The Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources, Hon. Jelta Wong, MP, held a highly productive bilateral meeting today with Mr. Maurizio Martina, Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), on the margins of the 2026 Pacific Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) Solutions Forum.
The high-level meeting consolidated a historic 51-year partnership between Papua New Guinea and the FAO. Minister Wong expressed profound appreciation for the FAO’s essential role in modernizing legal and governance systems across PNG’s primary sectors since 1975.
A central focus of the dialogue was the modernization of institutional frameworks. Minister Wong and Deputy Director-General Martina advanced discussions on finalising the FAO-PNG Host Country Agreement, which will serve as the institutional cornerstone for expanding technical capacity and strengthening country-office coordination.
Crucially, Minister Wong proposed a forward-looking strategic framework that integrates fisheries into the FAO’s Hand-in-Hand (HiH) Initiative. Recognizing the leadership of the Minister for Agriculture, Hon. John Boito, Minister Wong emphasized that this alignment is essential to bridge the gap between national development plans and inter-agency delivery, ensuring a holistic approach to food security that encompasses both agriculture and marine resources.
Minister Wong commended the FAO’s leadership in executing the €86 million EU-STREIT PNG Programme, the largest grant initiative in the Pacific region. Building upon the successful completion of value-chain assessments in East and West Sepik, Minister Wong called for sustained collaboration to translate these findings into tangible field-level infrastructure, cold-chain transport, and robust market connections that will directly empower rural riverine and coastal communities.
The discussion highlighted Papua New Guinea’s proactive approach to regional ocean diplomacy, specifically through the Melanesian Ocean Corridor of Reserves (MOCOR). Minister Wong introduced MOCOR as a regional leadership framework designed to advance global 30x30 marine conservation targets while preserving critical regional tuna stock connectivity.
A major highlight of the meeting was the focus on technological innovation, specifically PNG’s strategic partnership with the Minderoo Foundation. By utilizing cutting-edge environmental DNA (eDNA) technology, PNG is setting a new Pacific standard for non-invasive, genomic-level biodiversity assessments. Minister Wong formally invited the FAO to endorse and integrate this eDNA methodology into its global marine spatial planning frameworks to scientifically monitor and enforce Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) effectively.
Addressing the critical challenge of Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, Minister Wong reaffirmed PNG’s strict enforcement commitment to the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA), which entered into force in PNG on 6 April 2024.
“As a major maritime nation, Papua New Guinea is prepared to exercise regional leadership in curbing IUU fishing,” Minister Wong stated. “Fully operationalizing and domesticating the PSMA remains a priority. We look to the FAO for ongoing support in updating our regulations, refining our standard operating procedures, and conducting advanced training for our inter-agency task forces, including the National Fisheries Authority, police, defense, and customs.”
Reflecting on recent legal and professional successes—including the specialized training of 39 judges and magistrates on maritime offenses and the successful secondments of National Fisheries Authority (NFA) officers to FAO headquarters in Rome—the Minister proposed institutionalizing these professional development pathways through recurring secondments and technical accreditations.
Minister Wong concluded by reaffirming the Government of Papua New Guinea’s steadfast commitment to supporting the FAO’s global mandate and driving sustainable regional ocean stewardship across Melanesia and the wider Pacific.