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PICs: Recognition of environmental considerations by joining international conventions and agreements

A reflection of PIC government interest in environmental issues can be found in their general willingness to sign international environmental conventions and agreements. For example Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Kiribati, Tuvalu, FSM, and Marshall Islands are all signatories to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Fiji, PNG, and Vanuatu have all signed more than 24 international environmental conventions and agreements. This covers just about every such international agreement that is relevant to the PICs and some that could be considered not to be particularly relevant. The exception to the rule is Tonga, which has only signed 4 such agreements. This should not be taken as an indication of Tonga's relative lack of interest in environmental matters. Tonga tends to adopt an independent foreign policy position, which is reflected in the Kingdom's non-participation in many international agreements, which other PICs sign as a matter of course. Tonga for instance is not a member of the United Nations.

The PICs as group, and individually, have taken an active role in regional and some international environmental issues. They have given strong support to the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), which has been in existence since 1983 and maintains a relatively high profile on regional environmental issues. On the wider international scene the PICs have participated in environmental meetings and conferences on the Asia-Pacific region organised by ESCAP. They were active in the preparation for the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, and the subsequent conference in Barbados for small island states. A particular area of interest has been global climate change issues. It is the smaller PICs that have taken the lead on this issue which they see as a threat to their very existence.

The downside of the high level of PIC participation in international environmental agreements the small pool of environmental officials spend an inordinate amount of time out of the country attending international meeting and conferences.