Proceedings of the Fourth South Pacific Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas, held at the Le Lagon Resort, Port Vila, Republic of Vanuatu, 14-16 September 1989 : Vol. 1 - conference report

The South Pacific region is vast and consists of eome twenty-two island gtateg and tenitorisg ecattersd over a 29 million kmr area mughly the size of Africa. Oceanic arsaa are vast and land @vers only 660 000 l.-t or a mere 87 000 kmr if the largest country, Papua New Guinea, is excluded. The majority of states and tenitories have land areas less than f m0 kmt and so\toral less than 100 kmr. Although often viewed as a 'trcpical paradise', the South Pacifrc today is a rugion beset with envirormental pr',obleme. Forests are being deared for agricultur.e and timber, e:cposing aoilr which are emding and degrading, reefs ale being polluted and destroyed beaches mined riverg da-med or polluted and mangroves and egtuaries cut or filled. The degradation of natural eystems which is feldng place, together with the over-e:rploitation of commertially valuable resounces and popular food species suctr as the marine turtle, coconut crab and grant slnm, i8 resulting in the rapid loss of the region's natural biological diversity and is undernining the ability of the island environments to support their human populations.