29 July 2025, Apia - Steps are afoot to develop the latest report to provide a holistic picture of the state of the environment and conservation in the Pacific Islands region. The overarching goal of the report is to inform decision making on appropriate responses for increasing resilience of our Pacific communities and for achieving sustainable environmental outcomes for our region.
The development of the State of Environment and Conservation in the Pacific Islands (SOEC) 2025 Regional Report follows on from the first SOEC Regional Report developed in 2020, which was the first combined indicator-based, data-driven regional assessment.
The process of the development of the 2025 Regional report commenced with an inception meeting at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) on Monday 28 July.
This is followed by a week of in-depth consultations between the consultants developing the report, Ms Tiffany Straza and Ms Shannon Langton, of BlueTide Pacific Consulting, and key technical leads at the Secretariat.
The aim is to have the regional report officially launched and released in March 2026.
Officer in Charge of SPREP’s Environmental Governance Programme, Mr Vainuupo Jungblut said the SOEC regional report is a product of SPREP’s ongoing commitment to monitoring and reporting on the status of the Pacific environment and conservation to support evidence-based decision making on key regional and national issues.
“The SOEC Regional Report is a landmark reporting framework for assessing the health of our natural environment and for gauging the success of our conservation initiatives and interventions for the past five years,” he said. “The 2025 regional report will assess and confirm the status and trends of key thematic areas, highlight important messages and will frame key recommendations to assist and guide the actions of our member countries, regional organisations and development partners.”
The first edition, and the first report of its kind, was released in 2021.
Developed to inform the state of conservation and the environment in the Pacific, the 2020 SOEC regional report assessed biodiversity status and trends in 22 Pacific Island countries and territories using measures endorsed by Pacific Leaders. The indicators spanned seven thematic areas: environmental governance; land; coastal and marine; conservation and protection; biodiversity; atmosphere and climate; and built environment.
One of the findings in the first edition highlighted that while the trend for establishing marine protected areas was good and improving, the establishment of terrestrial protected areas was comparatively weaker. The report also confirmed areas of concern requiring urgent attention, such as marine pollution, invasive species, and protection of key biodiversity areas and species.
“The Pacific now has a precious tool: a published baseline, a way for us to reflect and demonstrate changes over the past five years,” said Ms Langton.
“Having this body of evidence helps us look to the next five years for the next best steps that people in the Pacific who care about nature can take. A regional approach helps us to create a clearer picture while reducing the reporting burden on individual countries, for our own understanding and to inform reporting needs under the many framework agreements to which Pacific leaders have committed.”
The 2025 Report will update and build on the 2020 SOEC regional report and will further analyse and verify the status and trends of Pacific environmental priorities as defined by Pacific Leaders, as well as assess the availability and quality of data to determine these trends.
The development of the report is funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).
To read the 2020 State of the Environment and Conservation in the Pacific Islands regional report, click here