2 for the area is quite incomparable in its natural and cultural diversity and uniqueness.   May it remain unique. What is less known, perhaps not always clearly appreciated, is the array of substantial, very serious issues now confronting individual countries and which challenge the Pacific region as a whole.  There is serious environmental degradation everywhere in the region, for instance.  The oceans and its resources are under severe stress.  Climate change, sea level rise in particular, threatens communities and their livelihood.  Climate related disasters occur, across the region, with alarming frequency and growing intensity.  Long- term sustainable development efforts in all aspects is a major preoccupation, and rightly so; and much more needs to be done to ensure economic improvement and trade competitiveness.  Fundamental issues raised in independence constitutions (land, custom, traditional authority, ethnic and immigrant communities) remain unresolved.  Regional security, the spread of HIV/AIDS and transnational organised criminal activity are major regional concerns.  Political instability and law and order problems, wherever they occur in the region, as in recent times, have urgent and serious implications for all countries.   These are the issues that form the reality of our region today, and the context in which we should assess the potential for law reform in the Pacific. Many of these issues were before the leaders of the sixteen Pacific Island Forum countries¹ at their annual meeting when they last gathered in Auckland in August 2003.   Interestingly, it appears from the communiqué² of the meeting that the review and development of legislation, including model legislation, is an ongoing and seemingly prominent activity in the current work programme of the region.   At this meeting in Auckland, Pacific leaders considered, for instance, amongst other issues of importance, the progress of model legislation in connection with economic and trade issues; how strategies of the regional intervention to restore law and order in the Solomon Islands, including supporting legislation, were being implemented; progress on implementing the declarations on Law Enforcement Cooperation³ in the development of a regional framework, including model legislation, to address terrorism and transnational crime; progress on regional model weapons control legislation; and the implementation of legislation for the control of foreign fishing vessels.  Some aspects of this legislative work will be referred to later in this paper. Law reform structures in small island States    Readily available published information on law reform is limited or altogether lacking.   However, it seems that legislation for the establishment of law reform agencies have been passed in the following small island States: Papua New Guinea (1975); Fiji (1979);                                                 1 Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. 2 Forum Communiqué, 34^th meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum, Auckland, New Zealand, 14-16 August 2003. 3 1992 Honiara Declaration on Law Enforcement Cooperation; 2002 Nasonini Declaration of Forum leaders.