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The purpose of this report is to present the findings of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the proposed development of a small boat basin and wharf facilities adjacent to the Main Market in Alotau, Milne Bay Province. Construction of the facilities is a component of the PNG Coastal Fisheries Management and Development Project (CFMDP), a program being implemented by the National Fisheries Authority with loan funding provided to Papua New Guinea by the Asian Development Bank. The overall aim of CFMDP is to contribute to the reduction of poverty in rural areas through increasing, or preventing a further decline in the incomes of coastal communities. This will be done by promoting improved management of resources and by creating sustainable earning and employment opportunities for coastal communities, including through the construction of wharves and jetties and other social infrastructure.

The case study reported here is part of an assessment of ‘coastal, small island and coral reef ecosystems’ in Papua New Guinea (PNG), which is being undertaken by a team of scientists coordinated by staff at the Australian National University and the University of Papua New Guinea. The first phase of the assessment (due for completion in 2005) is a nationwide survey of the relationship between coastal communities and coastal ecosystems, with a number of local-level case studies of this relationship (see Figure 1). The second phase (due for completion in 2007) will focus on community-based assessments in one of the case study areas. This second phase is an integral component of the Milne Bay Community-Based Coastal and Marine Conservation Project (MBCP), which is being implemented by the UN Development Programme and executed by Conservation International.

In September 2000, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) issued a call for proposals to undertake ‘sub-global’ assessments at local, national, and regional scales. The Call for Proposals was circulated amongst a group of social scientists who had previously had some connection to PNG’s Biodiversity Conservation and Resource Management Program – an initiative which had been funded by the Global Environment Facility from 1993 to 1998. This program had sought to evaluate the actual and potential effectiveness of ‘integrated conservation and development projects’ in forested areas of PNG where high biodiversity values are associated with low population densities. One of the key lessons of the program had been that local communities in these areas are far more interested in ‘development’ than in ‘conservation’, because they can reasonably say that they have been conserving their ecosystems for thousands of years, but are now lagging in their access to modern health and education services because of their small and scattered populations (McCallum and Sekhran 1997; van Helden 1998, 2001; Filer 2004b). If the Government cannot afford to provide these services to remote and thinly populated areas, then local people tend to dream of the day when a logging company or mining company will deliver them from their state of backwardness.

Nauru is located 41 km South of the equator at 0o 32' South latitude and 166o 56' East longitude. Its most southerly point (which is the airport runway extension in Yaren District) is mapped at 61.3 km south of the equator. Its most northerly point in Ewa district is mapped at 55.6 km south of the equator. Nauru is some 2000 km East-Northeast of Papua New Guinea, 4450 km South-Southeast of the Philippines and an equal distance to the Southwest of Hawaii. The nearest island is Banaba (Ocean Island), 300 km due East, which is part of the Republic of Kiribati. The main islands of Kiribati lie a further 400 km to the East

The National Capacity Self-Assessments (NCSA) projects assist developing countries and economies in transition to assess capacity to meet requirements under the United Nations Convention for Biological Diversity (UNCBD), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). UNDP is supporting 116 countries to prepare a NCSA. This Resource Kit is the core of UNDP's technical backstopping to those countries. Its purpose is to guide Project Teams through every step of project implementation, from project signature until project cb- sure.

The Republic of Palau became an independent nation on October 1, 1994 in part with the implementation of the Compact of Free Association (COFA) between Palau and the United States of America. On December 4, 1994 Palau became a member to the United Nations.