Search the SPREP Catalogue

UNEP established the NCSA program with the goal of identifying “country level priorities and needs for capacity building to address global environmental issues, in particular biological diversity, climate change, and land degradation, with the aim of catalyzing domestic and/ or externally assisted action to meet those needs in a coordinated and planned manner” (http://www. unep.org/dgef/NCSAs/tabid/1900/language/en-US/Default.aspx). This report synthesizes NCSAs written between 2007 and 2010 from the following 10 governments: the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu (see Appendix I; NCSAs were not available for other SPREP countries). The report’s first section identifies the major themes that these NCSAs document with respect to vulnerabilities, sources of threats, and incapacities. The report’s second section builds on this information to identify strategies that would assist national governments and SPREP in more effectively addressing the gaps that the NCSAs document. These strategies are intended to help SPREP use its unique institutional position and resources to facilitate member state efforts to remedy their incapacities, address their vulnerabilities, and enhance their ability to achieve their commitments under the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Convention on Desertification. The strategies are intended to help SPREP, at the request of and in collaboration with national governments, develop policies and programs that can be usefully applied in all countries while respecting and reflecting the diverse situations of each.

Adaptation to climate change is becoming a routine and necessary component of planning at all levels. At its seventeenth session, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) acknowledged that national adaptation planning can enable all developing and least developed country (LDC) Parties to assess their vulnerabilities, to mainstream climate change risks and to address adaptation. The COP also acknowledged that, because of their development status, climate change risks magnify development challenges for LDCs, and recognized the need to address adaptation planning in the broader context of sustainable development planning. With this in mind, the COP established the national adaptation plan (NAP) process as a way to facilitate effective adaptation planning in LDCs and other developing countries.

This Samoa Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (CPEIR) is one of five pilot CPEIRs that test a new methodology for reviewing public expenditure related to climate change, including both adaptation and mitigation, and the way in which this is guided by policy and managed by institutions. The five pilots are being coordinated by UNDP and undertaken by ODI with national and international experts, working closely with governments. The Samoan CPEIR took place be-tween March and May 2012.

Disasters, and therefore disaster response, in the Pacific are expected to be affected by climate change. This research addressed this issue, and focused on the immediate humanitarian needs following a disaster, drawing upon adaptive capacity as a concept to assess the resilience of individual organisations and the robustness of the broader system of disaster response. Four case study countries (Fiji, Cook Islands, Vanuatu and Samoa) were chosen for deeper investigation of the range of issues present in the Pacific. The research process was guided by a Project Reference Group, which included key stakeholders from relevant organisations involved in Pacific disaster response to guide major decisions of the research process and to influence its progression. Given the complexity of issues involved, including the contested definitions of adaptive capacity, the research team developed a conceptual framework to underpin the research. This framework drew upon concepts from a range of relevant disciplines including Earth System Governance, climate change adaptation, health resources, resilience in institutions and practice theory. Objective and subjective determinants of adaptive capacity were used to assess the ‘disaster response system’, comprised of actors and agents from government and non-government sectors, and the governance structures, policies, plans and formal and informal networks that support them. Results revealed the most important determinant of adaptive capacity in the Pacific to be communications and relationships, with both informal and formal mechanisms found to be essential. Capacity (including human, financial and technical); leadership, management and governance structures; and risk perceptions were also highly important determinants of adaptive capacity. The research also found that in small Pacific island bureaucracies, responsibility and capacity often rests with individuals rather than organisations. Leadership, trust, informal networks and relationships were found to have a strong influence on the adaptive capacity of organisations and the broader disaster response system. A common finding across all four case study countries affecting adaptive capacity was the limited human resources for health and disaster response more generally, both in times of disaster response and in day-to-day operations. Another common finding was the gap in psychosocial support after a disaster. Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) as an immediate post-disaster humanitarian need was relatively well established amongst responding organisations (although long term WASH issues were not resolved), while other humanitarian needs (health care, and food and nutrition) had varying stages of capacity – often limited by human, financial and technical resources. Adaptive capacity was therefore constrained by current gaps which need addressing alongside a future focus where risk is changing. Drawing on these and other findings, recommendations for addressing key determinants of adaptive capacity were developed for relevant stakeholder groups including policy makers and practitioners in the disaster and emergency response sectors in Australia and the Pacific.

Niue is a self-governing nation in free association with New Zealand, located partway between Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands. Niue's economy is heavily dependent on support from New Zealand and aid accounts for 70% of Niue's GDP. Niue has a population of approximately 1625 people, making it the world's least populated state. Niue is vulnerable to climate risks such as Tropical Cyclones (TCs) and droughts; geological risks such as earthquakes and tsunami; and human-caused risks such as disease outbreaks and contamination of the water supply. As the world's largest elevated coral atoll, its rocky and rugged coastline has steep cliffs which offer marginal protection from risks such as tsunami. However as experienced in 2004 with the category 5 Tropical Cyclone Heta, TC-induced waves have the capacity to overtop the steep cliffs and wash boulders inland up to +25 m above sea level. Niue's isolation, small population, reliance on donor aid, limited water resources and marginal agricultural potential also contribute to its overall risk profile.

This report is primarily directed to analysing the legal aspects of ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change. It sketches the impacts of climate change in the Pacific Island countries, recognizing that climate change directly impacts ecosystems, which provide for the needs of people as well as for the maintenance of the natural environment. It takes as a given that ecosystem-based adaptation can provide cost-effective strategies for reducing vulnerability to climate change impacts and enhancing ecosystem resilience, thereby maintaining ecosystem services and sustainable livelihoods. The report is written in light of the research reports completed by SPREP and Conservation International for this project (SPREP and Conservation International 2011). An essential aspect of the legal analysis is an examination of the way in which environmental governance operates in Pacific Island countries. The analysis is directed both to current formal legal systems as well as to customary mechanisms at the community level, exploring both potential barriers as well as the possibilities in the national legislation for achieving the aims of ecosystembased adaptation strategies.

Infectious diseases take a heavy toll on populations around the world. Some of the most virulent infections are also highly sensitive to climate conditions. For example, temperature, precipitation and humidity have a strong influence on the reproduction, survival and biting rates of the mosquitoes that transmit malaria and dengue fever, and temperature affects the lifecycles of the infectious agents themselves. The same meteorological factors also influence the transmission of water and food-borne diseases such as cholera, and other forms of diarrhoeal disease. Hot, dry conditions favour meningococcal meningitis – a major cause of disease across much of Africa. All of these diseases are major health problems. Diarrhoea kills over two million people annually, and malaria almost one million. Meningitis kills thousands, blights lives and hampers economic development in the poorest countries. Some 50 million people around the world suffer from dengue fever each year. The public health community has made important progress against all of these diseases in recent decades, but they will continue to cause death and suffering for the foreseeable future.