The PROTEGE Program Well Underway

The PROTEGE regional cooperation project benefits New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, and Pitcairn over the 2018-2022 period. Its objective? To strengthen the resilience and sustainability of the economies of the four Pacific Overseas Countries and Territories associated with the European Union in the face of climate change, building on biodiversity and renewable natural resources. The PROTEGE implementation plan, developed in consultation with local authorities, focuses on four themes: agriculture and forestry, coastal fisheries and aquaculture, water and invasive species. 

Green and Blue Growth

This program works for both the preservation and the enhancement of our biodiversity: we unanimously consider them as pillars of the wealth of New Caledonia," said Thierry Santa, President of the 16th Government, territorial and regional authorizer of the project. "You are the linchpin, close to our populations, in the four essential themes that aim to strengthen our green and blue growth," he added to the partners gathered for the third territorial coordination committee (see box).

Actions Are in Full Swing

In New Caledonia, field activities have already led to the organization of a network of agroecology demonstration farms throughout the territory, the launch of a study on the evaluation of sea cucumber stocks, and the financing of watershed restoration projects in Houaïlou, Touho and Dumbéa. Financed within the framework of PROTEGE, the first water-health barometer, piloted by the Department of Health and Social Affairs, has also been published. In the field of the fight against invasive exotic species such as deer, associations were able to follow training courses on participatory hunting and trapping management methods. More than 90 people have been trained, distributed in 11 tribes, while cage traps have been manufactured and will be distributed (150 on Grande-Terre and 20 in Lifou). All the actions carried out in New Caledonia and in the other communities are promoted on the PROTEGE website, as well as on the dedicated mobile application.

In spite of this good progress, a request for an extension of the project was made at the Territorial Coordination Committee meeting, in order to compensate for the delays caused by the Covid-19 health crisis. This request will be presented to the members of the PROTEGE regional steering committee in May. 

PROTEGE stakeholders  discussed the project's implementation plan.