Having presented the context and situation of forestry for the Territory, where forest decline is spectacular due to human pressures, priority actions supporting forest genetic resources of the most important tree species can now be proposed.
The analysis makes clear that all actions concerning conservation and sustainable management of forests will not be successful without a minimum set of forestry regulations, being tools of a proper forestry policy for the Territory. Currently, the Territory is going through a grave financial crisis that has resulted in a refocusing of actions undertaken, where neither the forest nor the environment is considered as a priority. Means of support should therefore be looked for elsewhere. It is furthermore evident that the customary authorities have a fundamental role to play, for they are currently the only competent bodies concerned with land tenure.
The creation of protected forests, whose legal status is still to be defined, should be based on the traditional protection otherwise being employed, and is a priority for in situ conservation of the most important and fragile tree species.
Ex situ conservation of these same species is an indispensable additional activity that should be undertaken as quickly as possible by means of plantations.
It is thus very advisable that the Territory should collaborate, notably in this field, with other Pacific islands so as to rapidly acquire the techniques necessary for establishing ex situ conservation of the most important and threatened tree species: i.e. by production of genetic material, and using plantation techniques.
