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The Mauritius Strategy for the Further Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (MSI) was approved in 2005 as the global strategy for addressing the vulnerabilities of small island developing states (SIDS). In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) decided through Resolution 62/191 to review the progress made in implementing the MSI at its sixty-fifth session, to be held in September 2010. Resolution 63/213 further stressed that the MSI review should provide the international community with an opportunity to: (a) conduct an assessment of the progress made, lessons learned and constraints encountered in the implementation of the MSI; and (b) agree on what needs to be done to further address the vulnerabilities of small islands developing states (SIDS)

In the first half of the 1990s, in response to increasing concern about many of the world's fisheries, and following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), a number of international fisheries instruments provided an impetus for countries to strengthen their fisheries management. A key step in supporting such efforts is the development of more-detailed, systematic and comparable information on fisheries management trends. In 2004, FAO developed the State of World Marine Capture Fisheries Management Questionnaire in response to this need, in 2007, FAO used this questionnaire to conduct a study of the trends in marine capture fisheries management in 29 Pacific Ocean countries.

The Rapid Agricultural Disaster Assessment Routine (RADAR) is based on the idea that a disaster is the product of extreme factors and a vulnerable agricultural system. This book proposes to move from empirical assessments of disaster impact on agriculture towards model-based approaches. Once an event strikes a region, the user of the procedure should rapidly collect all available geo-referenced and quantitative data on the event and the region.

Awareness of the limitations of a single-species approach to fisheries management has led to global acceptance of the need to adopt a wider ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) assessment and management. Applying EAF in management requires the application of scientific methods and tools that also go beyond the single-species approaches which used to be, to a large extent, the exclusive sources of scientific advice. Managers and decision-makers must now find management solutions that take into account the wider range of societal objectives that must be explicitly considered under EAF and the interactions in the ecosystem. Ecosystem models, i.e. models that represent a wider range of technological and ecological processes affecting the species in the ecosystem (including multispecies and whole ecosystem models), are potentially important tools for providing this wider scientific information.

The High-Level Conference which Italy has the honour of hosting and which today I have the honour of inaugurating, represents an extraordinary opportunity for reflection and commitment on crucial issues of our time and is already a significant event on account of such a distinguished attendance, notably of Heads of State and Government. I read this as a sign of awareness and renewed willingness on the part of the leadership of all continents and. together with the world organizations, of the international community as a whole.

The goal of Article II of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is to ensure stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent "dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system".

The world today is very different from the way it was 50 years ago. Improvements in transportation, education, and communications (including telephones, radio, television, and the internet) mean that life is increasingly influenced by what is happening outside the farm, family and immediate community. Sadly, some of these changes may have a negative impact on the Pacific Way of Life. However, many of the changes are inevitable, so farming families need to be in a position to benefit from them rather than be hurt by them.