Sustainable development, if it is to be anything more than a rhetorical invention, must take quite specific forms in particular environments. This book examines the issue in a Pacific Islands context. Intended as a teaching text within the region as well as making a contribution to the international literature on sustainability, the volume shows how the particular environments and cultures of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia need to be taken careful account of in fashioning sustainable development projects and strategies.

Following a wide-ranging section introducing the Region, five carefully chosen examples - drawn from different countries - report research which shows up the damage which much orthodox development can do to particular natural resources, including logging, mining, fishing and agriculture. This is followed by a series of more optimistic case studies on sustainable alternatives around agriculture, forestry, tourism and in the urban sector.

The Editors blend general and original case study material and conclude their book by extending discussion from the Pacific context to wider issues of sustainable development in island societies