From SPREP To Sweden

From the beginning, SPREP believed that one of the best ways to improve Pacific islanders' understanding of the environment, is by providing timely and accurate information.

Everyone needs information on environmental issues to improve the quality of their lives, be they local villagers or government policymakers. The growing public opposition to what is happening to our environment shows the desire of our people to participate in decisions that affect the way we live, and the choices our children will have in the future.

In the short life span of this organisation, SPREP has attempted to use all means of communications available to raise awareness and garner support for the goals our member countries have set us.

In our role as an environmental watchdog, it is in our best interest to consult with as broad a cross section of the regional community as possible. This helps to underline a participatory approach to resolving environment issues. It reflects our belief that only through commitment at every level will come the capacity to act.

As a technical organisation, we are flooded with all manner of reports and documents. Much of this is generated by our programme officers, who either work individually with their own programmes, or in collaboration with national governments, other experts, and, of course, our donors.

Their efforts are normally published in some form, the hard copies sent out to focal points in the region, or electronic copies posted on our website.

But we are conscious of the fact that to really enlighten the people of this region, SPREP needs to cast its net of information as far and wide as possible.

One response now achieving international recognition is the Pacific Environment Information Network or PEIN, that has been coordinated from our Information Resource Centre.

Since 2000, the Information Resource team has been working with 15 of our 22 Pacific Islands member countries to set up a network of national environmental information centres that can supply environment departments, civil groups, schools and the media with the information they want.

National centres are usually located in environment offices, though other locations are sometimes identified as the preferred base. Funding from the European Union has allowed for the supply and installation of computer equipment. We have provided in-country training, workshops on creating databases, plus information and knowledge management. Other workshops have been held to encourage locally based agencies to join this network.

Collectively, these national information centres have close to 20,000 volumes online. The impact of having all this quality information available is still being quantified; but the response and interest nationally suggests that more and more organisations realise the benefits this programme offers.

But as with any endeavour worth striving for, the arrival of PEIN has not all been smooth sailing.

Standardising operating systems has been difficult as each country has its own logistical problems from power outages, to different staff skill sets and the ability to meet the running costs involved. Still the PEIN option offers communities important avenues for analysing problems, and formulating responses that can work. So to make a good system even better, SPREP and our partner countries need, for example, to build networks that go hand in hand with national information policies, prioritise the immediate need to record traditional knowledge out of what are frequently oral histories, and to highlight the importance of the human factor information management.
With an increase in the transfer of information, skills, and the involvement of agencies and community groups, the opportunity to spread our message through community radio, web pages and the like, rises in tandem.

I believe that PEIN is one of the best ways that SPREP can reach out to empower citizens of the Pacific to take action, by arming them with information they need.

This is an important point because today the complex and specific nature of Pacific environment issues means we all need to get involved and then agree on the solutions. Public participation is everything. An agreed policy, forged through an informed exchange of ideas and experiences, has every chance of working. In this context, communication is a two-way street and not a top down way of thinking. Having the right information provides everyone with the right start.

I would like to acknowledge our Information Resource Centre team on their PEIN nomination to the prestigious Stockholm Challenge being held in Sweden this month. Finally, I wish to congratulate the European Union who have supported the Information Resource Centre from the outset, and have been instrumental in taking PEIN to the region. Well done!

€ Asterio Takesy is the director of the South Pacific
Regional Environment Programme based in Apia, Samoa.