Indonesia, with its 17,000 islands, stretches like a boom net across major sea lanes of Asia and the Pacific, including its links to the Indian Ocean. Indonesia's location and its population of mainly poor but increasing middle class mean it shares many characteristics of the region - including an affliction from plastic rubbish in its seas and waterways and along its extensive coastlines. Maui's Ark founder Stephen Harris is leading the New Zealand delegation to this conference, which we are co-chairing with Indonesia, to gather some of the world's largest, richest and most populous countries to find solutions to marine plastic debris - among them China, India, the United States, Russia,  Japan and South Korea, plus New Zealand, Australia and most South East Asian countries.