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V. MULTILATERAL TRADE AND ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS, AND DOMESTIC POLICY
FORMULATION
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C. Agenda 21 and the Barbados Plan of Action
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1. Convention on Biological
Diversity
The Convention on Biological Diversity was a major environmental agreement
signed by 152 countries, including eight Pacific island nations, at the Earth
Summit in June 1992. The South Pacific region is noted for its high level
of species diversity and endemism, and the Pacific islands are thought
to contain the highest proportion of endemic species in the world.
The threats to the biological diversity of the region are a major risk
to the sustainability of human society on the ecologically fragile environments
of those islands. The terrestrial and marine biodiversity of the islands
provides a basis for social and economic development. Much of the population
rely on living natural resources for subsistence living as well as economic
and social well-being. A number of projects and programmes have been initiated
in the South Pacific to address the growing threats to the biodiversity
of the region. The South Pacific Biodiversity Conservation Programme, which
began in 1994, is funded through the Global Environment Facility. The South
Pacific Biodiversity Conservation Programme is concentrating on a series
of conservation area projects which would serve as models for conservation
and sustainable resource management in other areas. The island of Ha'apai
is one of the selected 13 conservation area projects.
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