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This thesis applies an approach of political ecology to analyze environmental change in the Cook Islands in the context of the fiscal crisis of the state in the 1990's. Questions and methods from both human and physical geography are brought to the empirical case. Corruption and financial management surrounding a hotel development on Rarotonga, Cook Islands presents a case of "criminal ecology" This research finds that the Pacific Island state is characterised by thin layers of bureaucracy making it extremely vulnerable to international crime, national debt and environmental change. Structural adjustment placed further pressure on the Cook Islands environment. The significance of this research lies in its illumination of the widening environmental consequences of misguided development and debt.

The Pacific Invasives Initiative (PII) is a sister partnership based at Auckland University which shares 6 partners with PILN. The goal of the PII is to contribute to conserving island biodiversity and enhancing the sustainability of island livelihoods by minimizing the spread and impacts of invasive species in the Pacific region. This is achieved by increasing support and developing capacity in the region for managing the impacts of these species. It works with Pacific agencies/organisations to increase their support for invasive species management and develop their capacity to take effective action against their priority invasive species problems. These outcomes are achieved through facilitation of Demonstration Projects, provision of technical support and advice, provision of training and facilitation of skills exchanges.

Work is based around country visits by the network coordinator to support PILN teams to identify and take strategic action to manage their priority invasive species. The network is functioning by sharing awareness of successful activities being earned out by the teams, providing the mechanism for other teams to do the same, and actively encouraging them to do so. Capacity building is linked to on-going invasive species projects and achieved through workshops and exchanges.

It is now widely acknowledged within the scientific community that the global rate of sea- level rise is quickening - and is likely to continue to do so — as a result of anthropogenic climate change. It is expected, therefore, that any resulting increase in the frequency or intensity of extreme sea-level events will cause serious problems for the inhabitants of low- lying coastal communities and islands during the 21st century.

This report is based on a master set of data that has been compiled by an Inter-Agency and Expert Group on MDG Indicators led by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, in response to the wishes of the General Assembly for periodic assessment of progress towards the MDGs. The Group comprises representatives of the international organizations whose activities include the preparation of one or more of the series of statistical indicators that were identified as appropriate for monitoring progress towards the MDGs, as reflected in the list below. A number of national statisticians and outside expert advisers also contributed.

The Earth currently finds itself in the midst of what some have termed the "Anthropocene Era" - a period during which human activities have become a dominate force affecting not only the planet's landscape, but also its atmosphere. Since the dawn of the industrial evolution of the mid-18th century, humans have contributed to substantial increases in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide has increased by 36%, methane by 17%, and nitrous oxide by 151%. These changes in the global atmosphere are directly linked to over two centuries of growth in the burning of fossil fuels by humans. The increase of these gases is warming the world. Temperatures have increased by approximately 0.8°C since 1880, the global sea-level is rising, and Earth is already committed to additional global warming and climate change in the years ahead.

More than 20 cetacean species are known to exist in the Pacific Islands Region, which encompasses the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, or EEZ (waters out to 370 km from shore) around the entire Hawaiian Archipelago. Johnston Atoll. Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll. Baker and Howland Islands. Jarvis Island. American Samoa. Wake Island, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, totaling some 5.8 million km2 of ocean. Many of the species present are poorly studied throughout their range and virtually unstudied in large portions of the Pacific Islands Region. NOAA Fisheries (National Marine Fisheries Service. NMFS). a branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce, has lead-agency responsibility for cetaceans under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Heretofore, the agency's Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) in La Jolla. California, and the NMFS regional office in Long Beach. California, were responsible for conducting management-related research and providing cetacean stock assessments throughout all U.S. waters of the temperate and tropical Pacific Ocean. Establishment of the Pacific Islands Region within NMFS in April 2003 initiated the devolution of those responsibilities within the region to the Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO) and Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) in Honolulu. Hawaii. It was expected that the transition of the research component from SWFSC to PIFSC would be gradual and that collaborative work between the two centers would continue for a considerable time into the future.

Beginning with the 1972 Stockholm Summit on Sustainable Development, the links between economic, social and environmental aspects to achieving sustainable development have received increasing attention. The Rio Conventions (biodiversity, climate change and desertification) infused new life into providing global and national frameworks to integrate environment into national development Efforts to advance such commitments, to make this planet a better place to live and to ensure that development does not deprive people of their basic minimum livelihood needs, has led countries to develop a set of measurable goals and targets to achieve sustainable development during the United Nations General Assembly (UNCA) in 2000. These goals, termed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), currently form the basis of all debates and discussions on development around the world. In 2005, the UNGA adopted a set of detailed targets related to Goal 7 on environmental governance which aimed at significantly reducing the rate of loss of biodiversity by the year 2010 (Target 7 B)1. This Target is supported by two indicators for monitoring progress, namely, the proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected and the proportion of species threatened with extinction. While there has been eagerness from the UN Member States to achieve the eight MDGs by the year 2015 since the Millennium Declaration was signed in 2000, concerns are mounting as to whether the goals, targets and indicators set out are realistic in terms of measuring and monitoring for concrete results.

In World Resources 2005 we showed that ecosystems can become the focus of a powerful model for nature-based enterprise that delivers continuing economic and social benefits to die poor, even as it improves the natural resource base. Evidence shows that poor rural families empowered with secure resource rights can significantly increase their income stream from nature with prudent ecosystem management. To make this possible, a funda- mental shift in governance—in the power of the poor to access resources of value and build functional enterprises—is required.

This publication demonstrates the link between disaster riskreduction andclimate change adaptation, while contributing to the ongoing glolal effort to promote gender equality in socio-economic development.