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Opening Remarks; Pacific Preparatory Meeting of the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD Pre-COP16). Attending the pre-COP are representatives from: 14 PICs from environment departments, as well as agriculture, fisheries and forestry – in person; Australia and New Zealand as metropolitan SPREP members – in person, PIRT partners including TNC, CI, WWF, Island Conservation -in person and virtual; and One CROP – SPC, SPREP and OPOC – in person and virtual And input from a few additional partners including FAO (in-person), and virtually from UNEP; SCBD, GLISAP, and University of NSW. Acknowledge financial support for pre-COP and COP from NZ MFAT under the CC grant. Collaboration with FAO to engage agriculture sector for this meeting, and for input into mainstreaming biodiversity into agriculture sector. Support also from SPREP’s and FAO ACP MEA3 project.

While some people might remember it for its Hollywood association, the small uninhabited islands has other claims to fame. In 2011 the island's Indigenous owners - the village of Yanuya and a consortium of partners led by the National Trust of Fiji and a local NGO, Maregeti Viti successfully removed invasive rats and goats from Monuriki to protect its critically endangered endemic Fijian crested iguana.

In August 2001 a State of Emergency was declared in Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) following a significant oil spill from the USS Mississinewa, a sunken WWII US military oil tanker, in the remote and environmentally sensitive atoll known as Ulithi Lagoon.

The importance of coastal and marine environments to every aspect of the lives of Pacific Islanders cannot be overstated. Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) maintain resource rights and management responsibilities over 30 million square kilometers of ocean, equivalent to the total land area of Canada, China and the USA combined. The total population of coastal Pacific Islanders is only 2.6 million. There are 11 square kilometers of ocean for each Pacific Islander. Jurisdictionally, the ocean is 200 times more significant to the average Pacific Islander than it is to the average global citizen (Adams et al 1995). Anthropogenic impacts on coastal and marine resources and ecosystems are a major concern for Pacific Island peoples.

Pacific Island Countries are dependent on maritime shipping for the transportation of goods and people, but are also highly vulnerable to pollution from shipping incidents such as groundings, collisions or accidents in cargo handling. The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO), formulated and are implementing PACPOL to address shipping related marine pollution in the pacific islands region.

"The Pacific islands maintain resource access rights and management responsibilities over 30 million square kilometres of ocean - equivalent to the combined land areas of Canada, China and the USA. The total population of the Pacific islands is only 6.7 million people, and only 2.6 million if the largely inland population of Papua New Guinea is excluded. There are at least 11 square kilometres of ocean for each and every Pacific Islander. Jurisdictionally, the sea is nearly 200 tijmes more significant to the average Pacific islander than it is to the average global citizen" (Adams et al 1995)

The Pacific islands have an extremely rich maritime heritage. The islands themselves were first populated by what are arguably the greatest mariners in human history. In pie-European times the Pacific islandersnavigated wooden canoes held together with coconut fibre across thousands of miles of open ocean, with nothing but the stars and their intimate knowledge of the sea to aid navigation. Today, this seafaring tradition is continued, with several island countries, such as Kiribati and Tuvalu, being suppliers of seamento the regional and global shipping fleet.

Assisting the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme's (SPREP) island members to plan, prepare and respond to marine spills is one of the four activity areas of the Pacific Ocean Pollution Prevention Programme (PACPOL). PACPOL activities currently include a regional risk assessment regional and national contingency plans, formulation of a regional equipment strategy and facilitating regular workshop to discuss marine spill issues. The aim of this initial shipping risk study was to identify and quantify the shipping routes, frequency of voyages and types of cargoes transported in the region as well as to map shipping incidents, navigational hazards and assess the risk of marine pollution across the region, EEZs and at a port scale. The regional and EEZ distribution of risk potential showed clusters of high risk in Fiji, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. Smaller clusters occurred in Tonga, the Samoa's, Vanuatu and the corridor from Chuuk northward past Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Another potential marine pollution risk for the Pacific is the fuel oil and cargoes remaining on WWII shipwrecks deteriorating in the waters of the region. More than 1000 such wrecks have been identified amounting to over 3 million tons of shipping lost.