Cross-cutting actions

This is part of a regional organic farming promotion and development activity in the Pacific. The aim is to develop sustainable, environmentally-sound, island-appropriate economic activities. The project supports the French Polynesian Rural Development Department’s policy.

There are three activities :

• Promote and develop organic farming in the three Frenchspeaking Pacific island OCTs
• Improve organic farming techniques and organic certification process
• Strengthen POETCom (Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community), the regional organic-farming promotion network and French-speaking OCT participation in the network

This has involved setting up three pilot organic farms, i.e. one in New Caledonia at Do Neva Agricultural High School, Houaïlou, another on Wallis & Futuna at Wallis Agricultural High School and a third in French Polynesia at Opunohu Agricultural High School. Farm trials, vocational and technical training, and experience-sharing sessions are being conducted there. The results will be shared throughout the Pacific and discussed at regional workshops.

In French Polynesia, the plans are to :

• Conduct soil-fertility, crop-disease, crop-pest and genetic-material trials at Opunohu High School’s organicallycertified farm and at the certified-organic growers’ network’s farms. INTEGRE is taking part in funding or cofunding technical equipment and human resources
• Facilitate experience sharing and vocational and technical training for farmers, students and businesses once a year

Provisional Amount : XPF 2,3 million/ € 19 300

Operators : Service of Rural Development (SDR)

For more details, consulte Activity statement : 

• Fiche activité Mise en place d'une ferme pilote en agriculture biologique à Opunohu

Synthesis of planned activities :

French Polynesian authorities believe setting up a managed marine area throughout the EEZ is one of the best ways of preventing or mitigating climate-change impacts. Keeping coral reefs healthy is one way of ensuring that natural biochemical cycles, particularly CO2 capturing, continue to function properly, thereby preserving ecosystems’ potential resilience. The Ministry of Culture and the Environment is driving the activity that aims to conduct a baseline study on the management and funding of large marine protected areas so as to help the French Polynesian Government select the type of management it wishes to set up.

Provisional Amount : XPF 3 million/ € 25 140

Operators : Culture and Environment Ministry / Pacific Community

For more details, consulte Activity statement :

• Fiche activité Evaluation d'une organisation de la gestion et la surveillance de la ZEE et des couts de gestion de cet espace

Synthesis of planned activities :

Target groups : 

Communication efforts should be aimed at a specific audience, such as partners, experts and decision-makers, but also at the general public who are increasingly concerned about environmental issues. Communication is designed for consumption at local pilot-sites, territory-wide (French Polynesia), regionally in the South Pacific, and internationally in Europe. As a result, the target groups are varied :

• Local project partners, e.g. management committees, operators, staff
• All stakeholders living or working on pilot sites or nearby, such as the community and local associations
• Local decision-makers and government authorities that are directly or indirectly concerned by the project and their departments
• The project’s regional partners and groups set up for this purpose so as to share the lessons learnt by everyone and develop regional cooperation (New Caledonia, Pitcairn and Wallis & Futuna)
• Local stakeholders involved in similar environmental projects, to facilitate exchanges and feedback in both directions, i.e. environmental associations, donors, project leaders, the scientific community, the educational community, tourist information bureaus and NGOs
• Departments and associations involved in Pacific culture, agriculture and the environment
• Local, regional, French overseas, and international media, whether web-based, paper press or television
• General public and schools
• Economic stakeholders operating in the coastal-area pilot sites, e.g. mining companies, fishers, and hotels
• Regional and European organisations that are directly or indirectly involved in the project such as regional cooperation departments, French Overseas Ministry and Europe-Pacific cooperation departments, SPC (New Caledonia and Fiji), the European Union, SPREP (Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme), and POET-Com.

Messages : 

Depending on the target groups, the messages will cover the following concepts :

• French Polynesia has an outstanding natural heritage that should be preserved for future generations
• Integrated coastal management is an appropriate, tried and tested solution for sustainable development in South Pacific islands
• Island communities are closely involved and active parties in decisions and activities relating to preserving and using their environment in order to apply sustainable solutions
• Solutions and activities successfully tried out in French Polynesia can be used as examples and reproduced elsewhere, particularly in the Pacific region and other overseas territories
• INTEGRE provides assistance for local integrated management policies so as to strengthen and improve the process behind shared management of the environment. Environmental departments are also special project partners
• Natural environment conservation helps societies become more resilient to global change and natural disasters. It also helps maintain traditional culture and fosters greater harmony
• It is beneficial to OCTs to cooperate with each other and other Pacific territories when introducing regional solutions to environmental and sustainable-development issues. The European Union and SPC provide them with support for developing their projects

INTEGRE project is working towards the following objectives :

• Assisting with sustainable economic development, particularly in tourism
• Helping control man-made threats.
• Boosting the participatory management process and involving local stakeholders more effectively
• Contributing to sustainable integrated natural and cultural resource management

The balance of the activities is the following one :

- PF - C2BIO : "Organic Farming Pilot Farm Network" Project

"Thanks to the INTEGRE project, organic farming has emerged in French Polynesia" (P. Couraud, Director of Agriculture).                                                                                                                                               

From an initial financing of about twenty million F.CFP provided by the INTEGRE project, this activity succeeded in generating nearly 80M of public funds to reach a total amount of a hundred million peaceful francs. This success is based on the financial commitment of the project partners, the Direction de l'Agriculture and the Etablissement Public d'Enseignement, de Formation et de Promotions Agricoles d'Opunohu (EPEFPA). Their investments made it possible to supply the Opunohu pilot farms with equipment and to provide a specialised engineer who conducted all the experiments and training. Beyond financial investment, the dynamics created are also human. The organisation of regional workshops, in particular the one held in Opunohu, has enabled a collective dynamic to emerge between farmers, particularly in Raiatea where an association of organic farmers, the SPG BioRaiatea, was formed following the Opunohu workshops and is now a real driving force for the development of organic farming in the territory.

However, difficulties remain regarding the supply of organic seeds, the development of green manures or the economic viability of organic farms. The project has also shown that training attracts few farmers and that the emphasis should be on personalised technical support. Development will continue, the Directorate of Agriculture has recruited the technician trained on the Opunohu pilot farm and will provide a senior technician who will continue experiments on the farm high school. The research laboratory of the Direction de l'Agriculture will also conduct experiments on organic to fuel the dynamics. Finally, the financing of the 11th Regional EDF will make it possible to reinforce the mechanism.

For more details, consulte Activity statement : PF - C2.BIO Réseau de fermes-pilotes en agriculture biologique à Opunohu

- PF - C2Tr : Integrating integrated coastal zone management into public policies

At first sight, the study in support of the establishment of a large managed marine area had little to do with the theme of the INTEGRE project, which focused on coastal areas. However, the results highlight the need to link a pelagic marine protected area with locally managed coastal management tools developed, among others, by the INTEGRE project. This work also makes it possible to design integrated management beyond coastal zones and incorporates the main principles that guide the action of the INTEGRE project, namely intersectoral integration, that of the different levels of public administration and the participation of stakeholders.

Integrated coastal zone management is still not very appropriate by the Polynesian administration. 4 years of project allowed to show the effectiveness of the participatory dimension of this management on concrete examples in fisheries management or sustainable tourism. However, it has not been possible to formalise integrated coastal zone management plans from a legal point of view. The intersectoral dimension remains the most difficult to implement because silo working practices remain deeply rooted in the administrative culture.

The project nevertheless succeeded in mobilising several administrations on common projects and in creating project governance bodies that brought different sectors around the same table and to exchange and thus plant the seeds of a future more integrated management.

For more details, consulte Activity statement : PF - C2.Tr Integration de la gestion integrée des zones cotières dans les politiques publiques

Documents of French Polynesia

Panneau "De la terre à la mer"

Fiches techniques en Agriculture biologique

PF - Activity statement

PF - C2.BIO Réseau de fermes-pilotes en agriculture biologique à Opunohu

PF - C2.Tr Integration de la gestion integrée des zones cotières dans les politiques publiques

REG - Etude sur les aires marines protégées

Synthèse de l'étude d'une aire marine gérée à l'échelle de la ZEE polynésienne

Etude d’optimisation d’une aire marine gérée à l’échelle de la ZEE polynésienne : recommandations et orientations

Etude d’optimisation d’une aire marine gérée à l’échelle de la ZEE polynésienne

Annexe 1

Annexe 2

Annexe 3

Annexe 4

PF - Rahui in French Polynesia

La Rahui, le mode de gestion des ressources maritimes en Polynésie française

PF - Marine Route for Recreational Vessels in French Polynesia

Stratégie de développement d'un circuit maritime pour les navires de plaisance en Polynésie française - Synthèse