5 September 2023, Apia – The Membership of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) consisting of 21 Pacific Island countries and territories and five Metropolitan Members have endorsed the 2022 SPREP Annual Report.
The 2022 SPREP Annual Report was tabled during the opening session of its 31st Meeting of Officials, highlighting the work carried out by the Secretariat to achieve their Regional and Organisational Goals set out in the SPREP Strategic Plan 2017-2026.
SPREP Director General, Mr Sefanaia Nawadra, presented the Annual Report with an overview of each of the Regional Goal and Organisational Goal highlights achieved in 2022, and SPREP Members were invited to note the Director General’s presentation of the Annual Report.
“This year, we are celebrating 30 years since the SPREP Treaty was signed, and the Secretariat was established as its own entity separate from the Pacific Community (SPC),” Mr Nawadra said.
“SPREP beginnings were as a programme within SPC, and in 1993, with support from the Pacific Islands Forum and the United Nations Environment Programme, we moved to Samoa and became what was then known as the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme.”
“We moved to Samoa after the country had been devastated by two major cyclones – Cyclone Ofa and Cyclone Val – and part of the reasoning for the move was to show solidarity to Samoa during a difficult period and as they recovered and rebuilt,” he added.
The work of the Secretariat through its four technical programmes – Climate Change Resilience, Environmental Monitoring and Governance, Island and Ocean Ecosystems, and Waste Management and Pollution Control – as well as its Governance and Operations programmes, are highlighted in the newly endorsed Annual Report.
Some of this work includes support to Pacific Island countries to the various Multilateral Environmental Agreements they are parties to, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as in the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution.
The Director General also touched on the Secretariat’s efforts in ensuring Gender Equality and Social Inclusion within SPREP and also in the work it carries out within its Member countries, knowledge management and resource sharing, robust financial mechanisms and controls, and improved working conditions and strengthened staff engagement during his presentation of the 2022 Annual Report.
SPREP’s Members noted the Director General’s presentation, thus endorsing the Secretariat’s Annual Report for 2022. The 2022 Annual Report is available online and can be downloaded from the website in both English and French.
The 31st SPREP Meeting of Officials and associated meetings are taking place at Taumeasina Island Resort in Samoa this week, from 4-8 September 2023. The meetings are guided by the theme: “SPREP@30th Sustainable, transformative and resilient for a Blue Pacific.”
The 31st SPREP Meeting of Officials and associated meetings bring together SPREP's 21 Pacific Island Member countries, 5 Metropolitan Members and partners to discuss strategic issues pertaining to the organisation, and to approve the 2024-2025 work plan. The 21 Pacific Island Member countries and territories of SPREP are: American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna. The five Metropolitan members of SPREP are: Australia, France, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States of America.
In our efforts to fulfil our vision of ‘a resilient Pacific environment, sustaining our livelihoods and natural heritage in harmony with our cultures’, SPREP is extremely grateful to our valued Members, development partners, donors, our CROP family, and stakeholders.
For more information on the 31SM, please contact: [email protected].