Island and Ocean Ecosystems
Mr. Taholo Kami IUCN, Mr. David Sheppard SPREP
10 September 2014, Apia, Samoa, (IUCN and SPREP) – The Biodiversity and Protected Areas
Management (BIOPAMA) Programme is pleased to announce the commencement of an important new
partnership that will see SPREP as the host organisation for the Regional Observatory for Protected Areas
and Biodiversity in the Pacific Islands region.
The EU-funded BIOPAMA programme, jointly implemented by IUCN and partners, aims to address threats
to biodiversity in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. More specifically, it will improve the long-term
conservation of biodiversity by promoting the use of the best available science and knowledge and build
capacity to strengthen policy and decision-making on biodiversity conservation and the management of
terrestrial and marine protected areas.
SPREPs mandate, mission and strategic plan align with the objectives of the BIOPAMA programme for the
Pacific, and with its established ties to key regional organisations, projects and government agencies,
SPREP is ideally placed for establishing and operating the Pacific Regional Observatory for Protected
Areas and Biodiversity.
SPREP also currently implements closely-related activities such as the Pacific Environmental Information
Network, environmental monitoring and reporting on Multilateral Environmental Agreements including
national support for Convention on Biological Diversity commitments, and the newly developing Pacific
Islands Protected Areas Portal.
"SPREP's strategic plan incorporates within all four of its strategic priorities the need to strengthen
knowledge management, monitoring and reporting on key environmental and performance indicators. This
new partnership will assist SPREP's ongoing work and bring funding and technical resources to address
biodiversity conservation and protected area management aspects. It is also timely with the launch of the
'Framework for Nature Conservation and protected Areas in the Pacific Islands Region 2014-2020'" said Mr
David Sheppard, Director General of SPREP.
The Regional Observatory for Protected Areas and Biodiversity will be a regional hub to support decisionmaking and more effective protected areas management and biodiversity conservation in the Pacific. More than being a source of knowledge, the regional observatory will facilitate networking of practicioners, experts and institutions, and will coordinate technical and policy support to national agencies and regional organisations.
For more information contact: Tony O'Keeffe, Protected Areas Coordinator, BIOPAMA Programme, at IUCN
Oceania, [email protected]; or Paul Anderson, Environmental Monitoring and Reporting Officer at
SPREP, [email protected].
About BIOPAMA
The Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management (BIOPAMA) programme aims to address threats to
biodiversity in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, while reducing poverty in communities in and
around protected areas. It is financially supported by resources from the intra-ACP envelope of the
European Commission's (EC) 10th European Development Fund (EDF). BIOPAMA combines improving
data availability with capacity development to strengthen protected area management. It has two main
components: one concerning protected areas, jointly implemented by the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the EC's Joint Research Centre (JRC), and another dealing with access
and benefit sharing (ABS), implemented by the Multi-Donor ABS Capacity Development Initiative managed
by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
Find out more at: www.biopama.org