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The management plan describes the priority strategies for the upland areas of the Lake Lanuto'o National Park that will best maintain and improve the key conservation values in these areas by reducing the impact of threats, including from climate change. The management planning process began in 20-24 August 2012 with the Site management planning workshop for climate resilience of Samoa's forest. This workshop involved application of the Conservation Action Planning (CAP) Process of the Open Standards for the practice of conservation.

This cost-benefi t analysis is part of the UNEP Ecosystem-based Adaptation Flagship Program and UN-HABITAT Cities and Climate Change Initiative and is intended to guide decision makers in their consideration of various options for climate change adaptation. While the scope of the research and analysis is confi ned to Lami Town, Fiji, a town adjacent to the capital Suva, general lessons and considerations may also be informative at the national level. Furthermore, the lessons learned will be useful for future comparison of options for Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) to climate change in the Pacifi c region.

The combined pressures of climate change and development will not only aggravate existing challenges to the conservation of biodiversity in the Pacific, but also introduce new difficulties. There are a wide range of historical, current and planned studies that examine specific aspects of the relationship between climate change, conservation and development in the Pacific. However, resource management decision-makers often aren’t able to allocate sufficient resources to review and synthesize lessons from the fast-moving body of climate change research into information that is directly relevant to their needs. Additionally, there are large gaps in the availability of baseline and monitoring data of species, habitats and ecosystem services that are critical to the livelihoods of the Pacific Island people. This lack of data is reducing the effectiveness of assessments of the vulnerability of the regional economy to climate change; an economy that is heavily dependent on natural resources.

The Cook Islands comprises 15 islands with a total land area of 237 sq km and a maximum height above sea-level of 652 m. The islands are scattered over an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 1.8 million sq km; one of the largest EEZ’s in the South Pacific.

This proposal has been prepared by the Ocean and Islands Programme (OIP) within the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) in collaboration with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). It has been prepared in response to an invitation1 from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to assist the Cook Islands in deriving coastal related information to underpin and inform climate change adaptation decisions for coastal areas of Mangaia Island.

Flooding imposes significant costs on households and businesses located in the lower Vaisigano catchment area. SOPAC, under the European Development Fund (EDF) project Reducing Vulnerability of Pacific ACP States, has worked with the Government of Samoa to develop the Samoa Flood Management and Action Plan, which identifies actions for government agencies, the private sector, NGOs and communities responsible for flood and floodplain management that can assist in reducing flood risks in Samoa, particularly in the lower Vaisigano catchment area located in Apia, which is subject to frequent flooding.

The Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) is currently executing the project Reducing Vulnerability in Pacific ACP States with funding from the European Development Fund (EDF). The project has the objective to reduce Pacific ACP States' vulnerability to natural disasters affecting their coasts through the development of an integrated planning and management system which targets: hazard mitigation and risk assessment; alternative sources of aggregates for construction; and water resources and sanitation. Major activities undertaken through this project with participating countries are: -assessment of aggregate resource supplies to mitigate the impact of unsustainable aggregate mining from the coastline; -development of bathymetric maps, 3D bathymetric and hydrodynamic models spatial databases relating to resource use, exploration and survey, and vulnerability to disasters; and -investigating and raising awareness about coastal processes.

The Government of Niue (GoN) is restructuring its Public Service which is a timely opportunity to integrate water management functions adopting the IWRM approach and principles in lieu of the current sectoral approach adopted over the last 3-4 decades. This will be an opportunity to integrate NGOs, civil society and all stakeholders in the process of water and wastewater management. The strengthening of the national capacity will enhance efficiency to deliver the required services by the public institutions, but also the awareness of the community on the sustainable use of water as a finite natural resource.

These goals are a big challenge to small Pacific Islands Countries with their small land masses, remote locations and small but rapidly growing populations making them vulnerable. Vanuatu shares these and other challenges to sustainable development. In Vanuatu real GDP per capita is still lower than in the 1980s, infrastructure is poorly developed, the population is rapidly growing at 2.6% per year, water resources are declining and in many places contaminated, and household water supplies are inadequate or absent. The country's capital and human resources are stretched and a better forward is needed.