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Central Africa supports an incredible biodiversity, and its inland waters are no exception. The Congo River has the highest species diversity of any freshwater system in Africa, and is second in species richness globally, after the Amazon. This diversity provides benefits to humans both directly, such as through livelihoods from fisheries, and indirectly through services such as the purification of water for drinking. Currently, central Africa is not heavily developed, but this is likely to change dramatically in the next few decades, in particular should long-term political stability come to the region. Development activities are, however, not always compatible with conservation objectives which are, in most cases, poorly represented within the development planning process.

The concept of “sustainable development” dates back a long time, but it was at the United Nations (UN) Conference on Human Environment (Stockholm, 1972) that the international community met for the first time to consider global environment and development needs, to define principles for the preservation and enhancement of the natural environment and to highlight the need to support people in this process. Later, in 1992, at the UN Conference on Environment and Development, 178 heads of state adopted three important documents: a comprehensive plan of action entitled Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the Statement of Principles for the Sustainable Management of Forests.

The Government of Kiribati, represented by Hon. Nabuti Mwenikarawa, Minister of Finance & Economic Planning and Ms Teea Tira, Secretary of Finance & Economic Planning and National Authorising Officer, and the European Commission, represented by Mr Roberto Ridolfi, Head of the Commission Delegation for the Pacific, hereinafter referred to as the Parties, held discussions from March 2006 until August 2007 with a view to determining the general orientations for cooperation for the period 2008-2013.

"The CARICOM Environment in Figures 2004 has been prepared the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, Statistics Sub-programme based on data submitted by Member States and Associate Members., from the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and from other regional and National Organisations. This is the second report in this area of Statistics that has been produced. The first report contained data up to the period 2002. The work on Environmental Statistics in the CARICOM Region was stimulated by a Project on ""Strengthening Capacity in the Compilation of Statistics and Indicators for Conference Follow-up in the CARICOM Region,"" jointly carried out by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat from 1999 - 2004 approximately. The Project was executed in the CARICOM Member States, which are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. However relative to data collection and capacity building activities the Associate Members were also included in these efforts and data for some of these countries are found in this publication."

This Ramsar COP10 National Report Format (NRF) has been approved by the Standing Committee for the Ramsar Convention’s Contracting Parties to complete as their national reporting to the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties of the Convention (Republic of Korea, October/November 2008).

Livelihood enhancement and diversification has been recognised, by conservationists and development practitioners alike, as a mechanism to promote livelihood development and encourage people to move away from the harmful exploitation and degradation of natural resources. However, the majority of the efforts to support livelihood enhancement and diversification have, so far, tended to be supply-driven and focused on single, “blueprint” solutions. Such solutions are not built on an understanding of the underlying factors helping or inhibiting livelihood diversification, and often fail to appreciate the obstacles faced by the poor in trying to enhance and diversify their livelihoods

A key issue in respect of environmental management is the lack an overarching policy and an appropriately scaled “Palau-specific” regulatory framework to; (i) meet basic resource management needs (i.e. of Palau for Palau); (ii) fulfilobligations under various international agreements (i.e. of Palau for regional and global community); and, (iii) achieve the defined vision and goals as identified in the National Master Development Plan (NMDP)and guide future planning and development activities. Currently Palau is endeavouring to meet its international obligations under various conventions and agreements in the absence of a national environmental policy framework and without the requirements of those agreements being integrated into domestic environmental management policy.

The Government Policy Statement delivered to Parliament during the second session of the 9 Parliament on 10m December of 2007, remains the guiding principle for the Kiribati Development Plan. The thrust of Government's policy statement is Kiribati main assets, - its people - and how their lives can be improved through further development of the economy and their capabilities. This will ultimately lead to creation of employment opportunities and a skilled workforce that can access not only the national but the international labour market as well.

The Government and UNDP have entered into a commitment to govern UNDP's assistance to the cook islands provided under the special Fund Agreement with New Zealand("SFA")Signed by the New Zealand government on its behalf on 29 june 1963. This Country Programme Action Plan together with the Annual Workplans(AWP),(which shall be deemed annexes to this CPAP)Concluded hereunder constitute toghther the project documents as refered to in the SFA.

Mangroves are trees that live halfway between land and sea. This is what makes them special; as for most plants salt water is deadly. Mangroves are among the few trees that can grow in seawater and in places where the seawater mixes with the fresh water from the land. In Samoa, most of the mangroves grow in areas protected by coral reefs. They are found in coastal areas, especially in river estuaries - the wide lower part of a river's lower end where it meets the sea.