Resolution 35
Concerns of South Pacific Islands
This Conference, noting that in Churches of the South Pacific there is deep pain and anxiety in many tiny island sovereign nations in the region regarding the abuse and exploitation of their lands and seas by powerful external political and economic forces:
1. Affirms the desire of many indigenous peoples in the region to self-determination and to be in control of their own affairs and especially of the use of the vital resources of their lands and seas.
2. Supports them in their opposition to the testing of nuclear weapons, the dumping of nuclear waste and the establishment of further military bases in the region, and calls on France and the superpowers to cease these activities forthwith.
3. Further supports them in their resistance to all those powerful states and multinational corporations who, for immediate economic and political gain, rape and destroy the forests, fisheries and mineral deposits in the region.
4. Wishes to be identified with the stand of the Churches in Australia, New Zealand and Japan in support of these concerns and requests the member Churches of the Anglican Communion to make these matters known in their own countries and congregations as a matter of urgency, to pray for them and to press their governments for action.
Indigenous peoples in conservation of natural resources (See further para.50 of the Report on "Christianity and the Social Order.")