With our country and economy growing, it is not prudent to forget the region in this growth phase.

Perhaps that is the reason the organisers of the 2016 Top Executives (TOPEX) Conference are bringing in the Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Development Forum as a speaker.

François Martel will be addressing delegates at the two-day conference which gets underway at the Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa today.

Mr Martel, a Samoan national, is the first substantive Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) appointed in September 2015.

The PIDF is a multilateral and multi-stakeholder organization focusing on a distinctive Pacific model of green growth in blue economies aligned to sustainable development principles. The Secretariat is based in Fiji.

Mr Martel is a professional forester and conservationist with 35 years of experience working on issues of biodiversity conservation, climate change and sustainable forest resource use in island ecosystems of West Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

In Samoa, he last held senior technical advisor positions on GEF and UNDPclimate resilience of forest ecosystems and critical landscape management projects.

Prior to this, Mr Martel spent 10 years on the Senior Leadership Team of Conservation International as the Executive Director for their Pacific Islands Programme, one he founded and led from 2001 to 2010.

He has developed and nurtured a wide network of conservation, climate change and sustainable development partners and alliances in all Pacific Islands and territories over the last 26 years.

Feedback:  rachnal@fijisun.com.fj