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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.

Mangrove ecosystems are threatened by climate change. We review the state of knowledge of mangrove vulnerability and responses to predicted climate change and consider adaptation options. Based on available evidence, of all the climate change outcomes, relative sea-level rise may be the greatest threat to mangroves. Most mangrove sediment surface elevations are not keeping pace with sea-level rise, although longer term studies from a larger number of regions are needed. Rising sea-level will have the greatest impact on mangroves experiencing net lowering in sediment elevation, where there is limited area for landward migration. The Pacific Islands mangroves have been demonstrated to be at high risk of substantial reductions. There is less certainty over other climate change outcomes and mangrove responses. More research is needed on assessment methods and standard indicators of change in response to effects from climate change, while regional monitoring networks are needed to observe these responses to enable educated adaptation. Adaptation measures can offset anticipated mangrove losses and improve resistance and resilience to climate change. Coastal planning can adapt to facilitate mangrove migration with sea-level rise. Management of activities within the catchment that affect long-term trends in the mangrove sediment elevation, better management of other stressors on mangroves, rehabilitation of degraded mangrove areas, and increases in systems of strategically designed protected area networks that include mangroves and functionally linked ecosystems through representation, replication and refugia, are additional adaptation options.

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.