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Climate change is often referred to as the defining challenge of our time, and it is well known that Pacific Island States are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Indeed, these adverse effects are already very tangible for most communities across the region. Coastal features are visibly changing, with rising sea-levels, higher king tides and storm surges, saltwater intrusion and changing weather patterns posing an increasing threat to the livelihoods of Pacific Island communities. The threats are amplified by extreme weather events becoming more intense and more damaging as a result of climate change, with Cyclone Pam recently causing loss of human life and catastrophic damage in Vanuatu, and to a lesser extent in the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Kiribati. 2 While communities and governments—assisted by regional, international and nongovernmental organizations—are proactively building resilience and adapting to climate change, there is a real risk of much more severe and damaging impacts materializing in the coming decades.3 The threats are so severe that most, if not all, Pacific Island States face the threat of losing some or all of their habitable territory as a result of climate change, with related risks of the loss of traditional livelihoods and large-scale involuntary displacement

The earth works like a greenhouse. Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and other naturally occurring greenhouse gases (GHGs), as well as human-made industrial gases trap heat from escaping into space. This keeps the earth’s temperature within a life-sustaining range. Without the greenhouse effect, Earth would be much colder—an average temperature of –19° Celsius (C). Human reliance on fossil fuels for energy has increased the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Biogenic emissions of GHG from land use have magnified the greenhouse effect. Deforestation and poor land use, which have reduced the absorptive capacity of plants, forests, and soils for CO2, have made things worse.

Farmers cultivate steep hillside plantations of taro and bananas. Fishing communities pull tuna and marlin from the blue depths of the Pacific Ocean. Households tend mile after mile of neatly trimmed roadside gardens. Samoa’s beautiful natural environment also offers a striking setting for a rich and complex culture. Communities headed by traditional leaders, the matai, meet regularly in fale, the open-sided houses, to reach communal decisions. And on Sundays the roads are flooded with families dressed in dazzling white clothes flocking to hundreds of churches.

On the 14-15 October 2010, 14 Pacific Island countries met to discuss the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience. This meeting was attended by representatives from Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. At the meeting there were also representatives from international, regional and national organizations, development partners and non-government organisations. The meeting was jointly hosted by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

Th e Vanuatu Economic Report 2009 outlines the state of economy and social development in the country and presents a road map for addressing key development challenges. It identifies the principal binding development constraints and opportunities in public sector performance, private sector and social development, and governance.

This Climate Change Implementation Plan (CCIP) for the Pacific Regional Department (PARD) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) describes the areas of focus for PARD's operations and identifies key gaps between country and ADB actions, as well as opportunities for scaling up ADB's assistance related to mitigation, adaptation and associated cross-cutting needs. This gap analysis points to recommended interventions in regional and country programs for additional technical assistance (TA) and financial assistance, including access to new climate funds and adoption of new financing mechanisms. These include multi-donor Climate Investment Funds (Clean Technology Fund and Strategic Climate Fund), ADB's Future Carbon Fund, and possibly a new Sustainable Fuel Credits mechanism to promote reduced petroleum consumption. The CCIP will evolve through periodic updates in order to effectively guide ongoing and future programs and TA and project design. Going forward, specific climate change interventions will continue to be incorporated into the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) and Country Operations Business Plan (COBP) for each Pacific Developing Member Country (PDMC) and into the Regional Operations Business Plan (ROBP) for the Pacific region as a whole. TA and investment projects will be designed, taking into consideration regional and country variations in governance, institutional capacity, and geographic and local environmental conditions.

Traditionally, Pacific Island people have lived a subsistence lifestyle with taboos and practices that ensured sustainability of resource use. However, modernization with all its implications has reduced the quality of life with problems affecting the very pillars of sustainable development. There are many disadvantages that derive from small size, a narrow range of resources, excessive dependence on international trade, high population density, over use of natural resources, relatively small watersheds, costly infrastructure, fragile ecosystems and high levels of endemism.

Traditionally, Pacific Island people have lived a subsistence lifestyle with taboos and practices that ensured sustainability of resource use. However, modernization with all its implications has reduced the quality of life with problems affecting the very pillars of sustainable development. There are many disadvantages that derive from small size, a narrow range of resources, excessive dependence on international trade, high population density, over use of natural resources, relatively small watersheds, costly infrastructure, fragile ecosystems and high levels of endemism.

This report presents data from the most comprehensive assessment undertaken on differing levels of ecological survey effort employed in Fiji. The four methods examined in order of increasing taxonomic complexity (number of variables or species observed) were FLMMA community monitoring, Reef Check, Akuila Cakacaka's Masters thesis method* and that used by Coral Cay Conservation in Fiji. All of these methods utilise a belt transect underwater visual census methodology with differing lengths of transects though for standardisation, all were set at 20m long by 5m wide by 5m high in this investigation. All methods employed a target species list. Of these target species lists, only the FLMMA methodology observed individuals from all of its target taxa; the other methodologies observed only 67, 70 and 59% of the species included on the target species List for the 'Reef Check method', 'Akuila's method' and the 'Coral Cay method' respectively.

The Pacific Strategy for the New Millennium1 of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) focuses on the core objectives of (i) continuing support for economic growth, good governance, and public sector reform; (ii) promoting private sector development as the engine for growth; and (iii) supporting sustainable environmental management and equitable social development. A new regional strategy is being prepared for ADB operations in the Pacific, which will focus on the priority needs of the poor, as defined by an extensive program of qualitative and quantitative poverty assessment, based on listening to the voices of those in hardship or poverty. The new strategy will focus on improving access to basic services and creating employment opportunities. As the Government is beginning preparation of its Strategic Development Plan 8 (SDP8) for 2005-2007, it is timely to review ADB’s strategy and program for Tonga.