Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) that make up the
Pacific Islands Ocean region are guardians of a vast area of the
earth’s surface, covering at least 40 million square kilometers. The
ocean comprises around 98 percent of the region. Pacific Islanders
are people of the sea. They derive significant social, economic and
environmental benefit from the ocean, recognizing that the ocean is
their greatest natural asset.
Pacific Island countries have made numerous commitments at
national, regional and international levels to manage the ocean
environment. In the case of the Pacific, there is a plethora of guiding
policies and agreements for sustainable ocean development and
conservation. Historically, the pre-eminent regional policy guidance
on oceans and resource management was derived from the Pacific
Plan,1 the Pacific Islands Regional Ocean Policy (PIROP),2 and its
related Framework for Integrated Strategic Action (PIROF-ISA).3
The Pacific Plan was the master strategy for strengthening
regional cooperation and integration in the Pacific under the four
pillars of sustainable development, economic growth, governance
and security. The Pacific Plan was designed to be a ‘living’
instrument with new emerging challenges being added through
Pacific Island Forum communiques.4 In effect, this led to a
multitude of high-level statements by Leaders that resulted in little
on the ground action and called to question the relevance of the
Forum construct.