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The 4th Oceania Regional Meeting was held at the headquarters of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in Apia, Samoa from 10-11 April. Funding assistance was made available by the government of Australia, through their Department of Environment Water, Heritage and the Arts, to help organize the meeting. SPREP also provided financial support towards the meeting.

The overall purpose of this paper is to address food security and poverty reduction in the face of climate change and energy security. It attempts to bring to the fore food security threats associated with climate change in the food production and supply environments, as well as the broader livelihood and ecological changes that will occur as a consequence. Recognizing the different geographical regions around the Pacific and how climate change would impact on their food security situations opens up new opportunities for understanding why changes happen. An attempt will also be made to address how Pacific Islanders can be assisted to enhance their capacity to reduce risk and make optimal use of current climate resources in order to capitalize on benefits that may arise due to the changing climate. In doing so, it will attempt to highlight some of the current impacts of climate change reported by Pacific Island Countries in their national communications to the UNFCCC and their National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs), and what attempts have been made to seriously address these issues. It is recognized that climate change is an additional stress that needs to be managed by the agricultural and broader development communities but it should also be emphasized that climate change will further exacerbate current development stresses that are already plaguing the agriculture community and national governments. This paper will try to draw out these links and discuss ways to proactively address the situation now rather then later.

The Ninth Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention for the Protection of the Natural Resources and Environment of the South Pacific Region and Related Protocols (Noumea Convention), was held from 4-5 September 2008 in Palikir, Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia.

This is the first Roundtable meeting since the 2007 8th Pacific Islands Conference on Nature Conservation, held in Alotau, Papua New Guinea. All previous working groups and activities of the Roundtable were disbanded and a new set of activities proposed to the Heads of Roundtable Organisations meeting for discussion. The Heads of Roundtable Organisations meeting consisted of people with decision making ability for their organizations or with designated decision making ability. The Roundtable meeting on the second two days was for other Roundtable organization participants and developed and confirmed charters for working groups and discussed other issues pertinent to conservation in the region.

As affirmed in the 2000 Dakar Education for All Framework for Action, education is well- recognised as essential to sustainable development, peace and stability with in and amongst countries. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) seeks to Integrate the values inherent in sustainable development into all aspects of learning to encourage changes in behaviour that allow for a more sustainable and just society for all. The declaration of 2005-2014 as the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development by the UN General Assembly, has added impetus to global efforts in ESD.

As affirmed in the 2000 Dakar Education for All Framework for Action, education is well- recognised as essential to sustainable development, peace and stability with in and amongst countries. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) seeks to Integrate the values inherent in sustainable development into all aspects of learning to encourage changes in behaviour that allow for a more sustainable and just society for all. The declaration of 2005-2014 as the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development by the UN General Assembly, has added impetus to global efforts in ESD.

The Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting for the CBD COP9 was held at Le Vasa Resort, Samoa, from 13-16 April 2008. The meeting included participants from Fiji, Palau, Nauru, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Niue, PNG, Tuvalu, Tonga, Marshall Islands, SPC, SOPAC, FIELD, IUCN, USP, the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism, O le Siosiomaga Society, IFAW and SPREP.

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.