Pacific leaders have made a declaration on oceans, determined the fate of Fiji, and elected a new leader for the region’s representative group.

At the leaders retreat at the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau, members called on regional and global partners to implement ways to address illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.

The leaders acknowledged their central stewardship role in Pacific Ocean governance, sustainable development, management and conservation.

They called for effective environmental impact assessments to be incorporated into approval processes and, where necessary, the precautionary principle to be applied to any extractive activities in the Pacific Ocean.

They further called for fishery and extractive industry stakeholders to take on the responsibility to contribute to the rehabilitation of the ocean and its resources.

They noted that Pacific island countries suffer significant losses from unauthorised fishing in their territorial waters.

Tuna valued at more than US$3.3 billion was harvested from Pacific waters last year, but only 14 per cent of that value – about US$460 million – made it back to Pacific nations.

Enhanced regional co-ordination and co-operation in fisheries surveillance and law enforcement was needed, the Palau Declaration said.

Sharing fisheries data and intelligence, along with implementation of enforcement measures, would ensure countries in the region got their fair share of economic returns on tuna harvested from their waters.

At the forum this week, New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully pledged an extra NZ$4.6 million in funding to improve the management of fisheries information in the region, on top of NZ$66 million already committed over the next five years for fisheries management and development in the Pacific.

Leaders also emphasised the importance of having a stand-alone Sustainable Development Goal on oceans – one of 17 draft goals proposed by the United Nations Open Working Group on sustainable development goals, to replace the Millennium Development Goals which expire in 2015.

The Palau Declaration would be actively promoted at the Small Island Developing States conference in Samoa in September and at United Nations summits to highlight the importance of the Pacific Ocean to economies, societies, culture and environmental integrity.

Pacific leaders also announced Fiji’s automatic readmission to the forum if elections to be held there in September are determined to be free and fair.

McCully said all indications were that the elections in September would be free and fair.

A new secretary general of the Pacific Island Forum secretariat was also elected by member states.

Dame Meg Taylor from Papua New Guinea will be the first woman to head the forum.

The Forum wrapped up its annual meeting in Palau with a call to action on the issue of global warming, with the 15-nation regional grouping saying there was no excuse not to act to curb climate change.

“We all know the causes of climate change, we know the solutions,” Samoa Prime Minister Sailele Malielegaoi told reporters after the Forum released its communique from the three-day meeting.

“All that is left is decisive action from leaders with the courage to do what needs to be done to save the world.”

Malielegaoi said Pacific island nations, some of which are barely one metre above sea level, were at the forefront of the climate change issue because it was a matter of survival for them.

“The reason for the very strong stance put forward by Pacific island countries is that we are the most vulnerable. Many of our states will disappear under the ocean if climate change is allowed to continue.”

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister took the opportunity to emphasise the relevance of the Pacific Islands Forum as a vehicle for addressing big issues across regional island states.

Peter O’Neill says Forum meetings offer a greater appreciation of the issues facing the Pacific islands community than other regional meetings.

“We are talking about the same issues most of the time – climate change, education, health – but these are relevant issues for our communities.

“The more we talk about it, I hope the message gets across to partners, development partners, communities and all these stakeholders that will enable us to make sure that we implement what we say we want to do.”