1 April 2015: The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have signed an agreement to improve the Pacific region’s waste and pollution management, monitoring and reporting through 2025.

Under the agreement, SPREP and JICA will review the Pacific Regional Solid Waste Strategy, which ends in 2015, and develop a new Pacific Regional Waste Management and Pollution Control Strategy. The strategy is expected to integrate solid, hazardous and pollution control strategies and improve efforts to monitor and report on waste and pollution.

The strategy will be developed in consultation with SPREP’s member countries, according to SPREP Director-General David Sheppard. Workshops will take place throughout the Pacific region, including workshops in: Fiji, for the Melanesia sub-region; Samoa, for the Polynesia sub-region; and Guam, for the Micronesia sub-region. A concluding regional workshop will convene in Suva, Fiji. The strategy is expected to be finalized by September 2015.

JICA has allocated US$150,000 to fund the strategy’s development. [SPREP Press Release] [SPREP Solid Waste Management Website]