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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.

This guide presents a framework that identifies nine essential elements that field practitioners have found useful to consider in their work. Think of these elements as "stepping stones" along a path. The path begins with a natural resouijce or conservation problem or issue you have identified and takes steps toward a socially and ecologically sustainable solution to the problem.

The need for economic valuation of coral reefs and other natural resources to underpin resource allocation decisions has always been recognized by economists, but recently it has been emphasized by others.

In most tropical countries, coral reef ecosystems provide coastal populations with a number of goods and services. However, a variety of anthropogenic practices threatens reef health and therefore jeopardizes the benefits flowing from these goods and services. These threats range from local pollution, sedimentation, destructive fishing practices and coral mining, to global issues such as coral bleaching. By “getting some of the numbers on the table”, economic valuation can help shed light on the importance of the goods and services and show the costs of inaction in the face of threats. Creating markets for sustainable resource use can highlight the value of these goods and services to local populations

The Cook Islands comprises 15 islands of which 12 are inhabited. The total land area is 240 square kilometers dispersed over an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 1.8 million square kilometers in the Southern Pacific Ocean. The Cook Islands may be divided into two main geographical regions: Southern Group islands and Northern Group islands. All islands outside Rarotonga (capital of the Cook Islands) are referred to as the Outer Islands. Rarotonga and the Southern Group islands are generally younger volcanic islands, while the Northern Group is low lying coral atolls.

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are chemicals that persist in the environment, accumulate in high concentrations in fatty tissues and are bio-magnified through the food-chain.

There are 23 UN agencies and conventions concerned with the freshwater resource. Their interests and mandates overlap: it is recognized that there is a need for mechanisms to bring them to common purpose. Until the UN Administrative Committee on Co-ordination (ACC) was abolished in early 2002, its Sub-committee on Water Resources (SWR) provided a co-ordination mechanism

It contains the Waigani Convention which is a convention to ban the importation into forum countries of Hazardous and radioactive wastes and to control the transboundary movements and management of hazardous wastes within the South Pacific Region (1995)