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The coast os a vital non-living resource in most Pacific Island Countries. Important commercial and national assests, essential infrastructure and populations lie in the coastal zone.

The purpose of this booklet is to encourage the young people of the Federated States of Micronesia to pursue careers in environmental science and conservation, with the further goal of sustainable natural resource use and preservation of biodiversity in the Pacific. The text aims to make these topics relevant by focusing on the environments of Chuuk State and using Chuukese and outer island examples to illustrate scientific concepts. Cultural diversity goes hand in hand with biodiversity, so descriptions of the plant communities contain examples of how they are used by the people of Chuuk State. Proverbs, legends and stories, which show close, thorough observation of the environment and an interest in explaining it, are also included. This booklet is small indeed in comparison to the richness of the various environments of Chuuk State and the sophistication of local traditional knowledge about them. It is our hope that these environments will continue to be preserved, and that the knowledge of them will be set down by the local scientists and traditional experts of today and those who will follow.

This is the latest in the series of Pacific orchid studies from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and follows on from "Orchids of Vanuatu" (Lewis & Cribb 1989) and "Orchids of the Solomon Islands and Bougainville" (Lewis & Cribb 1991). Each has a similar format and the orchid taxonomist Phillip Cribb of Kew as one of the authors. As in these works, "Orchids of Samoa" contains many very useful line drawings, often with dissected flower parts displayed, contributed by Sue Wickison, Susanna Stuart-Smith, and Mair Swann. In addition, there is a block of 18 colour plates with photographs of 81 species and these give a very good idea of the great range of form amongst Samoan orchids. There does not seem to be an acknowledgement for these but they were obviously taken by a person or per- sons very familiar with Samoan orchids in the wild, such as the second author W. Arthur Whistler who has studied the flora of Samoa and neighbouring countries for many years. Regrettably there is no index for these plates and the species illustrated are not referred to in the text under their respective headings.

The subject of this book, as the subtitle The Ethnobotany of Samoa indicates, is the traditional and current uses of plants in Samoa. The word ethnobotany is composed of two root words of Greek origin, ethnos, meaning a "race" or "people", and botanikos, referring of course to plants. Thus ethnobotany is the scientific study of how people in different cultures interact with and utilize the plants in their natural environment. The broader related field of ethnology is the anthropological study of socio-economic systems and cultural heritage, usually in technologically less-advanced cultures (i.e. cultures that rely extensively on their immediate environment to meet their needs). The culture heritage portion can include ethnobotany to some degree, since useful plants are a part of one's cultural heritage. The Ethnology of Tubuai, for example, includes several chapters dealing with the use of plants on that Polynesian island. Another related term, "material culture," involves the study of how material things, which are made of animals, plants and inanimate materials, are used in a culture and thus includes ethnobotany.

This study deals with the economic impact of natural disasters in the context of Pacific island countries, almost all of which are in varying degrees vulnerable to such hazards.

Tropical Reef Research