Your Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme turns 29 this year on 16 June!
Our first-ever Annual Report was published in 1991, and this excerpt of our history details how the Pacific decided on an integrated approach to environmental management in the region.
“Consultations between the SPC and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1975 led to proposals for a comprehensive programme of environmental management in the region. In the same year talks were held between the SPC and the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation (SPEC – now called the Form Secretariat) to prepare proposals for a coordinated approach to the region’s environmental problems.
In 1977 UNEP reiterated support for this initiative, joined in 1978 by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Proposals submitted to the South Pacific Forum – the annual meeting of the Heads of Government of independent countries in the Pacific – and the South Pacific Conference – the annual gathering of representatives of all states and territories of the Pacific – started SPREP in 1978.
Preparations then begun for the Conference on the Human Environment in the South Pacific, which took place in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, in 1982. This produced a “Action Plan for Managing the Natural Resources of the South Pacific Region” to guide SPREP’s future activities. SPREP reported to both the South Pacific Forum and the South Pacific Conference, with a Coordinating Group comprising SPC, SPEC, UNEP, and ESCAP providing executive oversight. The Programme was administered from SPC’s Headquarters in Noumea.” - 1991, SPREP Annual Report.
Our SPREP vision is: The Pacific environment - sustaining our livelihoods and natural heritage in harmony with our cultures
We’re proud to work with our members and our partners, our wider Pacific family, to help make this happen.
Onwards!
