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This guide defines what sustainability means in tourism, what are the effective approaches for developing strategies and policies for more sustainable tourism and the tools that would make the policies work on the ground.

The Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) share some common characteristics with other Small Island Developing States (SIDS), including small physical size and geographical remoteness, fragile biodiversity, exposure to natural hazards, high population growth, a limited natural resource base, remoteness from world markets, and small economies of scale. However, some of these features are even more pronounced in PICTs, making them unique among SIDS. For example, PICTs are more geographically remote and have higher population densities than other SIDS. These characteristics make the environment and economies of SIDS particularly vulnerable to external pressures, as recognized in the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of SIDS (BPOA)and other international frameworks such as Agenda 21and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI).

Dioxins and furans, more precisely polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF) are two of the twelve Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) covered by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). PC'DD PCDF. together with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) are listed in Annex C of the Stockholm Convention POPs: they are unintentionally generated and are commonly named "by-products". All POPs listed in Annex C require "continuing minimization and. where feasible, ultimate elimination*' (Stockholm Convention 2001). Paragraph (a) of Article 5 within the Convention requires the development and implementation of an action plan to "identify, characterize and address the releases of the chemicals listed in Annex C" and sub-paragraph (i) specifies that the action plan shall include "the development and maintenance of source inventories and release estimates".