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For Pacific SIDS, the need for adaptation to climate change has become increasingly urgent. Long-term climate change, 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 overexploitation of resources, increasing urbanization and population increase, development in the region is increasingly undermined. For the low lying atolls, the likely economic disruption from climate change pressures could be catastrophic, even to the extent of requiring population relocation to other islands or adding numbers to the Pacific diaspora, with the subsequent social and cultural disruption having unknown proportions. Failure to reduce vulnerability could also result in loss of opportunities to manage risks in the future when the impacts may be greater and time to consider options limited.

19th SPREP Meeting of Officials, 08-11 September 2008, Pohnpei, FSM : Additional Working papers|Review of support staff salary movements : agenda item 6.4|SPREP support staff remuneration review 2008: terms of reference|SPREP market survey of support staff salaries and terms & conditions in Samoa, July 2008|Annual Reference market data review (Professional staff) : agenda item 6.5|Council of Regional Organisations: annual comparison of reference markets 2008 update|Genetic resources in Pacific region: update on discussion paper from SPREP 2007: agenda item 8.4. paper presented by Australia|Regional Institutional Framework (RIF) Review: agenda item 10.3|Forum Communique: Regional Institutional framework review|Regional Institutional Framework: stage 2 task force, Nukualofa Tonga 2007|Regional Institutional framework- stage 2 RIF task force (June) meeting, PIFS, Suva Fiji 14 June 2007: Chairperson's report - meeting outcomes|The pathway towards quality of service from Pacific Regionalism, September 2007 RIF 2 project team : annex 1|38th Pacific Islands forum, Fiji 24-25 October 2006: Forum communique: Regional Institutional framework review|Reforming the Pacific Regional Institutional Framework, August 2006|39th Pacific Islands Forum, Alofi, Niue 19-20 August 2008: Forum

Verbesina encelioides (Cav.) Benth. & Hook. f. ex A. Gray, golden crownbeard, is a sunflower-like herbaceous annual plant ranging in height from 0.3 to 1.7 m with showy yellow flowers. It is native to the southwestern United States, the Mexican Plateau, and other parts of tropical America. Its invasive characteristics include high seed production (as many as 300-350 seeds per flower and multiple flowers per plant), seed dormancy, ability to tolerate dry conditions, and possible allelopathic effects. Disturbed areas with a relatively sandy substrate within warm, arid climate zones are vulnerable to invasion by V. encelioides. Veresina encelioides is found on all of the main Hawaiian islands except Ni'ihau but is particularly problematic on Midway and Kure Atoll, where it may threaten the habitat of nesting birds such as Laysan and black-footed albatrosses and Christmas and wedge-tailed shearwaters. Many other Pacific islands with similar habitats could be invaded by the V. encelioides. The plant has become naturalised in many other U.S. states, parts of South America, the Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic Puerto Rico, parts of Europe, Saudi Arabia, India, Ethiopia, Morocco, Botswana, Namibia, Israel, and Australia. It is a pest of various crops in the southern United States and India and is poisonous to sheep and cattle. Verbesina encelioides can be controlled via herbicides or mechanical means, but measures must be repeated due to the presence of persistent seed banks. Further research on V. encelioides is needed to understand its population dynamics, allelopathic properties, and impacts on natural ecosystems.