CMS Executive Secretary Robert Hepworth participated in the 16th South Pacific Regional Environment Programme SPREP Meeting in Apia, Samoa 11-18 September 2005 to present the Convention’s work and obtain feedback from SPREP members on the Pacific Islands Cetaceans Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Delegates strongly endorsed the negotiating process as well as the content of the agreement. Representatives of Samoa, Tuvalu, Australia, New Zealand and France were supportive of the MoU in plenary. The Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Niue and Tokelau as well as Tonga and Cook Islands are known to be considering signing the MoU.

Mr. Asterio Takesy, Director of the SPREP Secretariat, and Robert Hepworth both agreed to draw up a Memorandum of Cooperation (SPREP MoC) to mark a new CMS SPREP partnership. The MoU will include a practical workplan initially focusing on the Cetaceans MoU and Action Plan, plus turtles and dugongs. The SPREP Secretariat favours a separate CMS agreement on marine turtles for the Pacific, probably within the same boundaries as the Cetaceans MoU. CMS will take this forward as part of the new MoC. Technical support from IOSEA such as databases and online reporting would facilitate its implementation. Since dugong populations occur in only four SPREP-States, the SPREP-Secretariat is more inclined to include them into the MoU on Cetaceans covering the wider Indian Ocean and South East Asia rather than setting up a separate agreement for dugong in the Pacific.

This strategic partnership between SPREP and CMS will join up resources in order to conserve more effectively migratory species. Pacific Islands provide key corridors for migratory marine and avian species. Many pathways and breeding areas are to be found in the South Pacific. CMS is currently focusing on new Pacific Islands to increase its membership: Samoa will accede to the Convention by the end of this year, and several other states in the region are understood to consider similar action.

CMS Executive Secretary Robert Hepworth thanked SPREP members and secretariat for their invaluable support in negotiating the MoU. He appealed to all potential signatories to the CMS/SPREP Cetaceans MoU to complete their consideration of the draft. He invited the SPREP Secretariat to attend the Conference of the Parties (CMS COP8) to be held in Nairobi 16-25 November 2005. Signing both the Memorandum of Understanding on Cetaceans and the SPREP MoC at the Conference of the Parties would be a tangible signal of the importance of the Pacific region for migratory species, he added.

CMS conference participants in November 2005 will have the opportunity to learn more about CMS marine mammal projects in the South Pacific and other regions. The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and the SPREP Secretariat will join a side event organized by UNEP and CMS featuring the proposed new Pacific Islands MoU and other projects for marine mammals.