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Suva Declaration on Climate Change - Issued at the 3rd PIDF Leaders Summit, 2-4 September 2015, Grand Pacific Hotel, Suva, Fiji

Each cultural group in Vanuatu has its own traditional approaches to the management and conservation of biological resources. These are still widely practiced, but in some areas are declining in influence as ni-Vanuatu society and culture change in response to introduced economic and social values and new technologies. Since independence traditional approaches to conservation have been supplemented by a range of measures introduced by government and non-government organisations, and individuals in the private sector. Most of these have focused on species of commercial value within the development priorities of the key economic sectors of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

The traditional land tenure system and the customary rights to use land and sea resources are now part of the national constitution. All land in the Republic belongs to the custom owners and their descendants and rules of custom form the basis for ownership and use of both the land and off-shore resources. Within this system the chiefs played, and in most regions continue to play, an important role in regulating the use and management of natural resources for the benefit of the people they represent.