Strengthening partnerships for the environment to help Pacific island countries better manage their natural resources is the goal of a close collaboration between two SPREP projects - the regional Inform data management project and BIOPAMA. The goal of the partnership is to help Pacific island countries better report on, and understand the status of protected areas, conservation and the environment in their respective jurisdictions.
The partnership is helping reduce redundancy and increase benefits to Pacific island countries from the two complementary SPREP environment projects.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Pacific Community (SPC) are demonstrating leadership and the true spirit of collaboration by entering into a partnership that will benefit Pacific island countries through two online data tools, the Pacific Environment Portal (PEP) and the Pacific Data Hub (PDH).
The agreement was officially signed by SPREP Director General, Mr Kosi Latu, and SPC Director General, Dr Colin Tukuitonga, in Noumea recently.
The Environment and Conservation Division (ECD) of the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology is developing the 2019 State of Environment (SoE) Report. Once endorsed, this report will be available on the Solomon Islands Environment Data Portal (https://solomonislands-data.sprep.org/
The regional Inform project is holding a meeting this week to review progress towards building national and regional capacity to improve environmental decision-making through strengthening planning and reporting in the Pacific.
The Inform project is mid-way through implementation and is taking stock of results achieved and hearing back from the countries of the progress in the new tools and processes being developed by the project to address the on-going challenge of compiling high quality data on the environment and making best use of it.
PNG has a total of about 46.9 million hectare of which 77.8% is forested with 13 natural forest types and forest plantations with various species planted. The second major land use in PNG is cropland, which covers 11.0% of the total land area. Grassland covers 5.3% and wetland comprised 4.8% of the total land mass. Other Land including bare soil and rock covers 0.2% of the total land area. Settlements including villages and cities cover 0.9% of the land area.
Source: Papua New Guinea’s National REDD+ Forest Reference Level 2017
Inform: Helping to strengthen governance and decision making through addressing gaps in environmental data across the Pacific region.
Short, quick pops of information to help enhance your speeches, media interviews and soundbites, presentations and general message sharing when it comes work done by Pacific islands with support from the Inform Project on environmental data use in the Pacific.
You can now download OpenStreetMap (OSM) data from the Pacific Environment Portal!
OpenStreetMap is a free map of the world, that you can use and contribute to. The data that you have access to now, comes as a bundle of individual GIS layers, pre-styled in a QGIS project, which you can use as a base map or combine with other spatial datasets.
This Dashboard gives an overview of all the help and support documents the Inform project has created. From manuals and video instructions, to license agreement templates, interesting presentations and software (and a lot more!). You can find all links to it here.
Inform Docs
This Dashboard gives an overview of GIS related datasets on the Pacific Environment Portal. From digital atlases, interactive spatial data viewers to open access geospatial data repositories and online maps. You can find it all on this dashboard.
PacGeo
Marine pollution originating from purse seine and longline fishing vessel operations in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean between 2003-2015 as derived from the Form GEN-6 , a tool to monitor fishing vessel violations.
SPREP completed analysis of the marine pollution incidents reported by fisheries observers employed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Commission and Pacific Islands Foreign Fisheries Agency (SPC/FFA) as shown on the map.
The participants of the Inform South-South Collaboration workshop in Apia, Samoa
Regional participants from Palau, FSM, Kiribati and Samoa attending the Inform data portal training at SPREP, learned a new tool on data collection using a mobile app, KoBoToolbox: a free and open data software for collecting and managing data in resource-constrained environments.
Participants learned how to download the app, built a data collection survey form, store the survey in the cloud, and then went on a data collection exercise (just here at SPREP grounds recording items from trash cans!). During the exercise they entered data on the form using their phones.
Interviews with participants who learned a new tool on mobile data collection using a mobile app, KoBoToolbox - a free and open source software for collecting and managing data in resource-constrained environments. These interviews with regional participants from Samoa, Kiribati and Palau were taken during the South-South knowledge exchange and Inform capacity building workshop held at SPREP headquarters from 8 - 12 April 2019.
Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQFDPG8g6HY&feature=youtu.be
Solomon Islands has a rich environment with diverse marine and terrestrial biodiversity which is increasingly threatened by human-induced activities, including uncontrolled and poor waste management practices.
The country has a high population growth rate, and an expanding economy heavily dependent on imported products brought about by changes in consumption patterns.
SPREP is leading the charge to make the Pacific Games in July go plastic free in an awareness and outreach initiative aptly called Greening of the Games.
For the first time in its history, the Pacific Games will ban all plastic bags and utensils from all games venues, transport services and accommodation in efforts to influence the behaviour and attitudes of Pacific people to do more to protect the environment.