Nuku’alofa – October 15, 2020: 2.50pm (Enviro News): The Inform Project, managed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is holding training and one on one meetings with staff of the Department of Environment here in Tonga this week.

The training started on Wednesday at the department’s conference room, facilitated by National Local Consultant Mr Siosiua Latu.

Director Environment Mrs Atelaite Lupe Matoto opened the training with a brief before staff were taken through how to access and use the Tonga Environmental Data Portal (tonga-data.sprep.org)

Mr Latu said the the project, “Building National and Regional Capacity to Implement Multilateral Environmental Agreements by Strengthening Planning and the State of Environmental Assessment and Reporting in the Pacific“, referred to as the Inform project, recognises the need for this data-driven decision making.

The project, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and managed by SPREP, has helped establish a Pacific island network of national and regional data repositories and reporting tools to support the monitoring, evaluation, and analysis of environmental information, which supports environmental planning, forecasting, and reporting requirements.

“The Inform project will help Pacific islands have reliable access to their own national datasets for environmental information, as well as a process and guide for information use standards,” he said.

“Capacity will be built to develop content that is then inputted into the reporting process. Additionally, the capacity of officers will be enhanced with regards to the best ways to share the information they have so it is well used by their decision makers and different communities. The information provided within the databases will also help policy development, monitoring and evaluation, and national planning.”

Over a four-year period from 2017–2021, Inform has worked in the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

One on one trainings here in Nuku’alofa is continuing and Mr Latu has planned training to Outer Isalnd’s trainings as well.