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South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission

inter-governmental regional organisation

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ7568102 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) was an inter-governmental regional organization dedicated to providing services to promote sustainable development in the countries it serves. In 2010, its functions had been transferred to the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), thus ending SOPAC as a separate entity. Today, SOPAC is a division of the SPC with its main office in Suva, Fiji.

History

SOPAC was created by the conclusion of a 1990 multilateral treaty known as the Agreement establishing the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission. The treaty was concluded and signed on 10 October 1990 in Tarawa, Kiribati. It was signed by representatives of the governments of Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Guam, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Western Samoa.

Since SOPAC's foundation, American Samoa, France, French Polynesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Pitcairn Islands, Tokelau, United States, and Wallis and Futuna have accepted the Agreement and thereby joined SOPAC.

Activity

SOPAC focuses on assisting SPC members in three key program areas, Ocean and Islands, Community Lifelines and Community Risk.

Ocean and Islands is focused on research, development and management of non-living resources in ocean and island systems addressing issues relating to seabed resources, energy, maritime boundary delimitation, and monitoring of ocean processes.

Community Lifelines is a diversified program that strengthens national capacities in energy, water and sanitation, information and communications.

Community Risk is a comprehensive program aimed at reduction of community vulnerability through improved hazard assessment and risk management.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission” as inter-governmental regional organisation. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2010, 1990—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1990. The account is most persuasive where South, Pacific and Applied can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as inter-governmental regional organisation. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7568102. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010 and 1990.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission primary sources, South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission archive and South research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.