Fiji

Maika Daveta has over ten years of experience in natural resource management in Fiji. He is currently the forest and landscape restoration specialist under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UNFAO), Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism project in Fiji. The project is titled "The Paris Agreement in Action – Upscaling Forest and Landscape Restoration to achieving the NDC" and is funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUB). Maika has been with the UNFAO for the past six years, having coordinated another project on "Action Against Desertification," funded by the European Commission and the organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (then ACP).

Prior to joining the UNFAO, Maika was a forestry officer in tree improvement with the Ministry of Forestry, Fiji and the graduate officer for the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research and University of the South Pacific Scholarship Program. As part of his work and also of personal interest, Maika has been engaged in various restoration programs, native species research, community capacity development programs, and supporting community income generation projects.

Maika graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry from the University of the South Pacific in 2011 and a postgraduate diploma in biotechnology in 2012. He is currently pursuing his master's degree at the University of the South Pacific (Fiji), focusing on the elucidation, isolation, and mass production of nitrogen fixing bacteria for inoculation into seeds/seedlings to improve survival and growth. In 2014, Maika was awarded the Erasmus Mundus Masters Exchange program in biology where he had spent ten months at KU Leuven, Belgium, taking short courses ranging from molecular biology to ecology. He is an alumnus of the International Visitor Leadership Program.