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Systematic conservation planning identifies priority areas to cost-effectively meet conservation targets. Yet, these tools rarely guide wholesale declaration of reserve systems in a single time step due to financial and implementation constraints. Rather, incremental scheduling of actions to progressively build reserve networks is required. To ensure this incremental action is guided by the original plan, and thus builds a reserve network that meets all conservation targets, strategic scheduling, and iterative planning is needed

The earth works like a greenhouse. Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and other naturally occurring greenhouse gases (GHGs), as well as human-made industrial gases trap heat from escaping into space. This keeps the earth’s temperature within a life-sustaining range. Without the greenhouse effect, Earth would be much colder—an average temperature of –19° Celsius (C). Human reliance on fossil fuels for energy has increased the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Biogenic emissions of GHG from land use have magnified the greenhouse effect. Deforestation and poor land use, which have reduced the absorptive capacity of plants, forests, and soils for CO2, have made things worse.

Farmers cultivate steep hillside plantations of taro and bananas. Fishing communities pull tuna and marlin from the blue depths of the Pacific Ocean. Households tend mile after mile of neatly trimmed roadside gardens. Samoa’s beautiful natural environment also offers a striking setting for a rich and complex culture. Communities headed by traditional leaders, the matai, meet regularly in fale, the open-sided houses, to reach communal decisions. And on Sundays the roads are flooded with families dressed in dazzling white clothes flocking to hundreds of churches.

On the 14-15 October 2010, 14 Pacific Island countries met to discuss the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience. This meeting was attended by representatives from Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. At the meeting there were also representatives from international, regional and national organizations, development partners and non-government organisations. The meeting was jointly hosted by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

Research for this study was carried out under a two-year project to support the implementation of Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) at two catchment-to-reef sites on Vanua Levu, Fiji, during which conservation planning approaches were trialled using EBM tools to evaluate options for re-designing marine protected area (MPA) networks. Current approaches in systematic conservation planning have focused on developing tools to maximize conservation benefits while minimizing socio-economic costs to users of a landscape or seascape area. In this study, we present a novel method for calculating the opportunity costs of conservation actions to multiple gear type users arising from fisher displacement due to the establishment of MPAs in Kubulau District, Vanua Levu, Fiji. The method builds upon those applied in land conservation in which the probability of land conversion to alternate functions is used to estimate opportunity costs to multiple stakeholders, which differs from previous approaches by providing information about costs of currently unused areas that may be of potential future benefit. We model opportunity costs of establishing a network of MPAs as a function of food fish abundance, probability of catch as function of gear type and market value of species. Count models (including Poisson, Negative Binomial and two zero-inflated models) were used to predict spatial distribution of abundance for preferred target fish species and validated against underwater visual census (UVC) surveys and biophysical predictor variables (reef type, reef exposure, depth, distance to shore, protection status). Spatial distributions of targeted fish within the three most frequently sighted food fish families (Acanthuridae, Lutjanidae, Scaridae) varied considerably: Lutjanidae had the highest abundance on barrier reefs; Acanthuridae on inshore fringing and patch reefs; and Scaridae on fringing reefs. Modeled opportunity cost, estimated as a function of abundance and probability of catch by gear type, indicated highest cost to fishers would arise from restricting access to the fringing reef between the villages of Navatu and Kiobo and the lowest cost would arise from restricting access to the Cakaunivuaka reef. The opportunity cost layer was added to Marxan models to identify optimum areas for protection to meet fisheries objectives in Kubulau’s traditional fisheries management area with: (a) the current MPA network locked in place; and (b) a clean-slate approach. The opportunity cost method presented here gives an unbiased estimate of opportunity costs to multiple gear types in a marine environment that can be applied to any region using existing species data.

Th e Vanuatu Economic Report 2009 outlines the state of economy and social development in the country and presents a road map for addressing key development challenges. It identifies the principal binding development constraints and opportunities in public sector performance, private sector and social development, and governance.

This Climate Change Implementation Plan (CCIP) for the Pacific Regional Department (PARD) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) describes the areas of focus for PARD's operations and identifies key gaps between country and ADB actions, as well as opportunities for scaling up ADB's assistance related to mitigation, adaptation and associated cross-cutting needs. This gap analysis points to recommended interventions in regional and country programs for additional technical assistance (TA) and financial assistance, including access to new climate funds and adoption of new financing mechanisms. These include multi-donor Climate Investment Funds (Clean Technology Fund and Strategic Climate Fund), ADB's Future Carbon Fund, and possibly a new Sustainable Fuel Credits mechanism to promote reduced petroleum consumption. The CCIP will evolve through periodic updates in order to effectively guide ongoing and future programs and TA and project design. Going forward, specific climate change interventions will continue to be incorporated into the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) and Country Operations Business Plan (COBP) for each Pacific Developing Member Country (PDMC) and into the Regional Operations Business Plan (ROBP) for the Pacific region as a whole. TA and investment projects will be designed, taking into consideration regional and country variations in governance, institutional capacity, and geographic and local environmental conditions.

The Pacific Strategy for the New Millennium1 of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) focuses on the core objectives of (i) continuing support for economic growth, good governance, and public sector reform; (ii) promoting private sector development as the engine for growth; and (iii) supporting sustainable environmental management and equitable social development. A new regional strategy is being prepared for ADB operations in the Pacific, which will focus on the priority needs of the poor, as defined by an extensive program of qualitative and quantitative poverty assessment, based on listening to the voices of those in hardship or poverty. The new strategy will focus on improving access to basic services and creating employment opportunities. As the Government is beginning preparation of its Strategic Development Plan 8 (SDP8) for 2005-2007, it is timely to review ADB’s strategy and program for Tonga.

The purpose of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Pacific Strategy 2005-2009 is to provide a framework for ADB operations in its 14 Pacific developing member countries (PDMCs)1 and for ADB support to regional cooperation in the Pacific. This third ADB Pacific Strategy will allow ADB's Pacific Department (PARD) to better focus its activities, deepen its experience and expertise in key result areas (KRAs), and align resources to strategy objectives, in order to maximize the impact of ADB support to the development efforts of the PDMCs.