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PacWaste is working across 14 Pacific island countries and TimorLeste to improve the management of healthcare waste. Healthcare waste is hazardous because it has the potential to be infectious or harmful to humans and the environment. In Kiribati, PacWaste conducted a healthcare waste management baseline survey in April 2014, through which information was collected on current waste management processes. Audits were conducted at Kiribati’s two largest hospitals: Tungaru Central Hospital on South Tarawa and London Hospital on Kiritimati Island.

PacWaste is working across 14 Pacific island countries and Timor-Leste to improve the management of healthcare waste. This waste type, also known as hospital, clinical or medical waste, is generated by hospitals and health clinics. Healthcare waste is hazardous because it has the potential to be infectious or harmful to humans and the environment. In Vanuatu, PacWaste conducted a healthcare waste management baseline survey in March 2014, through which information was collected on current waste management processes, from ward-level waste generation through to treatment and disposal. Audits were conducted at: Port Vila Central Hospital Port (Shefa Province); Northern Districts Hospital (Sanma Province); Lenakel Hospital (Tafea Province); Norsup Hospital (Malampa Province); and Panunagis Health Centre (Shefa Province).

PacWaste is working across 14 Pacific island countries and TimorLeste to improve the management of healthcare waste. Healthcare waste is hazardous because it has the potential to be infectious or harmful to humans and the environment. In Tuvalu, PacWaste conducted a healthcare waste management baseline survey in July 2014, through which information was collected on current waste management processes. The audit was conducted at Princess Margaret Hospital on Funafuti.

PacWaste is working across 14 Pacific island countries and TimorLeste to improve the management of healthcare waste. Healthcare waste is hazardous because it has the potential to be infectious or harmful to humans and the environment. In Solomon Islands, PacWaste conducted a healthcare waste management baseline survey in July 2014, through which information was collected on current waste management processes. Audits were conducted at six hospitals: Honiara National Referral Hospital (Honiara); Gizo Hospital (Gizo); Helena Goldie Hospital (Munda); Kilu’ufi Hospital (Auki); Atoifi Adventist Hospital (Atoifi); and Kirakira Hospital (Kirakira).

The Fifth Pacific Climate Change Roundtable was held from 12 - 14 May 2015 at the Tanoa Tusitala Hotel, Apia Samoa. The conference was jointly organized by the PCCR Steering Committee, consisting of country representatives, development partners and CROP agencies, hosted by SPREP and Government of Samoa with major funding support from the Government of Switzerland. The meeting brought together some 183 participants from Pacific Island Countries and Territories, regional and international agencies, nongovernmental organizations, private sector, academia and development partners. The theme for the roundtable was “Lessons Learnt from the ten-year implementation of The Pacific Islands Framework Action on Climate Change (2006-2015)”.

In Solomon Islands, the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) project focused on food security, with a goal ‘to contribute to reduced vulnerability and increased adaptive capacity to adverse effects of climate change in Solomon Islands’. The pilot sites for the demonstration projects were the low lying atolls of Ontong Java and, in a second phase, Sikaiana. These atolls are extremely isolated and are highly vulnerable in many respects. Climaterelated threats mainly come from sea level rise and extreme weather events, and impacts on food security include contamination of the freshwater lens affecting crop production. Associated soil salinisation, as well as loss of land through erosion, also have serious implications for subsistence food production in locations that are already stressed.

Climate change is often referred to as the defining challenge of our time, and it is well known that Pacific Island States are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Indeed, these adverse effects are already very tangible for most communities across the region. Coastal features are visibly changing, with rising sea-levels, higher king tides and storm surges, saltwater intrusion and changing weather patterns posing an increasing threat to the livelihoods of Pacific Island communities. The threats are amplified by extreme weather events becoming more intense and more damaging as a result of climate change, with Cyclone Pam recently causing loss of human life and catastrophic damage in Vanuatu, and to a lesser extent in the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Kiribati. 2 While communities and governments—assisted by regional, international and nongovernmental organizations—are proactively building resilience and adapting to climate change, there is a real risk of much more severe and damaging impacts materializing in the coming decades.3 The threats are so severe that most, if not all, Pacific Island States face the threat of losing some or all of their habitable territory as a result of climate change, with related risks of the loss of traditional livelihoods and large-scale involuntary displacement

Rapidly expanding human populations and associated economic growth and overconsumption is resulting in serious degradation of the natural environment human survival depends on (Vitousek et al., 1997; Sanderson et al., 2002; Orr, 2004; Alroy, 2010; Branch et al., 2013). Almost half of the global human population currently lives within 150km of the coast (UN Atlas of the Oceans, 2014). This results in severe pressures being placed on marine and coastal environments. Anthropogenic impacts on oceans include physical alterations of the coasts and seafloor, as well as chemical and biological contamination through sewage, industrial wastes and agricultural discharges, dredging, desalination, shipping, and fossil fuel and ore extraction. These pressures, together with overfishing, by-catch, destructive fishing methods (e.g. blast fishing), introduction of invasive species, boat strikes, acoustic pollution, climate-related changes (i.e. ocean acidification, sea level rise, freshwater inundations, cyclones) can cause structural changes in marine communities and the loss of genetic variability and other side-effects of human interference with exceptionally complex ocean ecosystems (Gray et al., 1979; Goldberg, 1995; Vitousek et al. 1997; Islam and Tanaka, 2004; Pauly et al., 2005; Panigada et al., 2006; Crain et al., 2008; Halpern et al., 2008; Ramirez-Llodra et al., 2011)

The 17th Annual Meetiig of the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation was convened in Madi on the 15th May, 2014. The meeting object ves were to: Discuss PIRT core business which included membership, secretariat support, working groups and administrative operations of PIRT Report Dack on outcomes of the 9th Pacific Islands Conference including follow up actions. Discuss and agree on process for endorsement including implementation of the Framework for nature conservation and orotected areas in the Pacific Islands region 2014-2020. Priorities and oppo-tunities for PIRT including key events in 2014