1. Pacific Centre for
Environmental Governance
Leadership • Law • Economics • Social Policy
A just Pacific that values people and conserves nature
www.iucn.org/oceania

2. IUCN Oceania
Founded 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.
EnvironmentalgovernanceinthePacific
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 and
support to countries in Oceania and to IUCN Oceania
programs, including from IUCN’s network of scientists and
experts.
• Collaborate and partner with regional, national and local
organisations, 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.
• Bring together key Pacific leaders and decision makers to
explore ways forward on national and regional sustainable
development opportunities and challenges.
• Raise awareness and promote discussion on environmental
governance.
• Act as a hub and repository of knowledge and information
from national, regional and international sources.
Pacific Island countries are
stewards of immense locally and
globally important ecosystems...

3. Leadership for Blue Green Growth
Pacific 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
initiative of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade, 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 Law
Made 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 Economics
The 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 IUCN Oceania’s leading work on the economic
valuation 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 Policy
Conservation 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.

4. Pacific Centre for
Environmental Governance
For more information, contact:
Andrew Foran, Head of PCEG
Andrew.Foran@iucn.org
5 Ma’afu Street, Private Mail Bag, Suva, Fiji Islands.
tel: +679 3319084 | fax: +679 3100128
www.iucn.org/oceania