SPREP
South Pacific Regional Environment Programme

What's SPREP ?

The South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is a regional organisation established by the governments and administrations of the Pacific region to look after its environment. This is reflected in the Mission Statement of SPREP which calls on the organisation, "to promote co-operation in the South Pacific region and to provide assistance in order to protect and improve its environment and to ensure sustainable development for present and future generations".

SPREP’s members total 26, consisting of all 22 Pacific island countries and territories, and four developed countries with direct interests in the region: Australia, France, New Zealand and the United States of America.

The importance of the environment to the Pacific region is exemplified by the fact that in an era where governments and administrations are seeking to consolidate, rather than to extend regional organisations, they decided to establish SPREP as a separate organisation. Through this action, the Pacific island governments and administrations saw the need not only for the people of the Pacific to focus their attention on environmental considerations, but also for SPREP itself to serve as the conduit for concerted action in this area at the regional level. The establishment of SPREP also sends a clear signal to the global community of the deep commitment of the Pacific island governments and administrations towards sustainable development.

Historically, SPREP was conceived out of a workshop in 1969 focusing on nature conservation. The result of the workshop led to the inclusion in 1973 of a programme for the conservation of nature within the South Pacific Commission (SPC), based in Noumea, New Caledonia. That humble beginning led to the establishment of the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme in 1982. The programme had a unique Coordinating Group which guided its operations, comprising representatives of the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation (now the South Pacific Forum Secretariat based in Suva, Fiji); United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP); and South Pacific Commission. In 1991, the governing body of SPREP—the Intergovernmental Meeting—agreed that it should become an autonomous regional organisation, and in agreeing to an offer by the Government of Samoa, relocated its headquarters to Apia, Samoa in 1992. On 31 August 1995, SPREP officially became autonomous when Niue (the tenth country to do so), ratified the Agreement Establishing SPREP.

Since its establishment as a separate entity in Samoa (1992), the Secretariat has continually expanded its coverage of environment issues to the extent that its staff has grown from less than ten to almost sixty. It has also had to expand its international linkages. Such expansion would not have been possible without the significant financial and other inputs from its four metropolitan members especially, Australia and New Zealand.

With its inauspicious beginning in 1982 as the protégé of a joint venture between regional and international agencies, SPREP, in the last five years has also seen an ever increasing array of inputs into its activities. Some of SPREP’s current projects with input from the international community include:

The South Pacific Biodiversity Conservation Programme (SPBCP); a project for the preparation of a regional strategy for international waters; and the Pacific Islands Climate Change Assistance Programme (PICCAP) and CC:TRAIN (assist Pacific island countries meet their obligations under Article 4 and 12 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change). All of these projects are funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Waste Management Education and Awareness by the European Union

Climate Change and Environmental Education and Training programmes through AusAID

Atmospheric and Radiation Measurements in the Tropical Western Pacific with the US Department of Energy

Meteorological services in conjunction with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

The Programme of Capacity Building for Sustainable Development in the South Pacific: Building on NEMS (Capacity 21 for short), part of UNDP’s focus on capacity building and

The environmental clearing house functions of SPREP operate with funding from New Zealand.

The above are only some of the activities covered by SPREP, however, under a broader perspective, SPREP will develop and implement a regionally coordinated and comprehensive range of activities under the following programmes:

Biodiversity and Natural Resource Conservation

Climate Change and Integrated Coastal Management

Waste Management, Pollution Prevention and Emergencies

Environmental Management, Planning and Institutional Strengthening

Environmental Education, Information and Training

All of SPREP’s activities are guided by the Action Plan for Managing the Environment of the South Pacific Region to the year 2000 (this document is available from the Secretariat) and it outlines the vision for SPREP as:

" … a community of Pacific island countries and territories with the capacity and commitment to implement programmes for environmental management and conservation. This SPREP community shares responsibility for implementation of the Action Plan, facilitated by its Secretariat."

SPREP in all its activities will endeavour to work with its member countries, donor agencies and other regional organisations to ensure that its goals and objectives, as stated by its Action Plan, are successfully achieved to the benefit of the Pacific region for present and future generations.

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