Update On The Future Moorea Eco-Museum

Tourism Minister Nicole Bouteau met on Monday afternoon with Hubert Bost, President of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), accompanied by Dr Serge Planes of the Center for Insular Research and Observatory of the Environment ( CRIOBE).
This meeting made it possible to take stock of the progress of the project Fare natura, future eco-museum, which will highlight the ecosystems of Polynesian fauna and flora. This project jointly led by the Ministry of Tourism and CRIOBE will be located at the entrance of the Opunohu estate in Moorea. Tahiti nui aménagement et développement (TNAD) is responsible for the delegated project management.
Taking advantage of the presence of the president of the EPHE, this meeting was also an opportunity to discuss the organization, management and governance modalities linked to the functioning of this structure.
The Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes is one of the thirty-three major French institutions of higher education. It will celebrate its one hundred and fifty years of existence in 2018. Its mission is to train, through practice, basic and applied research, particularly in the life and earth sciences. It already has a privileged link with Polynesia through its partnership with the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) through CRIOBE, which is the most prominent French laboratory for the study of coral ecosystems since 1971, installed both on Moorea and at the University of Perpignan.
EPHE wishes to propose to Polynesia to be able to contribute to the management, operation and animation of the future Fare natura, thus bringing to this institution a credit and an international scientific scope.
On the sidelines of these exchanges, there was also talk of the course this week on Tahiti of the most important scientific congress held in Polynesia. For the Indo-Pacific fish conference, IPFC is bringing together more than 450 scientists from 30 different countries from 2 to 6 October. Incidentally, the Minister stressed the importance of this type of event, which also brings a specific dynamism to the tourism and economic spin-offs of French Polynesia while at the same time allowing credibility in its capacity for applied scientific research.
This very specific market that professionals call “MICE” for “Meetings, Incentive, Conferences, Exhibitions / Events” represents a niche identified within the tourism development strategy of French Polynesia 2015-2020. This one is one of the vectors of tourist growth unavoidable, to be encouraged for the years to come.
To conclude the interview, it was agreed to set up a working group to finalize the trade-offs between the various possible management methods, in parallel with the construction of the building to be launched in the coming months.
 
 
(Source: Tahiti News Tourisme 03 October 2017)