VZCZCXRO4945
PP RUEHAP RUEHDT RUEHKN RUEHKR RUEHMJ RUEHPB
DE RUEHSV #0482/01 2752008
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 022008Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY SUVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0103
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC 0155
RUEHAP/AMEMBASSY APIA 0188
INFO RUCPDC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 0760
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1824
RUEHDT/AMEMBASSY DILI 0014
RUEHKN/AMEMBASSY KOLONIA 0220
RUEHKR/AMEMBASSY KOROR 0131
RUEHMJ/AMEMBASSY MAJURO 0662
RUEHML/AMEMBASSY MANILA 0210
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0092
RUEHPB/AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY 1392
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 1592

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SUVA 000482 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
BANGKOK FOR REO AND USAID 
 
COMMERCE FOR NOAA 
 
MANILA FOR ADB REP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV EFIN EAID FJ TN NR TV KR GEF
SUBJECT: GEF-PAS: SLOW PROGRESS IN PREPARING NATIONAL PRIORITIES 
SUBMISSION 
 
REFS: A) STATE 136425 B) SUVA 463 C) SUVA 245 (NOTAL) 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: We contacted the countries covered by Embassy Suva 
to encourage them to engage to the fullest extent possible with the 
World Bank and other organizations to develop their Global 
Environment Facility Pacific Alliance for Sustainability (GEF-PAS) 
priority lists before the October 15 deadline, as instructed in 
reftel A.  There appears to have been slow progress to date in Fiji, 
Tonga, and Kiribati.  Tuvalu has prepared a draft submission.  We 
have not been able to reach anyone in Nauru.  The World Bank still 
has not finalized contracts with the consultants that were to have 
provided assistance.  Responsibility for coordinating regional 
organization participation in GEF-PAS now resides with the South 
Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), where the GEF 
advisor says the Secretariat has been in touch with members to offer 
assistance.  The Pacific Islands applied Geoscience Commission 
(SOPAC) has also reached out to its membership.  The Forum 
Secretariat does not see a role for itself at this stage in the 
 
SIPDIS 
process.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) a World Bank regional consultant for GEF-PAS, Alan Resture, 
who works at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, told us on 
October 3 that the World Bank still has not finalized his contract 
or the contracts of the other consultants.  He can schedule meetings 
but cannot actually travel without a signed contract, he said. 
 
¶3. (U) Fiji: We called the acting permanent secretary of the Fiji 
Ministry of Tourism and Environment, Manasa Sovaki, on October 1. 
(Permanent Secretary Kaumaitotoya and Director for Environment Epeli 
Nasome, who both attended the GEF-PAS meeting in Apia (reftel B), 
are away this week: Kaumaitotoya on business in Switzerland and 
Nasome on leave.)  Sovaki was unaware both of an October 15 deadline 
and of GEF-PAS itself.  He requested information on the initiative, 
which we provided by sending him a link to the GEF website and a 
copy of the World Bank document.  Resture, the World Bank consultant 
assigned to Fiji, told us on October 3 that he has been in contact 
with Environment Director Nasome on October 2, and has tentatively 
scheduled the Fiji consultation for October 9. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Kiribati: We spoke by telephone on October 1 with 
Environment and Conservation Division Deputy Director Tess 
Teariki-Ruatu.  Asked about progress toward preparing Kiribati's 
list of priorities for GEF-PAS funding, Teariki-Ruatu replied that 
"things are not going well."  Her division is having internal 
consultations and discussions with stakeholders in the biodiversity 
focal area this week, she said, but there has been no national-level 
consultation yet.  Teariki-Ruatu, who was also in Apia for the 
GEF-PAS meeting, told us she had a number of questions on process 
and funding levels.  She said officials were consulting a visiting 
UNDP team that is in Tarawa on other business and that she planned 
to contact the SPREP GEF advisor.  Her government had had no 
assistance from the World Bank or other international or regional 
organizations thus far. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Tonga: Tonga's GEF operational focal point, Ministry of 
Lands, Survey, Natural Resources and Environment CEO Dr. Nailasikau 
Halatuituia is out of the country and will not return to Tonga until 
next week. On October 2, we phoned Tonga's designated GEF-PAS point 
of contact (and Apia-meeting participant), Ministry of Finance and 
Planning officer Caroline Tupoulahi-Fusimalohi.  She said her 
government, which she noted is fully occupied with Pacific Islands 
Forum leaders' meeting preparations, is struggling with its GEF-PAS 
submission.  She told us that officials have agreed to form a 
national GEF interagency committee but have not yet adopted terms of 
reference for it.  Although a World Bank consultant is scheduled to 
arrive in Tonga later this week to assist with national 
consultations, it will be difficult to make any progress until 
Halatuituia returns, she said. 
 
¶6. (U) Tuvalu: In the absence of the Acting Secretary for Natural 
Resources and the Acting Director of Environment, who are both out 
 
SUVA 00000482  002 OF 002 
 
 
of the country, we spoke on October 3 with Tuvulu environment 
department official Peputua Latasi.  She told us that Tuvalu's 
national GEF coordinating committee met last week to prepare a draft 
submission.  Latasi said that the World Bank consultant is scheduled 
to arrive in Tuvalu on October 12.  This will not leave much time to 
finalize Tuvalu's submission, she said. 
 
¶7. (U) Nauru: No one from Nauru attended the Apia GEF meeting. 
SPREP GEF officer Joe Stanley told us that Acting Director of 
Commerce, Industry and Resources Russ Kun is Nauru's point of 
contact for GEF-PAS but Kun's office says he is out of the country 
until next week.  Because of telephone difficulties, we have been 
unable to reach anyone else in the ministry.  World Bank consultant 
Resture told us that he too has been unable to make contact with 
anyone in Nauru. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Regional Organizations: Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat 
Regional and International Issues Advisor Coral Pasisi told us on 
October 2 that the Forum Secretariat has not accepted the 
coordinating role with Pacific regional organizations in the GEF-PAS 
process that was described in the "Next Steps" document the Bank 
circulated on September 24.  She said that she informed the World 
Bank of this immediately and suggested that function should be 
carried out by SPREP.  Pasisi also explained that the Forum 
Secretariat does not have a role in the national consultation 
 
SIPDIS 
process the Bank is leading.  (She said that two weeks ago the Forum 
offered the World Bank assistance from its staff to supplement the 
efforts of Bank-engaged consultants, but the Bank never responded to 
this offer.)  She envisions the Forum Secretariat engaging at a 
later stage to help identify on-going or planned regional programs 
to count as co-financing for GEF projects.  She shared her view that 
most countries, with the help of Bank consultants, should be able to 
assemble their lists of priorities by October 15.  The real 
challenge will come after that, she said, when the Bank tries to 
coordinate production of the fifty or sixty Project Identification 
Forms that will then be required. 
 
¶9. (U) SOPAC Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Project 
Advisor Rhonda Bower told us on October 2 that SOPAC has been in 
contact with GEF and IWRM country focal points to provide support 
for their GEF-PAS submissions.  Bower said she was hopeful that 
countries would identify IWRM as a priority.  SOPAC is proceeding on 
the assumption that they will and has sent out invitations to 
national focal points to participate in a third planning meeting in 
November.  (Reftel C reports on IWRM.) 
 
¶10. (U) In a telephone conversation of October 2, SPREP's Stanley 
confirmed that his organization, rather than the Forum Secretariat, 
will take on the regional agency coordinating function during 
preparation of the GEF-PAS submission.  He added that he and other 
SPREP staff were available to assist countries throughout the 
process and that SPREP had sent out a notice to focal points to that 
effect.  So far, he said, four members had responded to the notice 
to request assistance, which SPREP is providing. 
DINGER