Many people have a romantic and tranquil image about Pacific islands with swaying palm trees, blue lagoons teeming with marine life, and white sand beaches – in other words the perfect getaway location.

“On the contrary,” says Professor Martin Tsamenyl of The Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS). based at the University of Wollongong, “many islands and surrounding oceans in the Pacific are threatened ecologically.”

Prof Tsamenyl told the Open Forum on Islands and Oceans in Tokyo that the islands are increasingly vulnerable to environmental pressures from “over exploitation of fisheries resources, natural disasters, over-population, and threats of sea level rise.”

Tsamenyl lamented this situation by pointing out that “islands and oceans sustain life on earth,” because they “form an integrated and essential component of the Earth’s ecosystem,” thereby making them “critical for global food security and for sustaining economic prosperity.”

He gave a potent example of the importance of islands and the oceans to mankind by explaining “the coral reefs that surround many islands are often referred to as the “rainforests of the ocean.”

This is brought into clearer perspective, he says, by looking at the fact that earth is home to over 100,000 islands, that one in every ten persons on Earth is an islander, and more than 600 million people live on islands.

“But, we know very little about islands,” he commented, especially the fact that islands are an “essential component of the global life-support system.”

However, with its “research strength,” says Tsamenyl, ANCORS is filling an important role. Its experts provide multi-disciplinary university based research, education and high level advice on national and international oceans governance and law.

It also helps with maritime security and co-operation and ocean resource management to countries, agencies and clients in the western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean region and beyond, in order to help them achieve sustainable benefits from marine jurisdictions.

Additionally, a crucial key component that ANCORS provides is guidance on effective Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) management requirements. Ideally, to manage their EEZ affairs adequately, island nations need to have established institutions, technical and professional expertise, adequate legislative framework, and financial capability.

However, said Tsamenyl, there is a lack of effective institutions in the Pacific island states, inadequate technical and professional expertise, lack of financial capability, and out of date legislation.

The global nature of the maritime environment, its governance and security means that ANCORS has a global perspective. Therefore, ANCORS is making increasing efforts to help island states with their priorities and management of surrounding environments through regional and global initiatives.

They will co-host a conference on 22-23 February entited “Following the Proceeds of Environmental Crime: Fish, Forests and Filthy Lucre” to be held at the Institute for Transnational and Maritime Security Building at University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus Professor Tsamenyl and several of his ANCORS colleagues attended the Tokyo International Seminar on Islands and Oceans, hosted by the Ocean Policy Research Foundation (OPRF) and the Nippon Foundation, as part of their support for OPRF’s 3 year research project into the conservation and management of islands, and their surrounding ocean areas.

Tsamenyl said “managing islands and surrounding oceans environments has become a fundamental international oceans policy agenda. OPRF’s efforts and project on islands and surrounding environments is an excellent initiative, which needs to be seen within the global context of other initiatives on islands and surrounding environments, and the need for international partnership and support.”