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Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are toxic chemicals that can travel long distances through air and water, and accumulate in the fatty tissues of humans and other animals. These POPs do not degrade quickly over time, and consequently, potentially expose people to serious health issues including cancer, birth defects and immune system impairments. As a result of anthropogenic releases of POPs to the environment since the 1940s, POPs are now widely distributed over large regions, including the Pacific Island

Tuvalu’s national development plan, Te Kakeega II: National Strategy for Sustainable Development 2005–2015, is the overarching framework that drives Tuvalu’s development path and resource allocation. The protection and sound management of the environment is vital in order to attain the Vision: “To achieve a healthier, more educated, peaceful and prosperous Tuvalu”. To strengthen the link to the plan, the Department of Environment (DoE), with the support of SPREP, developed the Tuvalu National Environment Management Strategy 2015–2020.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have gained wide acceptance among coastal planners, managers, researchers, and scientists as an effective tool that can be utilized to protect threatened marine and coastal ecosystems. MPAs allow depleted breeding stocks of important food fish and invertebrate species to regenerate and become re-established, providing a foundation for sustainable fisheries. Typically, the MPA model comprises a core “’no-take” conservation area, within which harvest of fish and other consumable resources is strictly prohibited, and a surrounding “buffer zone” in which non-intensive fishing practices are permitted. The full commitment and participation of the local community in planning, design, and implementation can ensure the long-term viability of such projects.

Tuvalu, formerly the Ellice Islands of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands until separation on 1 October 1975, is a particularly remote group of islands in the Central Pacific. There are nine islands, five of which are atolls and four reef-top islands on a reefal platform. The vegetation and flora of these islands have received little attention.

Phosphatic limestones and associated soils occur on eight of the nine islands of Tuvalu, central Pacific. Deposits range from gram-size to > 500,000 tons. Carbonate hydroxyapatite, dahllite, forms crustose cement about calcareous bioclasts which it sometimes replaces. Precise genetic relationship of rock to soil is unclear. Consolidated rock occurs as hardpan within phosphatic soil profiles, with unconsolidated phosphatic layers above and below. Phosphatization has occurred either as a continuous or episodic process within the vadose zone for at least 4000 years. Present outcrops are exhumed accumulations of apatite formed in vadose zones corresponding to earlier, higher sea levels. A geobotanical relationship between the Tuvalu phosphate deposits and Pisonia grandis can not be sustained on present evidence and the tree should not be regarded as a geobotanical indicator today.

Tuvalu acceded to the United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification in Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa (UNCCD) in September 1998 because of its concern regarding degradation of its habitats and current predicted shortages of water connected with increasing population and the effects of climate change. As a Party to the UNCCD, Tuvalu is obliged to follow Section 9 and 10 of the Convention in preparing a National Action Plan.

With the support of the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the Government of Tuvalu is committed to the preparation of a National Environmental Management Strategy (NEMS). Before this Strategy can be prepared, the main environmental issues facing Tuvalu need to be described and assessed. The purpose of this state of the environment Report is to describe these issues and provide a background and context for the government in its next task of preparing the national strategy.

The National Environment Pollution Awareness Workshop conducted at Funafuti in Tuvalu on 11 - 13 May 1993 came about as a result of the assembling of environmental priorities within countries of the South Pacific under the National Environment Management Strategy (NEMS) Programme. The identification of the lack of proper waste management and pollution control measures were regarded as priorities that had to be addressed.

This Environmental Legislation Review for Tuvalu has been produced as an important component of the National Environmental Management Strategies (NEMS) Project. The NEMS Project was developed to address sustainable environmental development and planning issues in a number of Pacific island countries. It was funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau (AIDAB) and implemented through the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) as part of a broader UNDP assistance project called PMI: Planning and Implementation of Pacific Regional Environment Programme which concentrates oil regional and in-country institution strengthening and training of environmental managers.

Mongabay rainforest profiles: American Samoa, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu