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Less than 8 per cent of the population of Asia and the Pacific enjoyed healthy air – within the World Health Organization (WHO) Guideline – in 2015. That means that around 4 billion people, the other 92 per cent of the population, spread unevenly across the region and with the highest numbers living in South and East Asia, are exposed to levels of air pollution that pose significant risks to their health.

Asia-Pacific is at the forefront of global discussions on sustainable development and the melding of environment and economic policies. From access to clean water to biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture - community involvement and investment when solving environmental challenges is crucial to managing local resources. In order to move towards and realise sustainable development on a larger scale, proven-successful practices at the grassroots should be contextualized and replicated across Asia-Pacific. As a group of regional experts, the Asia-Pacific Forum for Environment and Development addressed critical issues facing the region and proposed new models for equitable and sustainable development. Two programmes resulted from the forum, the APFED Showcase Programme and the APFED Awards.

Asia-Pacific faces major environmental issues, from climate change and biodiversity conservation to resource resilience and water security. As the greatest consumer of natural resources, the region is experiencing the effects of increased waste and pollution as they take a massive toll on resource availability, livelihoods and quality of life for many families. Addressing the challenges that come with climate change appears enormous and often insurmountable outside of top-down global and regional actions. Yet, local governments and communities in the region are facing these challenges head on by developing and utilizing innovative solutions to climate change and many other environmental issues.

Rodent eradications undertaken on tropical islands are more likely to fail than eradications undertaken at higher latitudes. We report on 12 independent rodent eradication projects undertaken on tropical islands that utilized the results of an in situ bait availability study prior to eradication to inform, a priori, the bait application rate selected for the eradication. These projects also monitored bait availability during the eradication. The results from our analysis verified the utility of bait availability studies to future rodent eradication campaigns and confirmed the influence of two environmental factors that can affect bait availability over time: precipitation prior to the study and the abundance of land crabs at the study site. Our findings should encourage eradication teams to conduct in-depth assessments of the targeted island prior to project implementation. However, we acknowledge the limitations of such studies (two of the projects we reviewed failed and one removed only one of two rodent species present) and provide guidance on how to interpret the results from a bait availability study in planning an eradication. Study design was inconsistent among the twelve cases we reviewed which limited our analysis. We recommend a more standardized approach for measuring bait availability prior to eradication to provide more robust predictions of the rate at which bait availability will decrease during the eradication and to facilitate future comparisons among projects and islands.

Tonga is one of the many islands that are endowed with unique resources and derives much of its economic, environmental and social well-being directly or indirectly from its environment. Tonga harbours numerous special ecosystems: from the peak of Mt. Talau in Vava'u, to the serenity of Vai Lahi in Niuafo'ou; the vulnerability of the Ha'apai Group to 'Eua's National Forest and to the Fanga'uta Lagoon in Tongatapu.

Local communities and indigenous people make substantial contributions to global conservation efforts and sustainable development. While these communities are often the primary resource stewards who rely on ecosystem to meet food security, livelihood and health needs, their contribution to the achievement of global conservation targets have not yet been fully recognized.

As countries look forward to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil in June 2012, evidence of certain environmental trends continues to accumulate, including those related to climate change and its impacts, biodiversity loss, and degradation of land and soils. Enormous challenges remain with respect to addressing the underlying causes and impacts of such trends, although positive developments can be reported as well, for instance in the area of renewable energy technology uptake and investment. Key environmental indicators such as those presented in the UNEP Year Book help keep track of the state of the environment by providing a picture of the latest available data and trends.

Migratory birds are part of the lives of many people around the world: little children who are shown their first swallows' nest by their grandfather city dwellers, who hear the calling of geese overhead, herdsmen, whose animals are followed by wagtails and harriers that feed on flushed insects; fishermen on every sea, whose boats are accompanied by albatrosses, shearwaters or boobies.

Breeding success of 5 Cory’s shearwater Calonectris diomedea sub-colonies of Lavezzu Island (Lavezzi Archipelago, Corsica) was checked annually for 25 consecutive years from 1979 to 2004. Between 1989 and 1994, 4 ship rat Rattus rattus controls were performed in several subcolonies. In November 2000, rats were eradicated from Lavezzu Island and its 16 peripheral islets (85 ha) using traps then toxic baits. We compare cost (number of person-hours required in the field) and benefit (Cory’s shearwater breeding success) of control and eradication. The average breeding success doubled when rats were controlled or eradicated (0.82) compared to the situation without rat management (0.45). Moreover, the average breeding success after eradication (0.86) was significantly (11%) higher than after rat controls (0.75). Furthermore, the great variation in breeding success recorded among sub-colonies both with and without rat control declined dramatically after eradication, suggesting that rats had a major impact on breeding success. The estimated effort needed to perform eradication and checking of the permanent bait-station system during the year following eradication was 1360 person-hours. In contrast, rat control was estimated to require 240 or 1440 person-hours per year when implemented by trained and untrained staff, respectively. Within 6 yr, eradication cost is lower than control cost performed by untrained staff and confers several ecological advantages on more ecosystem components than Cory’s shearwater alone. Improved eradication tools such as hand or aerial broadcasting of toxic baits instead of the fairly labour-intensive eradication strategy we used would dramatically increase the economic advantage of eradication vs. control. Therefore, when feasible, we recommend eradication rather than control of non-native rat populations. Nevertheless, control remains a useful management tool when eradication is not practicable.