4 August 2015: The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) released its Annual Report for 2014, detailing the relevance of SPREP’s work to the major environmental and sustainable development challenges in its Pacific island members. The report focuses on four priority areas: biodiversity and ecosystem management; climate change; waste management and pollution control; and environmental monitoring and governance.

Upon releasing the report, David Sheppard, SPREP Director General, noted that direct financial support for SPREP activities rose in 2014 to over US$8 million, from just US$2.5 million in 2010. He also stressed the need for urgent and concerted regional action on climate change, biodiversity loss and waste management.

The Annual Report, released in in English and French, highlights among other SPREP initiatives: the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) programme; the launch of the Framework for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas in the Pacific Islands Region 2014-2020, setting regional biodiversity conservation priorities; the PacWaste project, supported by the EU, to improve management of hazardous wastes and undertake regional inventories of healthcare waste and e-waste; SPREP involvement in the 2014 UN Conference on small island developing States (SIDS) and in more than 50 partnerships arising from the Conference; and efforts to get SPREP accreditation as a project agency under the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). [SPREP Press Release] [Publication: SPREP 2014 Annual Report]