The regional scale of ocean governance regional cooperation in the Pacific Islands

The Pacific Islands community is committed to protecting the quality of life of its people and the integrity of the environment with which island life is inextricably intertwined. It would, however, be impossible for Pacific Island Countries to cope individually with the common regional issues and the increased impact of global climate and economic problems. The support of the various regional organisations, strengthened further by inter-agency collaboration under the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific is critical to success. a regional approach to develop strategic responses to issues has many advantages: sharing of high investment or establishment costs for capital intensive activities; augmenting capacity or capability constraints that arise in small populations, economies of scale in the provision of centralised training services; better formulation of policies or activities that have transboundary “spill-over” or “mutually reinforcing” impacts; and most critically—a stronger voice in global fora.