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Pacific region prepares for UN meeting on development in small island nations

Pacific region prepares for UN meeting on development in small island nations

Pacific nations are meeting this week in Apia, Samoa, to clarify a regional position in preparation for a United Nations meeting next year that seeks to address the host of challenges that small island States face due to their size and fragile ecosystems.

"The road ahead is full of challenges," said Manuel Dengo, Chief of the UN Water, Natural Resources and Small Island Developing States Branch, which is in charge of organizing the conference to be held in 2004 in Mauritius. "The key aspect is for island nations themselves to demonstrate their resolve and commitment to sustainable development, and to carefully explain the policies and measures that they wish to utilize in their quest for achieving sustainable development."

The preparatory process for the meeting includes regional consultations such as the current meeting in Apia, which concludes tomorrow and has drawn more than 100 representatives from Pacific islands nations facing threats from rising sea levels, geographic isolation, environmental degradation and poor trading opportunities. They also suffer from limited natural, human and institutional resources.

The UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 - the Rio Earth Summit - agreed that small islands are "a special case both for environment and development" and called for a special conference to focus on these issues.

The resulting Barbados Programme of Action has been used as a tool for guiding and promoting sustainable development in small island regions. Much progress has been achieved towards its implementation, yet the process is not complete.