Helping Solomon Islands to further enhance environment monitoring and reporting was the launch of a national environmental online portal as well as a range of reports called the Ecosystem Resilience Analysis and Mapping Reports, in June.
The national environment portal is an online database providing a centralised data management system housing information and data on the environment for informed decision-making.
The ESRAM Reports are studies to assess natural ecosystems, their current conditions, how communities use them, and what impacts of climate change are having on these ecosystems.
The ESRAM Reports helped identify Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) resulting in the EbA Options Report and Master Plan. This is critical for Solomon Islands where communities in rural areas are largely dependent on the natural ecosystems for their livelihoods. They were commissioned through the Pacific Ecosystem Based Adaptation to Climate Change (PEBACC) Project facilitated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
“I am really impressed to note that EbA options approach include activities such as forest re-vegetation to reduce flood risks, replanting along streams or watershed areas to reduce soil erosion; while also supporting secondary benefits including provision of food, shelter, water, medicine, income and domestic use of these environment values,” said Hon. Fredrick Kologeto, Supervising Minister of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology of Solomon Islands at the launch.
Along with having key reports to help guide informed decision making for a resilient Pacific, was the launch of the Solomon Islands National Environment Portal, a first for the SPREP island Member.
Solomon Islands along with 13 other Pacific island countries are participating in the Inform project with SPREP to address the issue of data management for improved environmental governance. Inform is funded by the Global Environment Facility through the UN Environment and is housed within SPREPS’s Environmental Monitoring and Governance Programme.
”The Solomon Islands Environment Data Portal can serve more than just the Ministry of Environment. It allows for multi-sector, inter-ministry access and collaboration. The portal is built on open source, well supported software, which is widely used by larger global and regional organisations for the very same purpose,” said Mr Kosi Latu, Director General of SPREP at the historical launch event.
The portal is being used to store data that were used to produce the State of the Environment report and the National Environment Management Strategy (NEMS), both currently being finalised. These two planning and decision making documents also support reporting on Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEAs) like the Convention on Biodiversity and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In addition, the portal is also being used to disseminate information on the Environmental Impact Assessment processes. The portal is a useful tool to support planning, reporting and decision making.
The launch of the Solomon Islands National Environment Portal and the ESRAM Reports took place on 28 June, 2019. The historical event held at Coral Sea Resort in Honiara was a collaboration between the Solomon Islands Environment and Conservation Division and SPREP.
For more information on the Solomon Islands national environment portal, please go to: https://solomonislands-data.sprep.org.
The four-year regional Inform project (2017-2021), managed through the Environmental Monitoring and Governance Programme of SPREP is funded through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented by UN Environment. It is executed by SPREP in the 14 Pacific island countries of the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
For more information on the Inform Project, please visit the project website: https://www.sprep.org/inform or contact Mr. Paul Anderson, Inform Project Manager on email: [email protected].
PEBACC or the Pacific Ecosystems-based Adaptation to Climate Change Project is a five year project that explores and promotes Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) options for adapting to climate change. The PEBACC Project is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.The Project is implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in partnership with the Governments of Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu
For more information on the Solomon Islands PEBACC project, please contact Country Officer, Mr. Fred Patison: [email protected], and visit project webpage: https://www.sprep.org/pebacc