Pacific Island representatives met in Honiara, Solomon Islands, from 10 to 14 August 2026 and endorsed priority actions for tsunami and geohazard warning cooperation across the region. The meeting brought together the Annual Meeting of the Oceania Regional Seismic Network, the 11th Meeting of the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System Regional Working Group for Pacific Island Countries and Territories, and the Third Regional Geohazards Meeting.
Participants backed priority actions for the 2026 to 2030 period, including improved seismic data sharing, stronger interoperability, workforce development, and more investment in critical monitoring infrastructure. They also agreed to establish an ORSNET Technical Working Group to support regional standards, data governance, operational procedures, and technical coordination among member countries.
Honiara Meeting Endorses ORSNET Priorities
The gathering in Honiara was hosted by Solomon Islands and included representatives from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, French Polynesia, and New Caledonia, alongside regional organisations and international technical partners. UNESCO and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre were part of the wider cooperation framework reflected in the meeting’s work.
For the Oceania Regional Seismic Network, the practical shift is a move from broad cooperation to a more defined operating structure. The ORSNET Technical Working Group is meant to give member countries a shared place to align standards and procedures, which matters because monitoring and warning systems only work cleanly when data formats, workflows, and responsibility lines match across borders.
WG-PICT Reviews Tsunami Work
The 11th Meeting of WG-PICT reviewed progress under the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System and examined the 2025 PTWS Capacity Gap Assessment. Participants discussed actions to improve tsunami monitoring, warning dissemination, response planning, and operational coordination across Pacific Island Countries and Territories.
Fiji’s updated tsunami response arrangements were validated, and seismic data sharing to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre increased. Those steps point to a regional system that is becoming more connected, even as the meeting also highlighted incomplete monitoring coverage, equipment maintenance constraints, and uneven access to real-time geophysical data.
Pacific Geohazards Network Takes Shape
Participants endorsed the continued development of a formal Regional Geohazards Network to provide a coordinated platform for seismic, volcano, landslide, and tsunami-related collaboration across the Pacific. The network is meant to strengthen governance, interoperability, technical capacity, and resource mobilization for hazard monitoring and early warning services.
That combination of new coordination tools and unresolved gaps leaves Pacific Island Countries and Territories with a clear operational task: improve data sharing, maintain the equipment already in place, and expand training fast enough to make warning chains more reliable. The meeting’s 2026 to 2030 priorities set the direction, but the work now shifts to implementation through ORSNET, WG-PICT, and the Regional Geohazards Network.
