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As an important component of the environmental awareness raising associated with development of a National Environmental Management Strategy (NEMS) for Kiribati, an Environmental Pollution Awareness Workshop was held in Bairiki, Tarawa from 15 to 18 March, 1993. The agenda for the Workshop appears as Annex 1. Participants from a wide range of community groups attended with representatives from Government departments and private sector organisations. A full participants list appears as Annex 2. The Workshop was jointly organised by the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Development, Government of Kiribati with financial assistance provided by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through SPREP as part of the" wider PMI: Planning and Implementation of Pacific Regional Environment Programme which concentrates on regional and incountry institutional strengthening, training and community awareness raising of environmental issues.

In 1990, the Cook lslands Government (CIG) sought the assistance of the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) on a number of environmental initiatives. This led to the inclusion of the Cook Islands in a Regional Environmental Technical Assistance Project (RETA) which was being funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). with support of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). aimed to strengthen the environmental management capability of its Pacific Island member countries. The ADB appointed the SPREP as its executing agency for the RETA.

Environmental Impact Assessment is the assessment of the impact that a development project will have on the environment. EIA is a management activity, like architecture, engineering design, economic assessment, and market, research. The goal of an EIA is to predict how a development project will effect the natural and human environment, and to minimize the effects.

The Fifth South Pacific Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas held in Nuku'alola. Kingdom of Tonga, on 4-8 October 1993, continued the series of conferences held in Now Zealand (1975), Australia (1979), Western Samoa (1985) and Vanuatu (1989). Until the conference in Western Samoa, the series was known as the 'National Parks and Reserves' conferences. At the Western Samoan conference the name was changed to the present one, to better reflect the importance of the wider issues of biological diversity conservation to the region.