30 AUGUST 2024
The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), through the Pacific Climate Change Centre, today hosted the reigning Miss Samoa and Miss Pacific Islands, Ms. Moemoana Safa’ato’a Schwenke, and the 15 contestants who will be vying for the title of Miss Samoa over the next two weeks.
The visit provided an opportunity for the contestants to learn more about the role of the Pacific Cliamte Change Centre and SPREP in assisting countries as they work towards a more resilient Pacific environment in the face of the triple planetary crises – climate change, biodiversity loss, and plastic pollution.
SPREP’s Acting Director General, Ms. Easter Chu Shing, expressed to the contestants the importance of being agents of change for the environment, and how each of them can play a part in helping us address the various environmental issues that affect our Pacific communities, such as climate change, which has been identified as the single greatest threat to the livelihoods and security of Pacific peoples, including Samoa.
She also commended the reigning Miss Samoa and Miss Pacific Islands for her climate advocacy work at the UNFCCC COP 26 in Glasgow, Scotland and COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Ms. Schwenke, in turn, thanked the SPREP staff for taking her in during COP and providing her and other Pacific island delegates with the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion, a place where she and other Pacific islanders feel welcome and a place they can call home.
SPREP staff presented on the work that is done by SPREP’s four programmes – Climate Change Resilience, Environmental Monitoring and Governance, Island and Ocean Ecosystems, and Waste Management and Pollution Control – and how they help our Pacific island countries protect and conserve our unique Pacific environment. A site visit of the PCCC also took place.
SPREP’s Director of Finance and Administration, and former Miss Samoa 2000-2001, concluded the day by providing some words of encouragement to the contestants and wished them well with the rest of the two-week pageant programme.
