Pacific Islands Countries Declare Permanent Maritime Baselines, Limits and Boundaries

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 685-695
Author(s):  
David Freestone ◽  
Clive Schofield
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
Major Development ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Coastal Features ◽  
International Law Commission

Abstract The Pacific Island countries are in the front line of adverse impacts from sea level rise. For the last decade the South Pacific Forum Members have been seeking ways to preserve their entitlements to their maritime zones and resources in the event of inundation of coasts and coastal features as a result of sea level rise. The issue was explored by the International Law Association in its 2018 Report and is being considered by a Study Group of the International Law Commission. This 2021 Declaration by the 18 Members of the South Pacific Forum purporting to fix permanently their maritime entitlements represents a major development in State practice for the region.

A New Challenge to International Law: The Disappearance of the Entire Territory of a State

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selma Oliver
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The World

AbstractThe physical disappearance of a state's entire territory is an event forecasted to happen as a result of sea-level rise, affecting some of the smallest nation states in the world, primarily islands in the South Pacific. The focus of this article is on the human rights of the inhabitants of the disappearing states when they are forced to relocate.

Sea Level Forecasts and Early-Warning Application: Expanding Cooperation in the South Pacific

2015 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Rashed Chowdhury ◽  
Pao-Shin Chu
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
Trade Winds ◽  
Hazard Management ◽  
The Pacific

Abstract Because of the need for information related to the variability and predictability of sea level on season-to-longer time scales, the Pacific ENSO Applications Climate (PEAC) Center runs the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-based canonical correlation analysis (CCA) statistical model to generate sea level forecasts for the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) region with lead times of 3–6 months in advance. However, in order to meet the increasing demand for longer lead-time (e.g., 6–12 months) forecasts, the PEAC Center, as part of the advances in operational sea level forecasts, recently incorporated both SST and zonal wind components of trade winds (U) for modulating sea level variability on longer time scales. The combined SST and U-based forecasts are found to be more skillful on longer time scales. This improvement has enabled the capability of our clients in the USAPI region to develop a more efficient long-term response plan for hazard management. In a recent “Regional Integrated Water Level Service” meeting, it was revealed that the development and distribution of “seasonal water level outlooks” in the Pacific basin region is an area of mutual interest. We therefore synthesize the current operational forecasting, warning, and response activities of the PEAC Center and discuss the manner in which our experience in the USAPI region can contribute to the development of adaptation strategies for longer time-scale climate variability and change for the non-USAPI region in the south Pacific.

Kava : A Challenge to Alcohol?

1987 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-53
Author(s):  
J.E. Cawte
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
The South ◽  
Aboriginal Communities ◽  
North East ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Arnhem Land

Kava has been introduced into Aboriginal communities in Northern Australia. Persons from Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land visiting the South Pacific region on study tours have been impressed by their welcome in Kava bowl ceremonies, and some of them hoped that the Aborigines might use Kava instead of alcohol.In 1983 many Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land used Kava, and much more was used in 1984. By 1985 it became a social epidemic or ‘craze’ in many communities. Rings of people of both sexes and of all ages often sit together under trees around Kava bowls for many hours. They may drink up to a hundred times the amount normally drunk in the Pacific Islands by the same number of people in the same time.

The Pacific Islands Press

1974 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 470-477
Author(s):  
Jim Richstad ◽  
Michael McMillan
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islands ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Pacific Area

“Pacific-style journalism” seems to be emerging from the news-papers published in the diverse and widely scattered societies of the South Pacific area.

scholarly journals REVIEW: An unusual, insightful Pacific book

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 178-181
Author(s):  
Ian Boden
Keyword(s):  
Print Media ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
The Public ◽  
Practical Guide ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
On Line

Review of The Pacific Journalism: A Practical Guide, edited by David Robie. Suva: University of South Pacific Journalism Programme/ USP Book Centre, and South Pacific Books. Very rarely does a book appear in the South Pacific that is generated within the region and intended for those working here. Even more unusually does a book address itself to the need of Pacific Islands journalism, to the rights of the public to be informed, and to the responsibilities and obligations of journalists. Add to that an attempt to cover not only the print media, but to address television, radio and on-line news dissemination and you have a book with the potential to become a landmark publication. 

The Impact of Sea Level Rise on Maritime Limits: A Grotian Moment in the Law of the Sea?

Grotiana ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-303
Author(s):  
Snjólaug Árnadóttir
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
The Law ◽  
Coastal Features ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The legal order of the oceans centres on coastal geography which is undergoing unprecedented changes. Claims to national jurisdiction are based on distance from the coast and are only enforceable as long as they are consistent with international law. Consequently, sea level rise and submergence of coastal features can affect the location and enforceability of unilateral maritime limits and bilateral boundaries. Some States wish to maintain previously established entitlements around submerged territory but the only way to prevent fluctuations of unilateral limits is through artificial conservation of coastlines. Therefore, a change, in either the location of maritime entitlements or rules governing such entitlements, is inevitable. It has been proposed that maritime limits should be frozen to ensure opposability as coastlines change. That would enable States to exercise sovereignty and sovereign rights over areas that have no anchor in coastal territory, arguably causing a departure from the land dominates the sea principle and a Grotian Moment in the law of the sea. However, this article concludes that it is unlikely that proposals to freeze maritime limits will change the law of the sea and that the proposals may in fact serve to deter another paradigm shift, one that involves a departure from the principle of stable boundaries.

Decadal Sea Level Variability in the South Pacific in a Global Eddy-Resolving Ocean Model Hindcast

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 1731-1747 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshi N. Sasaki ◽  
Shoshiro Minobe ◽  
Niklas Schneider ◽  
Takashi Kagimoto ◽  
Masami Nonaka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Decadal Variability ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
Sea Level Variability ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Sea level variability and related oceanic changes in the South Pacific from 1970 to 2003 are investigated using a hindcast simulation of an eddy-resolving ocean general circulation model (OGCM) for the Earth Simulator (OFES), along with sea level data from tide gauges since 1970 and a satellite altimeter since 1992. The first empirical orthogonal function mode of sea level anomalies (SLAs) of OFES exhibits broad positive SLAs over the central and western South Pacific. The corresponding principal component indicates roughly stable high, low, and high SLAs, separated by a rapid sea level fall in the late 1970s and sea level rise in the late 1990s, consistent with tide gauge and satellite observations. These decadal changes are accompanied by circulation changes of the subtropical gyre at 1000-m depth, and changes of upper-ocean zonal current and eddy activity around the Tasman Front. In general agreement with previous related studies, it is found that sea level variations in the Tasman Sea can be explained by propagation of long baroclinic Rossby waves forced by wind stress curl anomalies, if the impact of New Zealand is taken into account. The corresponding atmospheric variations are associated with decadal variability of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Thus, decadal sea level variability in the western and central South Pacific in the past three and half decades and decadal ENSO variability are likely to be connected. The sea level rise in the 1990s, which attracted much attention in relation to the global warming, is likely associated with the decadal cooling in the tropical Pacific.

South Pacific Commission

1952 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 481-482
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
The South ◽  
Work Program ◽  
The Pacific

From April 28 to May 7, 1952 the ninth session of the South Pacific Commission was held in Noumea, New Caledonia.1 The session, which was primarily concerned with administrative matters, was under the chairmanship of N. A. J. de Voogd (Netherlands). As a result of agreement by member governments at the eighth session to include Guam and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands within the scope of the Commission, at the ninth session it was agreed unanimously to extend Commission activities to embrace these territories. Assurances of cooperation in Commission activities were given on behalf of both territories by the Acting Senior Commissioner for the United States (Leebrick) and the Secretary of Guam (Herman). Special aspects of its work program were reviewed by the Commission. The printing of two project reports dealing with the area was authorized: one, on economic development of coral atolls covered a survey made for the Commission in 1951 in the Gilbert Islands and the other was concerned with the possibilities of expanding the cacao industry in the area.

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