Our Sea of Islands Our Livelihoods Our Oceania - SPREP

The merging of Oceanscape interests with those of the PIROP would ensure the former are
part of regional discussions and ongoing monitoring with the legitimacy required for mobilizing
concerted regional and national effort. This would support the Pacific Plan and complement
PIFACC and other relevant policy instruments, while ensuring that these policy instruments take
into account the Oceanscape elements in forthcoming reviews.
Such a supportive approach to existing policies would ensure broader ownership by the
region and member countries, simplify implementation, contribute to raising awareness
and understanding of the importance of the ocean and its resources and, demonstrate the
interconnectedness and interface of the Ocean with other development priorities such as disaster
risk reduction and climate change adaptation. It could also explore mechanisms that would
strengthen cooperation between the PIROP and other regional policies for more efficient and
harmonized implementation.
The pressures on countries (and agencies) to meet various reporting obligations against the
multitude of agreements that exist at national, regional and international levels is frequently
discussed. For the case of a Framework for a Pacific Oceanscape, its integration into PIROP
would streamline reporting; enable a single, consolidated input to the Pacific Plan from PIROP;
as well as allow PIROP to engage and input to other regional policies as cooperative and
collaborative arrangements between these are strengthened.
A Framework for a Pacific Oceanscape that fully aligns and integrates with the PIROP is grounded in:
The call by Leaders to develop a Framework for Pacific Oceanscape that draws on the PIROP
Best practice in terms of building on existing policy
The broad nature of PIROP’s Vision, Goal and Scope which can easily encompass and embrace
the Vision, Goal and Scope for a Pacific Oceanscape.
The geographic scope of PIROP which could be mirrored to delineate the geo-political scope of a
Framework for a Pacific Oceanscape.
The coordination, implementation and, monitoring and evaluation protocol established by
Leaders both for the Pacific Plan and the PIROP.
The momentum afforded by the new Pacific Oceanscape initiative would also benefit PIROP by:
Catalyzing and reinvigorating the PIROP during a crucial period of review and re-appraisal.
Introducing new or emerging issues and priorities for consideration under PIROF-ISA.
Launching a strategic “mobilizing” Framework that specifically targets conservation, management
and climate change elements.
Stimulating the PIROP to engage with policies such as the PIFACC, FfADRM and the Pacific RAP for
Water Resources Management on ocean-climate and ocean-disaster reduction related initiatives for
joint discussions and programming.
In respect of issues raised in the report it is recommended that the Marine Sector Working Group
ensure that the ongoing PIROP review accommodates these issues, where appropriate.
50 Our Sea of Islands – Our Livelihoods – Our Oceania