Pacific Islands Environment Outlook - UNEP

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POLICY RESPONSES
could derive maximum benefit from the extraction of a
sustainable volume of timber. NGOs have also been
strongly supportive of policy measures to protect the use
of traditional and indigenous knowledge, as in the Suva
Declaration of 1995.
Environmental information
and education
The importance of environmental education and
awareness-raising is increasingly well understood
throughout the region and forms an integral element of
support to all environmental programmes.
Environmental education programmes have developed a
wide range of formal and non-formal curriculum
resources and provided training activities for teachers,
NGOs, church leaders and the media, all aimed at
raising environmental awareness.
One of the most significant recent events in
environmental education in the Pacific was the convening
in mid-1998 of a regional conference for environmental
education and training. The major output of the
conference was the ‘Action Strategy for Environmental
Education and Training in the Pacific Region, 1999–2003’,
which was subsequently endorsed in principle by the 10th
SPREP Meeting. The Action Strategy, published in
Box 2.7: Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and the Lomé Convention
Lomé Convention
The Lomé Convention, which for the past 25 years has been the
framework for the European Community and its African Caribbean and
Pacific (ACP) development co-operation partners, has from the very
beginning taken into consideration the obstacles particularly hampering
the SIDS 1 . Out of the 71 ACP countries 26 are independent island
states 2 and 17 of them 3 fall under the category of least-developed ACP
States, which entitles them to special treatment under the Convention 4 .
When compared with other ACP regions the island states have derived
considerable benefits per capita from the European Development Fund
(EDF) allocations 5 . In addition, for several island ACP countries the
trade protocols of the Lomé Convention on sugar, bananas andrum have
provided privileged access to the European market, and also indirect
price support for these products. In order to assist some SIDS to
diversify their mono-producer economies, the EU is supporting some
banana and mineral producers with EDF and budget line assistance.
Good examples of this are Jamaica and the Windward Islands.
Lomé and Environment
Lomé IV embodied for the first time in 1991 environmental objectives
stating that ‘development shall be based on a sustainable balance
between its economic objectives, the rational management of the
environment and the enhancement of natural and human resources’
(Art. 4) and a new Title I on Environment spelled out the principles,
priorities and procedures for integrating ‘environmental aspects’ into
all other Lomé operations. It did not however set any quantitative
targets and as EDF 7 was programmed just prior to the Rio Conference,
it is unreasonable to expect the Rio commitments to be fully reflected
in the EDF national indicative programmes for 1990–95. The
integration of the environment dimension into EC development cooperation
takes place at three different levels: direct financing of
projects and programmes with specific environmental objectives;
environmental concerns in the overall dialogue with the partner
countries; and through efforts to ensure that overall development and
economic co-operation activities integrate environmental issues, in
particular by using Environmental Assessment tools.
In 1996, the EC initiated a comprehensive independent evaluation
of the environmental performance of its programmes in the developing
countries. It was concluded that, in the period of 1990–1995, the
overall environmental performance of EC programmes was relatively
low compared to the extensive policy objectives. Only a few ACP
countries included environment into their National and Regional
Indicative Programmes as a cross-sectoral issue at the strategic level,
although almost all rural development programmes incorporated
natural resource management. However, it was also indicated that
improvements have been set in motion since 1990 through the design
of specific strategies and through a more systematic use of
Environmental Assessment tools and the integrated Project Cycle
Management. In late 1993 the Commission introduced formal
procedures, which became mandatory in 1996, for assessing the
environmental implications of project proposals and for integrating
environmental factors during the project cycle. Over the period
1990–1995, Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures were
rarely applied, although those actually undertaken being of a high
quality. In 1998, the various departments of the Commission involved
in economic and development co-operation started a comprehensive
review to update and harmonise the EIA procedures and guidance.
Strategic environment assessments will be introduced during policy
formulation and country programming. However, since Lomé Convention
is a partnership agreement, the success of environmental policies
depends only in part on incorporation of priority objectives into the
design of EC programmes. More importantly, it depends on the
commitment of ACP governments to these objectives in their respective
national and regional indicative programmes.
Post-Lomé
The current Lomé IV Convention expires 29 February 2000 and
negotiations with a view to concluding a new development partnership
agreement were started in September 1998. In 1996 the European
Commission published its Green Paper on the future ACP-EU relations
launching the debate on the thorough review of the present Convention.
The Paper observes that the relationship between the EU and the ACP
countries will enter a new phase, that this renewed relationship will
have to be based in the new global reality and that the innovations
introduced will have to increase the efficiency of the co-operation
programme. It also identifies some special aspects of importance to the
SIDS: the challenges of further regional integration and transition to a
competitive economic environment; problems such as political
transitions, heterogeneous economies within the region, lack of human
resources, migration and drugs 6 ; and stresses the attention to be given