Pacific Centre for Environmental Governance

Leadership • Law • Economics • Social Policy

A just Pacific that values people and conserves nature

www.iucn.org/oceania

IUCN OceaniaFounded in 1948, IUCN is the first global environmental organisation and the world’s largest professional conservation organization and network. It has over 1,300 members - nation states, government agencies and NGOs - plus a committed, formal network of over 17,000 volunteer scientists and experts.

IUCN Oceania has been operating for 10 years, working with 58 members and in 22 Pacific Island countries, and has now started the Pacific Centre for Environmental Governance (PCEG), a unit that brings together its programs and work on leadership for green growth, environmental law, natural resource economics and environment and social policy.

Environmental governance in the Pacific Environmental governance is the means by which societies decide and act on goals and priorities for the management of natural resources. It’s about how we make rules and decisions for a more sustainable future, and how we implement and enforce them.

Pacific Island countries are stewards of immense locally and globally important ecosystems, and they host an enormously precious share of the planet’s biodiversity. Nature is the central element of Pacific identity and society, and provides the mainstay of social and economic livelihoods of people.

Natural resources across the Pacific are used, customarily owned, governed and managed by indigenous and local communities.

Pacific Island countries have been continually developing and improving their environmental governance, but limited resources and expertise across the region create an ongoing challenge as they seek to implement, monitor and enforce international environmental conventions, and national environmental policy, legislation and regulations.

Pacific Centre for Environmental Governance PCEG aims to provide world class environmental governance advice and support for Pacific island decision makers, and to be a regional think tank on cutting edge issues on development and the environment.

It will operate as a knowledge and practice hub, using a collaborative, holistic and innovative approach that is underpinned by IUCN’s regional and international experience, knowledge and networks.

• Provide expert environmental governance advice andsupport to countries in Oceania and to IUCN Oceania programs, including from IUCN’s network of scientists and experts.

• Collaborate andpartnerwith regional, national and localorganisations, governments, NGOs, CROPs and other agencies to bridge the gaps in current services and programs, and to support and add value to their existing work.

• BringtogetherkeyPacificleadersanddecisionmakerstoexplore ways forward on national and regional sustainable development opportunities and challenges.

• Raiseawarenessandpromotediscussiononenvironmentalgovernance.

• Actasahubandrepositoryofknowledgeandinformationfrom national, regional and international sources.

Pacific Island countries are stewards of immense locally and globally important ecosystems...

Leadership for Blue Green GrowthPacific Island leaders in government, business and civil society, are key to the development and implementation of environmental governance changes and reforms.

Through the Green Growth Leaders Coalition (GGLC), IUCN provides Pacific leaders with a coalition and forum in which to shape a coordinated approach to environmentally sustainable growth. Part of the Pacific Leadership Program, a regional initiativeof theAustralianDepartmentofForeignAffairsandTrade, the GGLC works directly with Pacific leaders through regional and national coalitions and retreats that promote inclusive policy discussions and support subsequent policy and legislative change.

Environmental LawMade up of laws, regulations, policy and legislation that are focused on or have impacts on natural resources and the environment, with drivers including local, national or regional concerns, and through commitments made under international conventions. Monitoring and enforcing environmental law is a key challenge in the Pacific.

The Environmental Law Programme (ELP) provides environmental legal technical assistance and support to Pacific Island countries and to IUCN programs, with services including technical legal reviews of existing environmental legislation and policy, and capacity and awareness building training and programs.

Natural Resource EconomicsThe use of natural resource or environmental economic information to support and underpin development and conservation decisions is relatively new in the Pacific, and is constrained by limited government resources combined with a shortage of practitioners, and limited or uncertain data.

Building on IUCNOceania’s leadingwork on the economicvaluation of ecosystem services, and collaborating with stakeholders like the Pacific Resource and Environmental Economics Network, PCEG aims to promote awareness and understanding amongst leaders and decision makers, to attract practitioner expertise and build regional capacity, and to identify and initiate opportunities for the inclusion of natural resource economics in policy development and decision making.

Environment and Social PolicyConservation and human well-being are inextricably linked, however the complex role played by species and ecosystems in the lives of rural indigenous and local communities is poorly understood in conservation and development planning, in the Pacific and globally.

PCEG aims to promote a better understanding of linkages between biodiversity, ecosystem goods and services, human wellbeing, livelihoods and other socio-economic and cultural factors. Working with communities and stakeholders like the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy, PCEG will also support the development of policies and strategies in the Pacific to help natural resource-dependent people, especially women, to sustainably manage ecosystems to improve their livelihoods.

Pacific Centre for Environmental Governance

For more information, contact:Andrew Foran, Head of PCEG

Andrew.Foran@iucn.org5Ma’afuStreet,PrivateMailBag,Suva,FijiIslands.

tel: +679 3319084 | fax: +679 3100128www.iucn.org/oceania