The Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is an intergovernmental organisation comprising 25 States and Territories. It has the responsibility to build capacity within member States to manage their own environment.
Secretariat for Regional Conventions
SPREP is the secretariat for regional environmental conventions and their protocols. These MEAs strengthen the regional legal frameworks for implementing global conventions. For example, the Waigani Convention provides for strict control over the transboundary movement of g[hazardous wastes] and the sound management of these hazardous wastes. As such, the Waigani Convention has the potential to facilitate the implementation of the global chemicals conventions (the POPs, PIC, and Basel Conventions). Toward this end, the Pacific Joint Centre for Information and Technology Transfer for the implementation of the Basel and Waigani Conventions was established within SPREP in December 2003.
With SPREP’s assistance, some of the regional instruments are being amended to fully implement global MEAs. For example, the Convention for the Protection of the Natural Resources and Environment of the South Pacific Region (Noumea Convention) and its related Protocols provide a framework for cooperation in preventing pollution of the marine and coastal environment in the region. The two current protocols (relating to Dumping and Emergency) are in the process of being amended in order to bring them in line with the 1996 Protocol to the Convention on Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter (London, 1972) and the Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Cooperation 1990 (OPRC) and the OPRC Hazardous and Noxious Substances Protocol. Similarly, the Apia Convention, which promotes the creation of protected areas, is being reviewed in the light of newer conventions such as CBD, CITES, and Ramsar and may be amended to to provide synergies.