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.
20 October 2010: Parties to the treaties regulating the dumping of wastes at sea met from 11-15 October 2010, at the headquarters of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London, UK, and adopted revised specific guidelines for assessment of bulky items.
The 32nd Consultative Meeting of Contracting Parties to the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, 1972 (London Convention) and fifth Meeting of Contracting Parties to the 1996...
October 2010: The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat has posted the final draft of the Regional Food and Nutrition Security Policy, which includes a section on food stability focusing on improving the food and nutrition security resilience of the region to natural and socioeconomic shocks and climate change.
The draft seeks to provide a holistic policy framework for the period 2011-2025, translating the major orientations and elements of the overarching and underexploited regional...
4 November 2010: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has released the 20th anniversary edition of its annual flagship publication, the Human Development Report (HDR). The report is titled, “The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development.”
The report was launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with UNDP Administrator Helen Clark and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. It focuses on long-term development trends and indicates that, although inequalities within and between...
