IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Division of Environment and Conservation
Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Meteorology
Principal Terrestrial Conservation Officer
PO Box 628
Apia
Samoa
Tel: ++68 (5) 301 00 , ++68 (5) 779 3503
Fax: ++68 (5) 213 63
Email: mailto:tepa.suaesi@mnre.gov.ws

• American Samoa
• Cook Islands
• Fiji
• French Polynesia
• Guam
• Hawaii
• Kiribati
• Marshall Islands
• Micronesia
• Nauru
• New Caledonia
• Niue
• Northern Mariana Islands
• Palau
• Papua New Guinea
• Pitcairn
• Samoa
• Solomon Islands
• Tokelau
• Tonga
• Tuvalu
• United States Minor Outlying Islands
• Vanuatu
• Wallis and Futuna Islands

The efforts within the South Pacific to enhance nature conservation are largely co-ordinated through SPREP. This body has a very active programme in areas such as marine conservation, environmental education, natural resource management, and climate change.

The Pacific is a region of small islands scattered over the world largest ocean, one third of the world's surface. At one extreme is Papua New Guinea, the largest island in the Pacific and the closest to continental Asia. It is rich in rain forests with a great diversity of plants and animals. Moving east, the Melanesian islands are mostly large, rugged and volcanic; where it survives, natural vegetation is mainly forest, rich in species. Further east are Micronesia and Polynesia where the islands are smaller, geologically younger and isolated from one another by vast distances. Many are just small coral atolls with poor soils and few natural resources other than the sea.

Key issues relating to protected areas and conservation are:

• Peoples in the Pacific region greatly depend on the natural environment. For thousand's of years, Pacific people have lived a relatively sustainable way of life, but at a low level of material wealth by modern standards.
• Economies of Pacific countries are small and fragile. They are vulnerable to natural events like cyclones and to dangerous trends like global warming. Because of the small size of most islands, they are particularly vulnerable to unwise development from outside. This fragility is combined with exceptionally high biodiversity, especially in the larger islands of Papua New Guinea and Melanesia. Marine life in the Pacific is among the most abundant on earth. On land, the ecosystems tend to be small and distinctive.
• Nature is disappearing at an unprecedented rate. Commercial exploitation on land and at sea are contributing to a major loss of biodiversity. On many islands, protected areas and forests have already been logged, with substantial impact on natural systems and peoples livelihoods.

To combat this, specific countries have pioneered a new approach to conservation. Pacific countries have developed Community Based Conservation Areas, that develop systems of conservation appropriate to land ownership patterns in the Pacific. These conservation areas build on the great respect local people have for their natural resources and aim to both conserve biodiversity and allow sustainable use of natural resources. The challenge is now to expand this model, which has been pioneered by a number of countries in the region, with support from the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), an intergovernmental body of Pacific nations and territories. The challenge now is to scale up this programme and increase the number of protected areas before it is too late.