This document presents a brief overview of humanitarian and short term needs three weeks after the tsunami struck Samoa on 29 September 2009. Following the disaster, the Government of Samoa, Samoa Red Cross and other national and local organizations and international organizations and bilateral partners responded to the needs with great effort. As a result operations moved rapidly from response to recovery. The government of Samoa requested within a week the UN to take the lead in the formulation of an early recovery framework.
Natural resources derived from the non-living world, e.g. land, water and air.The provision of access to genetic resources within a country and the sharing of benefit derived from the use of genetic resources.Management practices, technologies and policies that promote the positive and mitigate the negative impacts on biodiversity.
For Pacific SIDS, the need for adaptation to climate change has become increasingly urgent. Long-term climate changes, including the increasing frequency and severity of extreme events such as high rainfall, droughts, tropical cyclones, and storm surges are affecting the lives and livelihoods of people in PICs. Coupled with non-climate drivers, such as inappropriate land use, overexploitation of resources, increasing urbanization and population increase, development in the region is increasingly undermined.
Most of the development activities that generate foreign earnings for the economy of Solomon Islands are heavily dependent upon the exploitation and utilization of natural resources. For many years, economic development activities in Solomon Islands have not integrated environmental considerations.
The UN Development Assistance Framework for the Pacific Subregion (UNDAF) represents the first regionwide response to the UN operational reform process, and is a product of several partnerships in development, including between two UN Country Teams in Fiji and Samoa covering a total of 15 UN agencies, offices and programmes3, and between the UN and the governments of 14 Pacific island countries.
This discussion paper makes a case for the glass half full view of Copenhagen. To sustain this optimism, this paper seeks to move the focus from the outcomes of one (unprecedented) international meeting and draw conclusions from the more important trends in climate policy globally. Given the apparent disconnect between these positive trends and the slow progress within the negotiations, this paper calls for a 'new multilateralism' aimed at unlocking ambitious global action on climate change.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
As a background for work on the vegetation of Micronesia it was necessary to assemble all available information on the flora. early accounts of the islands and their exploration. agricultural history. and economic botany. as well as on the ecology and vegetation of the region. It was found that the published bibliographies were by no means. complete or adequate for this purpose. so a card catalog was made of all items located and examined. This forms the basis of the bibliography. but an effort has been made to locate and include any published work on other aspects of plant science. also.
The need for a Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum to provide a venue and support for biodiversity information needs in the Pacific Basin was established during the GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) meeting on Maui in May of 2002. Interested parties met again during the October 2003 GBIF meeting in Tsukuba, Japan and reaffirmed the need and began to draw up a governing structure for PBIF and identify specific biodiversity needs in the Pacific Basin that can be addressed through projects.
A Workshop on Regional Action to Combat Invasive Alien Species on Islands to Preserve Biodiversity and Adapt to Climate Change highlighted successes, deepened connections within regions and facilitated the exchange of experiences across regions.While discussions outlined significant obstacles to invasive alien species management2 on islands, they also showcased how targeted successes have led to major gains for conservation and development.Collaboration across developmental and environmental sectors and sustained support are critical to success in this field.Exciting new initiatives are dev
Species which have been assessed for extinction
risk are on average moving closer to extinction.
Amphibians face the greatest risk and
coral species are deteriorating most rapidly in
status. Nearly a quarter of plant species are estimated
to be threatened with extinction.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
ISBN/ISSN: 92-9225-220-8
Physical Description: 96 p.
The vulnerability issue is relevant for drawing up a panorama of the weaknesses and the strengths of a
territory in face of natural hazards, at the crossroads of various determinants (spatial configuration,
societal cohesion, environmental sensitivity, economic diversification, territorial coherence and level
of development). In parallel, we argue that because of the numerous and partly irreducible climatic and
anthropogenic uncertainties, it remains very speculative to try to directly measure the level of
The present work is included in the research axes Geomorphology and natural hazards on the
coast and Vulnerability and quality of coastal areas of the team AGILE (Geographical
Approach of Islands, Littoral and Environment) of the research laboratory LIENSs (LIttoral,
ENvironment, SocietieS), University of la Rochelle-CNRS, UMR 6250 (France).
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 7 Pages
Today, May 10th, in addition to being SIDS Day, coincides with the release, in Nairobi, Kenya, of the third
edition of Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3). This major new assessment of the current state of
biodiversity and the implications of its continued loss for human well-being was produced by the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the broadest international treaty for the conservation and
sustainable use of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits from the utilization of genetic
The Asia-Pacific region is an economic
powerhouse, with some of
the worlds most dynamic economies.
But it has been making slower progress
with some of the Millennium Development
Goals. Its greatest success has
been with poverty, for which the region
as a whole is likely to meet the 2015
target of halving the proportion of people
living in income poverty. But most
countries will miss at least some of the
other targets and goals, and a number
will miss their goal even for poverty.
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Wildlife trafficking is a large-scale multi-billion dollar industry worldwide. The illegal trade of
wildlife has reached such prominence that it has the potential to devastate source populations
of wildlife, impacting on the integrity and productivity of ecosystems in providing food and
resources to the local economy. In order to protect these resources, legislation has been put in
place to control the trade of wildlife in almost every country worldwide. Those assigned with
Land, seascapes and natural resources are increasingly being set aside for
protection in response to various drivers: to tackle biodiversity loss, to prevent
deforestation as a climate change mitigation strategy, to restore declining fisheries.
Within the biodiversity conservation sector, the impacts (positive or negative)
of protected areas on local and indigenous communities have generated a lot
of debate and discussions and this discussion is escalating as other protection
Well managed natural forests almost always provide higher quality water, with less sediment and
fewer pollutants, than water from other catchments
Some natural forests (particularly tropical montane cloud forests and some older forests) also
increase total water flow, although in other cases this is not true and under young forests and some
exotic plantations net water flow can decrease
Impacts of forests on security of supply or mitigating flooding are less certain although forests can
reduce floods at a local headwater scale
Vulnerable ecosystems- Sea?level rise
Increasing temperatures
Changes in rainfall
Ocean acidification
Coral reefs
Increased storm activity
Overall in Melanesia the central mountains of New
Guinea and the coral reefs and ocean life in the
outer islands of Papua New Guinea most impacted.
In the wider Pacific inundation is a major threat.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 22 p.
Scenarios- Finding out what people want
Scenarios can either be ideal
visions or expectations of
reality both are useful
They can be recorded
discussions, maps, models or
plans...
A stand?alone component or
EBA added into existing
scenario building
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Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 39 p.
Another possible scenario could take place from the InterOil Napa Napa Refinery in Papua New Guinea, which has the highest volume of crude and other persistent oils being transported via ships throughout the Pacific region. Potential oil drill sites as well as potential vessel slip docks such as those
in Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu could also result in oil leaks and marine pollution.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 4 Pages