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Climate change is the defining challenge of our time. It will affect the poor and vulnerable first and foremost. The world’s response to climate change today will bear directly on the development prospects of a large part of the world’s population, particularly those who contributed least to the cause of climate change. Integrating climate change considerations in national and sectoral decision-making processes and in development assistance programmes is critical to meeting this challenge. Mainstreaming climate change, by integrating the risks and opportunities it poses, can help ensure that our efforts today continue to advance development even in the face of climate change.

The extensive Pacific Islands region comprises around 30.000 islands scattered across the vast central Pacific Ocean. The island groups and sea areas are divided into 22 countries, with a total population of around 6 million people. The great majority of people live in relatively small and isolated coastal or rural village communities, and remain closely reliant on their local natural resources for subsistence and economic development. Customary resource tenure systems prevail, in diverse, fluid, and adaptable forms, and provide an essential foundation for management of resource uses and conservation. The region contains extensive bio- logical diversity of global significance, including coral reef, coastal and open ocean ecosystems, unique island communities, and large numbers of endemic species of island plants and animals. The biodiversity of small islands and their surrounding shallow sea areas is highly vulnerable to human impacts from over-exploitation, habitat destruction, and introductions of invasive, alien species.