Samoa has a Marine Resources Use Policy, and is working towards the delineation of its EEZ with the assistance of the Commonwealth Secretariat and the SOPAC.
Traditionally Samoans rely on marine resources for their well-being and daily required sustenance. Over 70% of villages are located on the coastal fringe of the islands, and subsistence fishing is a major activity of the inhabitants of such villages. Fisheries also play an extremely important role in the economy of Samoa as well as contributing significantly to the health and nutrition of the people. Fisheries are the major income-earner for the country. Offshore fisheries, in particular the tuna sector, have been recently developed and now are the most valuable among fisheries contributing significantly to Samoa’s economy. However, pressures arising as a result of overfishing, inshore environment degradation, ongoing coastal developments, pollution, and natural disasters have adversely affected the coastal resources and marine environment.
6 October 2010: Held from 4-6 October 2010, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the first meeting of the Signatory States of the Memorandum of Understanding on dugongs, developed under the auspices of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), concluded that the species conservation strategy should address the need for greater protection of marine biodiversity by combining different conservation tools.
A newly developed innovative toolbox to mitigate threats to dugongs includes incentives to...
18 October 2010: Following the conclusion of the Biosafety Protocol COP/MOP 5, the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 10) opened on 18 October 2010, and will continue until 29 October 2010. The meeting’s agenda includes a series of strategic, substantive, administrative and budgetary issues.
Among several items, the meeting is expected to adopt an international protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS); assess achievement of the...
23 October 2010: Palau’s Minister of the Environment, Natural Resources and Tourism, Harry Fritz, announced the creation of a marine sanctuary for whales, dolphins and dugongs during Oceans Day, held on 23 October 2010, on the sidelines of the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan.
The sanctuary covers all of Palau’s Exclusive Economic Zone - more than 600,000 square kilometers – where “the...
