SPREP

A statement said the partnership between the regional organisation and the United Nations agency was cemented with the signing of a renewal of a memorandum of understanding on the sidelines of the 15th COP [Conference of the Parties] to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, Canada.

SPREP Director General Sefanaia Nawadra said “We are extremely grateful on behalf of our Pacific members to be able to continue this most important partnership with UNEP." 

SPREP was first accredited by the Green Climate Fund Board in 2015.

It currently has six concepts in the pipeline with the Green Climate Fund, a global initiative to assist developing nations to combat climate change.

In a statement issued by the Vailima-based environmental organisation on Monday, it said had to show it met strict standards relating to governance, finance and project management to renew its accreditation.

According to the statement, SPREP’s Director-General, Leota Kosi Latu, said he was pleased by the organisation's re-approval.  

It has been over a year since the SPREP Compound has been able to host visitors due to Covid-19.

Prior to that, the Secretariat hosted educational visits on a regular basis as part of outreach activities.

The Year 7 students, accompanied by their teachers, visited the SPREP compound to find out more about the work that the Secretariat does to protect our Pacific environment and to find out about the types of projects conducted by SPREP across the Pacific. 

As a result, Pacific islands in the central Pacific region such as Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu may experience below normal rainfall which could lead to drought.

Islands in the South-West Pacific will experience higher than normal rainfall, such Fiji, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Southern Cook Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu which might see flooding, landslides or possibly cyclones.

La Niña is expected to last right through to the first quarter of 2021.

The first order of business for the 29th SPREP Meeting was the appointment of the new Chair and Vice-Chair of the Meeting.

Lucy Bogari of Papua New Guinea, who has been Chair for the last 12 months as well as a Member of the Troika, expressed her sincere gratitude to the Director General of the Secretariat and staff for the support accorded to her during her tenure as SPREP Meeting Chair. 

The ground breaking ceremony signified the start of construction of the PCCC funded by the Government of Japan through grant aid to the Government of Samoa. The PCCC will be the regional centre of excellence for climate change information, research and innovation.

"The construction of the Pacific Climate Change Centre is now open!" said the Prime Minister of Samoa, Tuilaepa Dr Sailele Malielegaoi at the special event.

It is planned that construction of the Pacific Climate Change Centre will end in July, 2019.

The training aimed at ensuring consistent compliance and effective enforcement of environmental and natural resource management policies and legislations in Samoa.

 These policies support the sustainable management of Samoa's natural capital for the benefit of current and future generations.

SPREP's Deputy Director General, Mr Roger Cornforth said the difficulty SPREP faces is assessing whether there is compliance and where there is non-compliance, is there an efficient and effective way for rectifying or punishing non-compliance?"

SPREP's director general Kosi Latu said a new plan charting the direction for the next ten years was agreed to last year.

He said this year's meeting marks the start of an action plan to get there.

"We've developed a performance implementation plan which works on a two-year basis so every two years, at the end of that two years, we will review and assess the effectiveness of that period," he said.

Photo: RNZI / Sally Round SPREP Director-General, Kosi Latu. 

The Meeting brings together Members of the governing council of SPREP to discuss strategic issues and to approve the 2018-19 work plan for the organisation.

It comes a week after the Pacific island leaders gathered in Samoa and committed to fast tracking the development of policies to ban the use of single-use plastic bags, plastic and Styrofoam, comes another Pacific regional event upholding sustainability.

Meteorological officials from around the Pacific are meeting in Honiara this week ahead of a meeting by ministers in charge of met offices.

Kosi Latu said one issue that has been discussed is the need to extend or improve forecasting services to some of the smaller countries such as Tokelau and Niue.

He said these islands will need resources to build capacity which is now more likely given international interest in improving forecasting.