Managing non living resources in the Pacific through economics

While development of natural non living resources such as minerals and water can better the lives of Pacific islanders, it needs to be managed to ensure a safe and healthy environment. And as any resource manager today knows, to manage resources we need to manage the people who use them. A number of projects in the Pacific have recently turned to economic tools to help manage the way people use non living natural resources. In this paper selected case studies will be used to: demonstrate the different ways that economic tools are helping to improve the governance of a variety of non living natural resources in the Pacific; and consider the prospects for using these tools more generally in the Pacific in the future. To highlight the ways in which economic tools can improve the governance of non living natural resources, a simple project cycle is used. A number of case studies including the following are used to show how economic tools are improving management of non living natural resources in different sectors including water, disasters, oceans,, minerals and energy. Details of case studies are provided in the paper accompanying the presentation. Following discussion of the case studies, the implications for using economic analysis to support the management of non living resources in the Pacific is discussed