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For Pacific SIDS, the need for adaptation to climate change has become increasingly urgent. Long-term climate change, including the increasing frequency and severity of extreme events such as high rainfall, droughts, tropical cyclones, and storm surges are affecting the lives and livelihoods of people in PICs. Coupled with non-climate drivers, such as overexploitation of resources, increasing urbanization and population increase, development in the region is increasingly undermined. For the low lying atolls, the likely economic disruption from climate change pressures could be catastrophic, even to the extent of requiring population relocation to other islands or adding numbers to the Pacific diaspora, with the subsequent social and cultural disruption having unknown proportions. Failure to reduce vulnerability could also result in loss of opportunities to manage risks in the future when the impacts may be greater and time to consider options limited.

This discussion will cover the topics listed below, with the aim of explaining, in simple terms, the complex organisation of coral reef ecosystems. The central theme is the inter-relationship between various components of the coral reef ecosystem and the way in which a change in one component may manifest changes in other components. Specifically, inter-relationships are explained in terms of a selective extractive activity such as that associated with the marine ornamental trade. Where possible, examples are drawn from organisms that are currently collected for the trade.