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The Fifth South Pacific Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas held in Nuku'alola. Kingdom of Tonga, on 4-8 October 1993, continued the series of conferences held in Now Zealand (1975), Australia (1979), Western Samoa (1985) and Vanuatu (1989). Until the conference in Western Samoa, the series was known as the 'National Parks and Reserves' conferences. At the Western Samoan conference the name was changed to the present one, to better reflect the importance of the wider issues of biological diversity conservation to the region.

The vast South Pacific region consists of twenty two island states and territories scattered over a 29 million square kilometre area, roughly the size of Africa. Oceanic areas are vast and land covers only 5,50,000 square kilometres, or a mere 87 000 square kdometres if the largest country, Papua New Guinea is excluded. The majority of sUtes and territories have land areas of less than 1000 square kilometres aod several less than 100 square kilometres.