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The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) joined as full members of the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission in (SOPAC) 1990.

They are located at 4° and 19° North Latitude and 160° and 175° East Longitude, in the North Pacific Ocean with a total landmass of 181.3 square kilometres km² and an Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) of 2, 131, 000 km².

The republic consists of two-archipelagic chain of islands, the Ratak Chain and the Ralik Chain and comprises a total of 34 islands, of which 29 are coral atolls and 5 are islands. The Marshall Islands lays in the northern part of the Central Pacific Basin and is surrounded from the East by the Central Pacific Basin and to the west by the Mariana and Nauru Basins (Kojima, 1999). “These basins constitute deep oceanic seafloor exceeding water depth of 5500m and thus the seamounts and atolls of this area have relative height from 3500 to 4000m and not a few of them exceed 5000m� (Kojima, 1999). Kojima (2001) further states that the atolls and seamounts of the Marshall Islands lie on a couple of northwest trending ridges located between the Central Pacific Basin and the Mariana Basin. The Ratak Chain including the capital of RMI Majuro Attol, Ratak Chain including Kwajalein and Pikinni Attls, the seamount chain including the Anewetak Attoll (Kojima, 1999).

Within their EEZ are mineral deposits known as cobalt rich manganese crusts that are located in between the chain of islands and the Basins that constitute the Marshall Islands. When mined, cobalt is a strategic metal, and mining this resource could lessen the foreign reliance on cobalt in the Marshall Islands. Mineral potential on-land however is unknown.

The Republic experiences a tropical climate, which is hot and humid but tempered by trade winds all year round. Temperatures range from an average of 81-89° F, which rarely fluctuates. This is the most outstanding feature of the Marshall Islands climate. In fact the range between the coolest and warmest months average less than 1° F. The RMI has an average rainfall of 12-15 millimetres per month. Natural Hazards such as cyclones, storm surges, coastal flooding, drought, tsunami, erosion and saltwater intrusion is experienced in the Marshall’s.

RMI has limited capacity to capture rainfall. A public water-supply system delivers water to the Majuro population but due to inadequate water catchment and storage facilities, supply is limited and often contaminated. The only major catchment area is the airport runway; thus most of the precipitation is lost due to the limited capacity of the country to capture rainfall. On Ebeye, there is a large desalination plant, which provides fresh water to a small segment of the population. Another supplement to fresh water in the Marshall’s is groundwater. However, the system is inefficient and unreliable. Rural households also resort to the natural environment and lagoon as sources of water.

The island nation is almost totally dependent on imported fossil fuel to generate energy. The increasing population has increased energy consumption. Importation of oil has increased placing a strain on the economy. The outer islands utilises diesel generators and solar panels to produce power. Other alternative energy sources available in the marshals include wind and biomass that is yet to be fully developed to service the energy needs of the nation.

The RMI has a population of 50, 840 people, according to the last population count conducted in 1999 (www.spc.int/prism). A mid-2003 estimate indicated the population to be around 54, 000. Marshallese are the indigenous race of the Marshall Islands. However over time a mixture has evolved. Today, there are Marshallese of German, Japanese and American Marshallese descent.

Their economy is sustained through tourism, agriculture and fisheries as the main sources of revenue. The economy is also reliant on remittances from Marshall Islanders residing outside of the RMI.