This report aims to show that culture is integral to achieving all objectives across the four pillars of the Pacific Plan. Culture is fundamental to sustainable development, and in the current climate of global economic recession it has the potential to contribute to economic growth and security through employment linked to services (d'Almeida 2009:2). Promoting...

Aquatic biosecurity is a system of procedures for dealing with the risks of diseases, pests and other hazards (such as genetic pollution) in aquatic environments. In the Pacific region, the main aims of aquatic biosecurity are to safeguard human health, the environment, and national economies. Good biosecurity requires a holistic and proactive approach. This requires...

This policy brief discusses the issue of land use planning (land use policy, land care and land use planning) in the Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) and the need for countries to formulate realistic land use policies as a means to preventing further degradation of their natural assets such that they may be enjoyed...

Invertebrate export fisheries are persistently overfished as a result of the local population’s greater fishing capacity and growing need for cash, coupled with an expanding market in China and “fly-by-night” investment by the marine products sector with little interest in long-term sustainability. This brief paper outlines the issues and gives some solutions to overfishing.

The aim of this brief is to: • alert governments to some of the risks that climate change poses to the fisheries priorities of the Pacific Plan and the actions identified in the Vava’u Declaration on Pacific Fisheries Resources; and • identify how the fishing industry and fishing communities can begin to adapt to changing...