Deputy Director of the American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency, Fa’amao Asalele Jr., is representing American Samoa at the partners meeting of SPREP, the environmental agency for the Pacific region being held in Apia this week.
Yesterday Asalele was given the honor of giving the opening prayer at it’s first session yesterday.
The meeting started with the tabling of SPREP’s annual report which was unanimously accepted with a resounding vote of confidence in the organization’s work done over the last 12 months.
Fa’amao told KHJ News that there are many areas he would like to see more involvement in by the territory but budgetary constraints always hampered efforts.
The annual report discussed one of the success stories of SPREP’s work was when American Samoa joined a regional communications training for meteorological staff in the Cook Islands.
The training was aimed at improving the sharing of information from Met staff to different audiences.
Participants were provided with the basic graphic design skills and taught best practices to design presentation of information which appeals to audiences.
All 21 Pacific countries and territories are members of SPREP along with five metropolitan members in Australia, France, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States of America.
This year marks a new strategic direction for SPREP which will now meet on a biennial basis with future meetings all scheduled for Apia, Samoa.
