The South Pacific's environmental policy tensions

Impacts of nuclear weapons testing and concerns about climate change have encouraged Pacific Island countries (PICs) to support international norms of environmental protection and sustainability. This has been facilitated by regional intergovernmental mechanisms assisting modest national diplomatic capabilities. Yet the processes needed to effect national environmental protection strategies remain partial and incomplete. A divergence has developed between the international obligations undertaken and actual national implementation. The article investigates this gap and how it might be rectified. Challenges include better integration of environmental management within economic decision making, and harnessing limited social and organizational capability to achieve goals of environmental sustainability. Although some convergence between domestic practice and international rules and norms of environmental sustainability is evident, PIC administrators face conflicting pressures when attempting to accomplish this task. Convergence is needed for PICs to accumulate standing as sovereign actors seen as discharging the international obligations that they accept. Policy frameworks emerging from international rule formulation offer practical ideas for small island state environmental management. Philosophies of rule prescription and compliance, emerging through embryonic international governance, also offer scope for emulation within PIC domestic settings.