ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on critical aspects of life in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Pacific Ocean, a unique water-based region, ancient home to voyagers, Islanders and villagers. The Pacific Islands region contains SIDS: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. SIDS suffer from diseconomies of scale in production and exchange of goods and services, remoteness from export markets and high vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change. Sustainable use of marine resources is critical not only to Pacific Islanders and their economies; but also to the coastal habitats and resources that provide food and livelihoods for these communities. The minute contribution of greenhouse gases by Prior Informed Consent, estimated by the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme to be 0.03 per cent of global totals, makes any mitigation taken by Prior Informed Consent symbolic, no matter how successful.
