Pacific Islands Environment Outlook

Abstract

The Pacific region is unique,not because its geographical, biological, sociological and economic characteristics are found exclusively here, but because of the combination of these characteristics within the region. This region is characterized by small-land masses dispersed over 5.8 per cent of the Earth's surface; a high degree of ecosystem and species diversity; an extraordinary level of endemicity; a high degree of economic and cultural dependence on the natural environment; vulnerability to a wide range of natural and environmental disasters and a diversity of cultures and languages, traditional practices and customs focused on the marine and coastal environment.