GEF ISLANDS is the largest singular project by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), with an allocation of under US$20 million for the 14 Pacific countries including the Cook Islands. A total of 33 countries are a part of this project – 14 from the Pacific Ocean, 12 from the Caribbean Ocean, 4 from the Indian ocean and 3 from the Atlantic Ocean. The Cook Islands is the chair for the Pacific Region’s Project Steering Committee (PSC) which has the largest portion of the GEF ISLAND fund.
The GEF ISLANDS programme has 4 main objectives: to prevent future build-up of chemicals entering our regions; safely manage and dispose of existing hazardous chemicals, products and materials; manage products entering our regions through the lifecycle approach; and facilitate learning and sharing of information between the Small Islands Developing States (SIDs) between regions.
The 33 countries decide on their priority projects within the context of management and regulation of chemicals and waste. For example, some countries have prioritised the improvement of their legislative and institutional frameworks. Some regions have developed training, stakeholder engagement plans and the development of chemical and waste inventories. For the Pacific region, most countries are finalising their letters of agreement with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) as the execution agency, and to issue terms of reference for the staffing and resources required.
The Cook Islands’s GEF ISLANDS project was designed in 2021 to focus on removing legacy and hazardous waste from all the islands in the Pa Enua. The GEF ISLANDS project will complement The PacWastePlus Cook Islands Project whereby Infrastructure Cook Islands (ICI) will ship 10 recycling depots to each of the Pa Enua by June 2025. These recycling depots will help collect, pack, store and ship recyclable waste from the Pa Enua to Rarotonga for recycling. The GEF ISLANDS will help remove these waste items from the Pa Enua. This will avoid the burning, burying or disposal of hazardous waste in the Pa Enua, which poses significant risks to human health and the environment.
Halatoa Fua, NES Director, attended the GEF ISLANDS forum in Geneva on the back of the BRS Convention, which was attended my most of the 33 islands under the GEF ISLANDS project. The delegates discussed establishing a Project Steering Committee for the whole GEF ISLANDS project, shared success stories and case studies directly from various countries in this project and discuss two main solutions as outcomes of the meeting. Firstly, on policy solutions, the delegates discussed legislation, regulations and policy instruments that are proven to be successful in managing hazardous chemicals and waste amongst SIDS. Secondly, on technical solutions required to help SIDS to manage effectively the chemicals and waste. This included technologies, tools, methods, skills, processes. And environmentally sound systems and infrastructure.
Halatoa Fua stated ‘the GEF ISLANDS gave international perspective to the Pacific delegates on what successful implementation might look like for countries in the Caribbean, Indian and Atlantic oceans. It is pleasing to see progress in Rarotonga on theTitā ki te Titā kore project and ICI’s Solid and Hazardous Waste bill, while we focus on bringing the Pa Enua to level the playing field. The Pacific region has many activities to be accomplished in 2025 and 2026 to expedite progress on hazardous chemicals and waste management’.
