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Within the context of an additional commitment of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) for the ongoing ACCPIR Project GTZ commissioned an appraisal mission in order to investigate the options for extending it regionally and thematically. The regional scope of the mission includes all independent member states of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). The thematic scope of the mission focused on climate change adaptation strategies for land- and marine based natural resources, adaptation options in the tourism sector and with regard to mitigation potentials to renewable energies as well as energy efficiency issues. Despite constraints in terms of time covering the whole South Pacific region, the regional institutional framework being under “reconstruction” and, the multitude of, hardly manageable donor initiatives in the field of climate change the team finally was confident that sufficient information was available to assess the climate change context of the region and to come up with a proposal which adds value to ongoing and planned climate change activities at the regional and national level.

Samoa's National Environmental Capacity Strategy (NECS) is drawn on the assessment and analysis of priority thematic and cross-cutting capacity needs. These needs have identified priority actions for capacity development and opportunities to promote synergies across the 3 Conventions which are highlighted as project profiles in the NECS. Strategies to implement these project profiles including means of monitoring and evaluation of outcomes are also highlighted in the NECS.

Biosafety issues are becoming very contentious today given the uncertainty of the impact of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on the environment, biodiversity and the people. There are those that view GMOs as an answer to alleviating world hunger and mitigating global health problems through the introduction of new and technologically advanced GMO for food, feed, food processing and pharmaceuticals. Then there is the other group that argue that GMOs pose a risk to the environment, biological diversity and the safety and health of the people.

The National Capacity Self-Assessments (NCSA) projects assist developing countries and economies in transition to assess capacity to meet requirements under the United Nations Convention for Biological Diversity (UNCBD), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). UNDP is supporting 116 countries to prepare a NCSA. This Resource Kit is the core of UNDP's technical backstopping to those countries. Its purpose is to guide Project Teams through every step of project implementation, from project signature until project cb- sure.

Biological diversity is the variety and variability of all species of plants, animals and microorganisms, as well as the ecosystems they compose. It serves and sustains our lives in countless ways by providing food, fuel, shelter, and medicines. Conserving biodiversity is in our self-interest.