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Critical issues for all meetings will be the global effort in the remaining 18 months to achieve the 2020 Aichi Targets of the CBD. Target 11 is of particular importance to WCPA and indeed we would argue it is the fundamental goal to achieve biodiversity and underpins many other goals.

I have recently returned from the Steering Committee meeting in Lebanon (see summary). It was a very constructive meeting and inspiring to hear of advances being made in many parts of the world. The South Americans seem to be the current stars with major advances for marine and freshwater conservation in Brazil and large new declarations of protected areas in Colombia and a share of their new emissions tax in recognition of the importance of protected areas in holding carbon sinks like forests, peat we tlands, mangroves and seagrasses.

The Republic of Kiribati comprises 33low-lying coral atolls (except Banaba), which are divided into three main island groups; the Gilbert group,the Phoenix group and the Line islands. Its total land area is about811 sq km within an equatorial Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) of some 3.6 million sq km in the Central Pacific. The maximum height above sea-level for Kiribati is 87 m.The population of Kiribati was estimated at 88 600 in19991, of which over 90% live in the Gilbert group,mostly on Tarawa atoll, the capital and commercial centre of Kiribati.Situated in the dry belt of the equatorial oceanic climatic zone, rainfall varies from 1 000 mm to 3 000mm per year. Severe, prolonged droughts are common in the drier islands in the central and southern equatorial region (eg. Gilberts and on Banaba, the Phoenix Islands, and Kiritimati)

The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), a young independent nation, comprises approximately 1 225 low lying islets which make up the twentynine atolls and five low-elevation islands. Its total land area is 181 sq km with a maximum height of 3 m above sea level. The archipelagic islands are spread over a vast area of ocean of 2 131 000 sq km in two roughly parallel island chains. The eastern group is the Ratak (Sunrise) Chain and the western is the Ralik (Sunset) Chain. The RMI has a fast-growing population which is estimated at 63 200 in 19991 . Its population is among the youngest in the world – about 50 per cent of the people are less than 15 years old. This implies that the working-age population is growing rapidly in the Republic. More than two-thirds of the total population live in the two urban centers, Majuro and Ebeye.