Pacific Centre for Social Responsibility and Natural Resources workshop

Held at the Tanoa Plaza Hotel in Suva, the PacSen workshop highlighted and discussed the importance of Social Responsibility in natural resources development; reviewed and finalised PacSen activities; identified partners and clarified the nature of different partnerships; and reviewed and finalised the PacSen Charter.

One of the main discussions at the workshop was determining the scope of the Centre’s reach, whether it should be limited to social responsibility around mining only or should it be broader to include all extractives such as fisheries and forestry. This matter is still up for debate though it appeared the general consensus was to keep it narrow firstly while the Centre gets off the ground and in the years to come start to branch out. It was also discussed that the intention is for this Centre to be independent of the Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific (CROP), however, the Pacific Community (SPC) is happy to be the Secretariat.

IUCN Oceania’s Policy Analyst – Pacific Centre for Environmental Governance (PCEG), Taimil Taylor attended the PacSen workshop. IUCN’s PCEG has indicated a willingness to be a member of PacSen as well as contribute in the future to achieving their objectives and will remain engaged with PacSen and assess any opportunities there are for collaboration.