Public policy for Pacific environments and resources

Unlike the industrialised countries of the Pacific Rim, the economies of Pacific islands remain dependent on natural resources. Their exports are dominated by minerals, timber, fish, agricultural products and tourism. Moreover, in contrast to Pacific Rim countries—where the majority of the population is fully integrated into the cash economy—a large proportion of the population of the Pacific subsists on local resources. Another major difference between the surrounding industrialised nations and Pacific islands is the nature of resource tenure. Rather than individual private ownership or state ownership, land resources are mostly held under customary tenure, and inshore marine resources are also frequently under communal control. These distinguishing factors—a dependence on natural resources and the predominance of traditional tenure— suggest that conservation policy in the Pacific needs to be different from that of countries of the industrialised Rim. The paucity of public financial resources in the Pacific is another factor that suggests that, to be effective, models of environmental conservation and management in the Pacific islands should be different from those adopted by their rich neighbours. Conservation policy in Pacific island countries needs to be an integral part of sectoral policy because sectoral policy is driving exploitation. Moreover, sectoral policy should at the same time be decentralised to involve customary property right holders because their decisions also have a large bearing on the level of exploitation and conservation of resources.