Evaluation of the implications of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea for SPREP activities / prepared by Martin Tsamenyi

Abstract

The largest geographical feature on earth is the Pacific Ocean And within this great ocean is the South Pacific region - home to some 3000 individual islands. These have been consolidated into 22 separate political entities of which 16 are independent nations and the remaining six are territories. Although by global standards, these islands are tinv, the combined area of their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) totals 30 million square kilometres. The importance of the sea to the region is unqualified with most of the countries and territories relying heavily on the sea for their daily subsistence requirements