Ms Annastasia Kawi

Senior Technical Officer at PNG National Agriculture and Quarantine Inspection Authority

Annastasia is an entomologist with 28 years of experience working with fruit flies from identification, understanding their biology, conducting host testing and damage assessment on commercial cultivated and wild fruits and establishing trapping as early warning systems for detection of exotic species. Additionally, she has conducted field management studies on fruit flies using integrated pest management techniques.

She has been involved in five ACIAR-funded projects and Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL) entomology related trials on fruit flies, Red Banded Mango Caterpillar, Mile a Minute weed, and weevil and viruses in sweet potatoes.

Annastasia joined with National Agriculture Quarantine Inspection Authority (NAQIA) in 2014 as the Regional Plant Protection Officer overseeing plant health issues in New Guinea Islands region based in Kokopo, East New Britain province. In 2018 she moved from the Technical Division (Plant Health) to Operations Division within NAQIA. In this role, as the Regional Agriculture Quarantine Officer for the New Guinea Islands region, Annastasia is responsible for the administrative management of regional operations program activities covering border control programs and management and administration of staff and resources.

With her wealth of experience, she is fortunate to be part of the Treaty Village Fruit Fly Training Project and able to impart skills and knowledge to the biosecurity rangers. Community engagement is very important to conduct surveillances in very remote villages. Understanding their lifestyle and allowing community members to express their views in understanding fruit fly species and which species infests which common food crops is important for the rangers.   

Annastasia has a Graduate Diploma and Masters Degree in Plant Protection from the University of Queensland Gatton campus.

ABSTRACT

Partnership through the Treaty Village Fruit Fly Trapping Program: Papua New Guinea and Australia

The Treaty Village Fruit Fly Trapping Program (TVFFTP) was established in 2022 to understand the population dynamics of Oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis) within the Treaty Villages of Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) Western Province. This work compliments, and is an extension to, the extensive fruit fly trapping and eradication program established in Australia’s Torres Strait in the 1990s. Improving our understanding of Oriental fruit fly populations and movement throughout this region is mutually beneficial for both PNG and Australia. For PNG there is potential to minimise fruit fly impacts on agriculture and improving food security in regions that rely on subsistence farming. For Australia prospects to reduce fruit fly incursions via the Torres Strait offer vast benefits for national biosecurity risk mitigation.

The success of the TVFFTP is attributable to the collaboration between PNG’s National Agriculture and Quarantine Inspection Authority (NAQIA), Australia’s Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), INLOC Operational Group and the Treaty Village Ranger Network, and it is a testament to the genuine long-term partnership between our two countries.  The social and cultural connection between the PNG Treaty Village Rangers and DAFF Torres Strait Biosecurity Officers is strong and is part of this project’s successful partnership. This connection has strengthened biosecurity collaboration across the region and builds on the long-standing connectivity across our close borders.