Putting pep
p. 21 · Read in the full issue
into SPREP
ON the environmental front, UNDP and UNEP are putting $2.5 million into strengthening the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, al lowing it to recruit extra staff and boost its programmes in the region.
The aim is to give SPREP indepen
dence to carry out its work effectively a move which hopefully will be con firmed by the Ministerial meeting in Tahiti later this year. The NZ govern ment and NZ Greenpeace will be funding a high-profile information office for SPREP. The programme would allow it to carry out Environmental Impact Assessments for developments such as tourism, forestry and mining to avoid ecological disasters. It would also allow seven small states, Tuvalu, Nauru,
Tokelay, Niue, Palau, Kiribati and Western Samoa to develop National
Environment Management Strategies.
The programme should boost SPREPS’s ability to deal with Environ ment Contamination and pollution con trol. Its action plan adopted in Rarotonga in 1982 identified marine pollution as one of the region’s major problems, but SPREP has not yet been able to respond to requests for assistance on such problems. □