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Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) spells out clearly the objectives of the Convention and Article 6 calls on Parties to develop national strategies, plans or programmes for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. Further, Articles 26 also requires Parties to report to the Conference of the Parties the implementation of the provisions of the Convention This First National Communication Report is submitted in compliance with the intent of Article 26 and it contained measures which Tonga considers appropriate in terms of achievement of the objectives of the Convention.

The adverse effects of climate change, climate variability and sea level rise identified in the Kingdom of Tonga’s First National Communication present significant risks to sustainable development in Tonga. From the information gathered it is evident that Tonga will be among the first to suffer from these effects due to its physiographic, ecological and socioeconomic characteristics. Concern for the environmental consequences of man made activities in the Kingdom and in this context the impacts of climate change, climate variability & sea level rise go relatively unnoticed.