OIA Launches Series of On-Island Biosecurity Trainings for the Territories

HAGATNA – The Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs Carmen G. Cantor today on Guam, applauded the first of a series of on-island biosecurity trainings in the U.S. territories this year in 2025. As announced in September 2024, funding from President Biden’s Investing in America places a strong emphasis on strengthening local capacity in biosecurity measures, promoting the protection and restoration of biologically rich and culturally significant island and coastal ecosystems, and enhancing community resilience against invasive species and environmental degradation. Accordingly, funding for local, on-island biosecurity trainings will be provided in the U.S. territories of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) in 2025.

“Island communities can be particularly vulnerable to ecological disruption if the appropriate advance planning and biosecurity measures have not been established,” said Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs Cantor. “We are proud to support a local biosecurity training on Guam and plan to replicate this training for all the territories to increase access to in-person and hands-on trainings, capacity building, and technical assistance. The trainings are key to building resilient communities against invasive species that are increasingly threatening all aspects of the way of life in island communities.”

Assistant Secretary Cantor has also announced $100,000 in fiscal year 2024 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Ecosystem Restoration Program funds to support the Guam Department of Agriculture Pilot Invasive Species Project, a signature early detection surveillance project in support of the National Early Detection and Rapid Response Framework. This project will provide funding for additional staff biologists at the Guam Department of Agriculture’s Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources to support Guam’s Marine Biosecurity Coordinator with activities related to early detection surveillance for marine invasive species.

Additionally, OIA will be awarding $1,446,370 for other projects that serve to restore ecosystems and assess and mitigate invasive species in the territories as follows:  

• $560,436 to the CNMI Department of Public Lands for the Managaha Island Erosion Impact Study and Native Ecosystem Restoration Initiative;
• $285,934 to the CNMI Department of Lands and Natural Resources for Invasive Species Coordination;
• $125,000 to the U.S. Forest Service for 2025-2026 Territory Biosecurity Trainings Support;
• $100,000 to the CNMI Department of Lands and Natural Resources for Advancing the National Early Detection and Rapid Response Framework: Early Detection Surveillance for Asset Protection;
• $100,000 to the Nature Association of the Virgin Islands for the Python Watch Project: Early Detection for Invasive Pythons in the USVI;
• $75,000 to the USVI Department of Planning and Natural Resources for Biosecurity Training and Travel;
• $75,000 to the CNMI Department of Lands and Natural Resources for Biosecurity Capacity Building;
• $75,000 to the American Samoa Biodiversity Conservation Office for the Developing American Samoa’s Biosecurity Resilience with its Second on-Island and Regional Training Biosecurity Training Support; and
• $50,000 to the University of Guam for Guam On-island Biosecurity Training, Phase 2.

More information about these and other funding provided to the Insular Areas through OIA may be found at www.doi.gov/oia.

The Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs and the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) carry out the Secretary of the Interior’s responsibilities for the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Additionally, OIA administers several discretionary grant funding programs to the Insular Areas and oversees federal assistance under the Compacts of Free Association to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau.

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