SI NEEDS TO TIGHTEN UP BIO-SECURITY MEASURES

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Jimmy Saelea. Photo credit: SIBC.

Solomon Islands needs to strengthen its bio-security capabilities to prevent future biosecurity threats.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Mr. Jimmy Saelea made the statement to SIBC News last week as the invasion of the Giant African Snail and the Rhinoceros Beetle demonstrates an insecure biosecurity.

“This is an area that is quite difficult as we know Solomon Islands is a place where a lot of different types of vessels are coming in. Some would be logging vessels and many others and we cannot be able to make sure whether they are quaranteened before coming into the country and I think that is one difficulty to deal with.”

The Permanent Secretary says a possibility to strengthen the country’s biosecurity is to increase personals to effectively monitor all Solomon Islands entry points.

“One way is to increase the number of personnel in our bio-security department enough to mann every check points or entry points into our country. With that, hopefully we maybe able to manage the entry of this pest, by thoroughly checking all ships and planes that entre our country so that we avoid such pests entering our country.”