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From 24 to 28 February 2025, UNESCO is organising a regional workshop in Apia for the geohazard community, in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Samoa and other partners, to accelerate plans for a multigeohazard early warning system.

Pacific island countries and territories are all highly vulnerable to geological hazards because they are located within the Pacific Ring of Fire, home to about two-thirds of all the active or dormant volcanoes on Earth.

The term geological hazards (geohazards) principally covers earthquakes and volcanic activity, as well as the tsunami and landslides they can generate. 

The Pacific geohazards community is made up mainly of national geological services, meteorological services and disaster management offices. About 90% of national meteorological and hydrological services in the Pacific region also serve as national tsunami warning centres.

The past few years have seen some notable progress in the monitoring and detection of geohazards. For instance, eight Pacific island countries and territories located close to the Ring of Fire have all established seismic networks, in order to detect earthquakes faster and, thereby, improve the timeliness of the tsunami early warning system in the Southwest Pacific. Their individual seismic networks share data from land-based sensors (seismometers) with one another and with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii via the Oceanic Regional Seismic Network. 

Despite progress in monitoring geohazards in recent years, scientific knowledge is not yet being mainstreamed in government policy advice and practice in the Pacific region. This situation led UNESCO to organise the first regional meeting on geohazards resilience in 2023 with a focus on science and partnerships.

This meeting identified the need to develop a regional strategy for geohazards to address the capacity gaps in monitoring and assessing geohazards, improve public understanding of the risks and threats posed by geohazards and systematize the dissemination of alerts and other information about geohazards.

Since 2023, 91Â鶹¹ú²ú¾«Æ·×ÔÅÄ been supporting the drive in the Pacific to develop a multihazard early warning system. 

This initiative is also backed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, Geoscience Australia, GNS New Zealand, the US Geological Survey, Japan International Cooperation Agency, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and World Meteorological Organization, which are also participating in this year’s regional workshop. The focus in February will once more be on science and partnerships for geohazard resilience in the Pacific region. As this will be an expert meeting, participation is by invitation only.

Susan Schneegans
Programme Specialist

Jiuta Korovulavula
National Professional Officer (IOC)