PACPLAN provides the framework for cooperative regional responses to major marine spills in the Pacific Islands region and sets out how Pacific island countries can request assistance from Australia, New Zealand, France or the US.
PACPLAN will be reviewed by the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in 2018–19. This provides Australia with an opportunity to review our commitments under PACPLAN and to assist countries to towards having better plans and procedures; and capacity to recover costs from vessels and their insurers.
Representatives from the countries for which Australia is a source of primary assistance under PACPLAN (Tuvalu, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Kiribati) attended the workshop; as well as representatives from Fiji, SPREP and the University of the South Pacific. The workshop covered legal/framework issues as well as examining on-water responses. The workshop also identified priority issues to be addressed in the review of PACPLAN, such as making PACPLAN a working document that seeks to continually improve and provides practical guidance to countries in the event of an incident.
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PACPLAN participants
