BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
Director of the Botanic Gardens and National Herbarium, Mr Myknee Sirikolo has disproved media report on the retrieved specimen from the South Pacific Regional Herbarium (SPRH) in Suva Fiji.
The media report says that more than twenty-five thousand (25,000) dried plant specimens are flora and fauna.
The country’s specimens safely returned after decades of safe keeping at the South Pacific Regional Herbarium (SPRH), Institute of Applied Sciences (IAS), at the University of the South Pacific (USP), Lower Campus, Laucala, Fiji.
Mr Sirikolo, in setting the record straight, said the retrieved specimen were not of fauna but flora.
He explained that 2000 of the 25,809 specimens were kept at the South Pacific Regional Herbarium (SPRH) and 23,000 were retrieved.
“That is the record which has been corrected. The item of the return of the specimen as media report said, was flora and fauna. But, no we only deal with flora, plants. Fauna refers to animals, we do not deal with animals, only plant specimen,” he said.
Relocated to Fiji under an MOU, these dried plant specimens are collections since the establishment of the Solomon Islands National Herbarium during the Solomon Islands British Protectorate (SIP).
Its relocation was solely because the building accommodating these specimens was partially destroyed in the 90’s and the dried plant specimens were not properly maintained and stored under the required herbarium storage conditions.
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