Greenpeace exists because this fragile earth and oceans deserve a voice. It needs solutions. It needs change. It needs actions, not empty words.

Greenpeace is an indepenent organisation campaigning to ensure a just, peaceful, sustainable environment for future generations.

Active in the Pacific since the early 70s, Greenpeace campaigns to:

-- end nuclear weapons testing and nuclear shipments
-- support sustainable ecoforesty and stop destructive logging
-- eliminate toxic pollution
-- prevent harmful climate change and
-- preserve the diversity of ocean life

Greenpeace's long history in the Pacific began in the early 70s, when its founder, David McTaggart sailed his yacht, The Vega to Moruroa in protest against nuclear testing in Polynesia.

A Rainbow Warrior to protect the earth & seas Greenpeace's flagship since 1978, the Rainbow Warrior spent her first seven years sailing the world's oceans opposing whaling and seal hunts, intercepting the dumping of toxic waste, and protesting driftnet fishing. After the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Aotearoa/New Zealand in 1985 Greenpeace became a global force to be reckoned with. [see bellow] The second Rainbow Warrior, launched in 1989, has worked on many campaigns in the Pacific - against over-fishing and damage to fragile marine ecosystems and leading protest flotillas against nuclear testing and transportation of nuclear shipments.

Since the 80s, Greenpeace has campaigned extensively in the region establishing its first office in the Pacific (outside of Aotearoa/ New Zealand) in the mid 90s?). It now has bases in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.

Greenpeace flagship, the Rainbow Warrior has visited the Pacific many times bearing witness to environmental destruction, working with local communities and adhering to the Greenpeace core value of non-violent direct action.

Today as well as campaigning for sustainable fishing and to protect the ocean's biodiversity, Greenpeace has played a leading role working with local communities in opposing illegal and destructive logging and in developing eco-forestry projects in the Solomons and PNG. Greenpeace also is working in the Pacific to eliminate toxic pollution and is prevent harmful climate change.

The Rainbow Warrior's rich history in the Pacific

May 1985 The Rainbow Warrior helps relocate Marshall Islanders suffering from the effects of US nuclear tests in the 1950s to a new life on Majato Island. Greenpeace and Kiribati and Vanuautu Islanders unite to prevent the London Dumping Convention from lifting its two-year moratorium on radioactive waste dumping at sea.

You can't sink a Rainbow On July 10,1985 - The Rainbow Warrior was moored in Auckland's harbour en route to protest French nuclear tests at Moruroa Atoll when French secret service agents bombed the ship. The ship sank and Rainbow Warrior crew member and photographer, Fernando Pereira, drowned. The bombing provoked global outrage and spread Greenpeace's influence enormously. Since then, the Rainbow Warrior has become an even stronger symbol of hope for all who care about life on earth and desire harmony and sustainability instead of destruction.

July 10 1985 French secret service agents bomb and sink the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland's harbour, drowning photographer Fernando Pereira.

1989 Four years later, Greenpeace launches the second Rainbow Warrior, many of the ship's purpose-designed fittings are funded by compensation from the French Government. Greenpeace International Develops a Pacific campaign.

1990 The Rainbow Warrior visits American Samoa for a coral reef mooring project and gathers scientific and photographic data as part of the North Pacific drift net campaign.

1991 The Warrior campaigns for Nuclear Free Seas in the Marshall Islands.

1992 Campaigns against French nuclear testing at Moruroa result in a confrontation with the French Navy. For the first time, video images of the confrontation are seen live around the world.

1995 France announces an end to a three-year moratorium on nuclear testing. The Warrior returns to Moruroa. [See box] The ship is seized and its crew are arrested, interrogated and deported. Greenpeace launches legal action for illegal seizure, and detention and assault of its people.

1996 The Rainbow Warrior is released from French custody, thanks to global attention France agrees to stop nuclear testing. In visits to the Marshall Islands, Majuro, Mejato, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Solomons, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the Cook islands, the Rainbow Warrior collects 40,000 signatures calling for an end to nuclear transport ships in the Pacific.

2001 The Rainbow Warrior joins a Nuclear Free Seas protest flotilla against plutonium shipments passing in the Pacific. In the Marshalls, the Warrior protests the upcoming US Star Wars missile test.

2004 The Rainbow Warrior campaigns to protect the diverse tropical forests of Indonesia and nearby islands.

The Warrior stands her ground In July 1995, the Rainbow Warrior races to Moruroa after France announces an end to the moratorium on nuclear testing. Campaigner on board, Stephanie Mills, recounts: "It's 6 am on the 10th July, the 10th anniversary of the first Rainbow Warrior bombing. After entering the 12 mile exclusion zone around Moruroa atoll, commandos storm the ship and begin breaking windows and throwing tear gas canisters onto the bridge. As the skipper stops the engines and the crew head for the lower deck, the Rainbow Warrior is rammed by a French tug ripping a hole in her hull, fortunately above water level. I'm in the radio room when commandos take an axe to the door and throw another canister of tear gas through the split. Choking for breath, I manage to escape through the porthole. We are all forced from the Rainbow Warrior and interrogated before being returned to the ship and escorted back into international waters."