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Papers discussed different topics related to renewable energy, energy storage systems and some environmental issues related to transportation. This editorial will give a short relation between circular economy and renewable energy, then it will be followed by addressing the accepted papers in this special issue.

The PaCIS is sponsoring a sereis of discussions with climate experts, resource and disaster risk managers, community planners and other decision makers, as well as representatives of government ministries and other program managers and policy makers about product and services.

Big South Cape Island (Taukihepa) is a 1040 ha island, 1.5 km from the southwest coast of Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand. This island was rat-free until the incursion of ship rats (Rattus rattus) in, or shortly before, 1963, suspected to have been accidentally introduced via local fishing boats that moored at the island with ropes to the shore, and were used to transport the mutton birders to the island. This incursion was reported by the muttonbirders – local Iwi who harvest the young of titi (sooty shearwater, Puffinus riseus) – to the then New Zealand Wildlife Service (via the New Zealand Department of Lands and Survey). Investigation into the reports found ship rats had reached the island and had decimated the local land bird populations. Brian Bell and Don Merton attempted some of the first translocations of South Island saddleback (Philesturnus c. carunculatus), Stewart Island snipe (Coenocorypha aucklandica iredalei) and Stead’s bush wren (Xenicus longipes variabilis) with only the saddleback being successful. Extinctions of the snipe, wren and greater short-tailed bat (Mystacina robusta) were recorded. This was the first time rats were definitively recognised as the cause of extinction of native land birds and directed further debate into the impacts of rats and how to deal with them.

The purpose of this paper is to stimulate a discussion on the issue of protected areas in Papua New Guinea and the development of a strategy to develop a National Protected Area System (NPAS). The need for a comprehensive protected area system is clear from a simple consideration of PNG's domestic and international obligations to protect biodiversity for future generations, in particular the 4th Goal and Directive Principle of the Constitution. The question is not whether PNG should have an NPAS but how we should deliver it so it contributes to poverty reduction and environment protection, whilst protecting the rights of landowners who are interested in their customary land becoming part of the protected area system. The paper provides an overview of the current statue of the protected area system, discusses in critical terms the current approaches to protected area priority setting, selection, establishment and management and lays the groundwork for the development of a National Policy on Protected Areas. The paper does not pretend to have all the answers or to have considered all the issues but has been developed to stimulate discussion and to provide the opportunity for key stakeholders to provide their views as an input to the development of the Government's Policy.

Papua New Guinea is a Member of the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF), and in order to support the marine biodiversity goals of the CTI Regional and National Plans of Action, one action they have prioritised, is the need to strengthen marine governance. As a result, technical assistance and support for the development of a national Marine Protected Area (MPA) policy has been offered to the Department of Environment and Conservation by the Australian Government as part of their CTI support activities. This includes training to guide the policy development process, identification and involvement of national marine environment specialists to provide advice and ongoing mentoring and support during the policy development process. This discussion paper contributes to this process by identifying key issues that will need to be addressed and resolved and highlights potential solutions for consideration by the policy development team.

This discussion paper makes a case for the glass half full view of Copenhagen. To sustain this optimism, this paper seeks to move the focus from the outcomes of one (unprecedented) international meeting and draw conclusions from the more important trends in climate policy globally. Given the apparent disconnect between these positive trends and the slow progress within the negotiations, this paper calls for a 'new multilateralism' aimed at unlocking ambitious global action on climate change.

In 2008, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reviewed the conservation status of cetacean populations worldwide. As a consequence of this review, the Oceania population of humpback whales has been re-classified from Threatened to Endangered. This is in recognition that, although humpback whales in many parts of the world are showing encouraging signs of recovery from whaling, most of the small breeding populations in the South Pacific remain at extremely low levels and some remain vulnerable to extinction. The Oceania region encompassed over 9,008,458 km² of ocean, 14 countries and 16 territories spread over both the South and North Pacific Oceans. However, for the purposed of this plan, the planning boundaries are proposed to be delineated by the known breeding range of the Southern Hemisphere humpback whale breading stocks which were reclassified to Endnagered recently by the IUCN (that is Breeding StocksE(ii & iii) and F (i & ii)) and cover the Exclusive Economic Zones which fall within this boundary.

This paper discusses the probable impacts for children of different ages from the increasing risk of storms, flooding, landslides, heat waves, drought and water supply constraints that climate change is likely to bring to most urban centres in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It also explores the implications for adaptation, focusing on preparedness as well as responses to extreme events and to changes in weather patterns.As is the case with many poor groups, if adaptations to climate change fail to take account of the disproportionate risks for children (who make up between a third and a half of the population in the most affected areas) they will be less than adequate in responding to the challenges.

The Peoples Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan, and peoples of Chinese ancestry resident in the Pacific Islands have figured prominently in news items concerning the Pacific in recent years.2 In April 2006, post-election violence erupted in the Solomon Islands’ capital, Honiara, following the declaration of the Deputy Prime Minister of the unpopular out-going government, Snyder Rini, as the new Prime Minster. Much of Honiara’s Chinatown was burned and looted.

Along with recent widely publicized problems of Melanesian states comes renewed interest in “customary modes of governance.” Although talk of custom now flows easily in discussions of political reform in the region, few of these discussions make any serious use of the extensive anthropological literature on the politics of “tradition.” The fact that custom now crosses lines of academic and policy discourse raises the question of how such concepts might be useful for policymakers and others looking for practical interventions in the notoriously weak states of the region. With that in mind, this paper offers a brief overview of issues and themes emerging from Melanesian studies that bear on current concerns with “indigenous governance.” My strategy for doing so is to discuss a recent case of political innovation in Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands. Drawing on my own research in Santa Isabel, I ask what issues and questions emerging in that locale may be relevant for other local systems in Melanesia.