Restructure paying off

Asterio Takesy
Once again, the annual pilgrimage of representatives of the SPREP member countries and territories has taken place to discuss progress and plans made concerning the Pacific Regional Environment Programme.

Noumea was the meeting place in September this year, in the beautiful venue of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community; the host Government of New Caledonia went out of its way to make us feel at home.

The annual SPREP meeting is both an obligation and an opportunity for the secretariat to report to its sponsoring members on its achievements of the year gone by; to propose work priorities for the year to come; and to obtain feedback from its members and stakeholders on these matters and its general performance and direction.

Meetings alternate between SPREP’s base in Apia and successive member capitals who wish to host. Agenda items included the presentation of the 2005 Annual Report.

This was well received, endorsed, and is now available for those interested in hardcopy and also from our website (as are the other meeting documents: at www.sprep.org).

One of the trump cards uncovered in 2006 is that the restructuring of SPREP’s programme of work is starting to pay off. Whereas originally most activities were divided over five Key Result Areas, a restructuring approved in 2004, saw projects and staff regrouped into two main programmes: “Island Ecosystems” and “Pacific Futures”.

Members stated they were impressed with the clarity of actions and achievements made to date; these cover issues such as biodiversity, climate change and waste control.

For secretariat staff, it was very rewarding to get the encouraging feedback and experience the positive atmosphere that characterised this meeting as a whole.

Also encouraging was the support expressed by a number of delegations for SPREP’s participation as a full and equal member in the Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific (CROP).

Thirteen years ago SPREP had been established as a fully independent inter-governmental organisation to highlight the importance of environmental issues in the Pacific; these issues had become only more important during its existence; and therefore relegating the environment again to a subordinate position within another agency would be counterproductive

In association with the SPREP meeting of officials, Ministers for the Environment of SPREP meet every other year. This is an opportunity to draw attention to the pressing environmental issues of the day  to the highest government level of member countries and territories.

This year’s special topic was biodiversity. Various briefings emphasised how important the full range of micro-organisms, plants and animals is to the Pacific; how there are more species unique to the Pacific than anywhere else; and how many of them are under threat of extinction.

This year the meeting also provided an opportunity for ministers and ambassadors to sign on behalf of their countries a Memorandum of Understanding dealing with the conservation of whales and dolphins in the Pacific.

This will now provide better opportunities for the survival of these magnificent animals.

The International Waters Project is drawing to a close at the end of this year.  Achievements of the project have been reported in a recent issue of ISLANDS BUSINESS (July 2006 issue).

Also held in association with the main SPREP meeting were the meetings for three regional conventions dealing with nature conservation (Apia Convention), hazardous waste (Waigani Convention) and pollution of the coastal and marine environment (Noumea Convention).

These legal instruments bind the signatories to addressing various key environmental concerns to Pacific islands countries and territories in an agreed way.

There was a special Conference of Plenipotentiaries (representatives accredited to negotiate and decide on behalf of their countries) to consider proposed changes to the protocols to the Noumea Convention.

The conference adopted two new protocols on Preparedness, Response and Cooperation during oil pollution, and incidents with hazardous and noxious substances (HNS) pollution, respectively.

The conference also adopted an amended protocol on the dumping of wastes at sea.

These changes ensure the regional legal instruments are consistent with their global equivalents.

The region now also has a framework for cooperation in responding to pollution incidents and to prevent and regulate the dumping of wastes at sea. If an emergency happens in these fields, we not only know what to do, but also how.

It was agreed to put the Apia Convention on the backburner indefinitely until such time as it was felt it needed reactivation.

This was due mainly to the passage of the Convention on Biodiversity, which encompasses globally the subject matter covered by the Apia Convention regionally.

Meanwhile, strong continued support was shown for the Waigani and Noumea Conventions. I urge SPREP members to do their bit to ensure these important instruments for safeguarding the fragile environment of the region enter into force and are implemented.