2 September 2025, Apia - The Thirty Second Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) Meeting of Officials (32SM) has officially opened in Samoa.
Guided by the theme “Sustaining our Pacific Environment in Harmony with our Cultures”, the meeting was declared opened by the Chief Executive Officer of Samoa’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ms Peseta Noumea Simi, on Monday night.
Ms Simi welcomed all the delegates to Samoa and paid tribute to the foresight of Pacific Leaders who recognised that the Pacific needed a dedicated regional agency to protect and conserve the environment to ensure sustainable development for present and future generations.
Established by Treaty in 1993, SPREP, with more than 160 staff members working in Samoa as the headquarters, and other SPREP offices in Fiji, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and Vanuatu, serves the region to address the triple planetary crisis of biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution.
The CEO of Samoa’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade acknowledged the role of SPREP to ensure a resilient Pacific environment sustaining our livelihoods and natural heritage in harmony with our cultures.
More than a hundred Pacific government officials, partners, donors and stakeholders are gathering in Apia, Samoa, for the meeting. The SM32 will see delegates discuss strategic issues pertaining to SPREP, and its work. The week of meetings started on Monday with SPREP’s Partnership Dialogue, Tuesday to Thursday is the SM32 and concludes with meetings of the Waigani and Noumea Conventions on Friday.
On Monday night, Reverend Dr. Latu Latai provided a blessing for the meeting.
SPREP Director General, Mr Sefanaia Nawadra, acknowledged Samoa as SPREP’s host country.
“Even though Samoa is going through an election period, it is a testimony of Samoa’s commitment as our host country that they allow us to move forward with our meetings in order that we are able to feed into the Pacific Leaders deliberations next week,” he said.
The Director General expressed SPREP’s appreciation to all SPREP members, delegations and partners.
“Over the next three days, we will be consulting with you, our members and partners, to discuss and report back to you on how we have implemented the work you’ve tasked us to do over the past year.
“We will also be looking forward not just for the next year, but over the next biennium to consider how we need to continue the actions in the areas we’ve already embarked on, and to identify new areas and modalities of work in order to strengthen the delivery of services that we are required to provide to serve our members.
“We will also be looking at how we need to strengthen SPREP as an organisation, like any other organisation we have our challenges, and issues we need to work on strengthening together in order to deliver the services our members want us to deliver.”
The Thirty Second SPREP Meeting of Officials is Chaired by Vanuatu.
The Thirty second SPREP Meeting of Officials (SM32) and associated meetings are taking place at Sheraton Aggie Grey’s Hotel & Bungalows in Samoa, from 1-5 September.
Guided by the theme “Sustaining our Pacific Environment in Harmony with our Cultures”, the SM32 and associated meetings bring together SPREP Members to discuss strategic issues pertaining to the organisation, and to approve the 2026-2027 Work Programme and Budget.
The 21 Pacific Island Members of SPREP are: American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna. The five Metropolitan members of SPREP are: Australia, France, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States of America.
In our efforts to fulfil our vision of ‘a resilient Pacific environment, sustaining our livelihoods and natural heritage in harmony with our cultures’, SPREP is extremely grateful to our valued Members, partners, donors, our CROP family, and stakeholders.
For more information on the 32SM, visit https://www.sprep.org/sprep-meeting/2025/32nd-meeting-of-officials or contact [email protected]