, we will investigate candidate energy crops, commercial waste streams, and small scale conversion technology that have the potential to be a part of the solution. The project will focus primarily on Jatropha curcus, coconut (Cocos nucifera), and fish oil for biodiesel production and Panicum maximum (guinea grass) for ethanol production. Jatropha, coconut, and guinea grass were chosen for their low resource input requirements, especially water, and their ability to thrive on poor soils, which promotes land reclamation and inhibits soil erosion. Crops, waste streams, and conversion technologies will be evaluated for small scale and larger production potential to reflect the range of environmental resources found in the Pacific Islands. The project will accomplish the following objectives: Evaluate the technical and economic feasibility for producing biodiesel from Jatropha curcas, coconut oil, and fish oil, and ethanol from guinea grass in the Pacific Islands. Evaluate the potential application of commercial waste streams and small scale conversion technology for energy production in the Pacific Islands. Additionally, during this period, we launched the ADAP Food Security and Sufficency project to study the vulnerabilities of our region. The aim of the Food Security Project is to develop avenues for communities to provide a balanced diet to all households within the United States-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI). Further, our aim is to ensure that these food sources are safe from the effects of economic recession, environmental change, labor shortages, and local, national, and international trade tariffs. Objective 4: Provide convenient access to island research publications including gray literature. During the period from 01/01/08  06/30/08, ADAP provided 87 scientific articles, and one book loan from the University of Hawaii library to Pacific-region researchers.