by Sadhana Sen and Stephen Howes

The Pacific Island Forum (PIF) leaders meeting in Fiji this week was rocked by the non-arrival of several leaders and by the surprise announcement by Kiribati that it would not be withdrawing its earlier resignation from the Forum.

by Ambassador Peter Thomson, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean

With every breath we take, we are connected to the ocean. The ocean gives us oxygen, provides us with food and livelihoods. It stabilises our climate, absorbing most of the heat trapped in the Earth’s system. Billions of humans, animals and plants rely on a healthy ocean. But the ocean’s health is in trouble.

As the saying goes, we know more about the surface of the moon than the seafloor of our own ocean. But perhaps not for too much longer.