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Kibarti is a small country in the central Pacific comprised of 33 low-lying atolls barely 2-3 meters high above sea level. The population of 84,494 (2000 Census) is mainly young that lives on a total land area of 810sq. km a vast ocean area of 3.5 million sq.km. The country has limited physical resources and relies heavily on fish and copra as the mainstay of the economy. Economic growth is thereby only 2-3 percent (real GDP) per annum on average driven mainly from the copra sector, construction, wholesale/retail, and government administration. Gratefully, growth is underpinned by foreign earnings and ODA from government and international financial institutions. The former comprises net factor income from abroad thaqt includes returns from the reserve fund and other foreign reserves, remittances, and fishing license fees. Government is the major provider of cash employment (2 out of every 3 employees) that contributes significantly to a relatively high level of its current budget each year. Fiscal policy is therby the major policy instrument of government as the use of the Australian currency precludes monetary policy and likewise the lack of export and other economic and geographical disadvantages prevent trade and other related policies. Given such economic and physical disadvantages and also the volatilities/vulnerabilities of some economic strengths already mentioned, Kiribati definitely cannot live and develop o its own but truly needs to be party to development at a regional and international levels.

In 2000, the Fiji Islands was at the northern edge of a large pool of unusually warm water, and suffered extensive hard coral death due to coral bleaching. A paper composed of a collection of studies from across the Fiji islands, linking this coral death to elevated sea temperatures at the time, was published (Cummings et al 2000). The difficulty of gathering data from very different sources, and which had been recorded using many different methods, established the need for standardised and regular surveys of representative sites across the Fijian archipelago, in order to measure long-term changes affecting the entire country.

The community based conservation (CBC)paradigm predicts that sustainable biodiversity can only be achieved if local people perceive benefits from conservation. Through interviews, the situation in Samoa portrays that the CBC of mangroves was received with apprehension because the mangrove biodiversity was more significant than sustaining the livelihood of the local communities. In contrast, Iriomote Island residents were able to achieve maximum socio-economic benefits but to the extent that they were over commercializing the mangrove ecosystem. More research is imperative to find out how biodiversity conservation can be married with sustainable development objectives to sustain the local communities' livelihood.

The maintenance and enhancement of arboreal biodiversity, especially forest and tree genetic resources, is vital for sustainable development in the Pacific Islands. For Pacific peoples, their forest and tree genetic resources are not just a matter of scientific, economic (in monetary terms), recreational or ecological value. They are a capital inheritance that, until recent times, was passed on, relatively intact or in some cases enhanced, by past generations to current generations. Agrobiodiversity and arboreal biodiversity, including forest genetic resources,constitute the capital needed for development and maintenance of rural communities and upon which almost all income (both cash and non-cash) is derived (Professor Randy Thaman/SPRIG Phase 1).

The aim of the RGC is to assist Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) to conserve the region's genetic resources, and to provide access to the germplasm they need. The Centre is using in vitro techniques for conservation, and priority is given to taro, yam, sweet potato and banana, but other crops, such as cassava, kava, breadfruit, aibika (Abelmoschus manihot) and black pepper are also receiving attention. The RGC was a key partner in the Taro Genetic Resources Conservation & Utilization (TaroGen), the Taro Network for Southeast Asia and Oceania (TANSAO) and the South Pacific Yam Network (SPYN) projects, and currently collaborates with IPGRI's global crop networks, such as the International Network for Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP) and the Coconut Genetic Resources Network (COGENT). It is also collaborating with other international agricultural research centres (IARCs), in particular the Centro Internacional de Agricultural Tropical (CIAT), the International Potato Centre (CIP) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), to make improved germplasm of their mandate crops (cassava ,sweet potato and yams, respectively) available in the Pacific.

Tuvalu acceded to the United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification in Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa (UNCCD) in September 1998 because of its concern regarding degradation of its habitats and current predicted shortages of water connected with increasing population and the effects of climate change. As a Party to the UNCCD, Tuvalu is obliged to follow Section 9 and 10 of the Convention in preparing a National Action Plan.

The stock-take assessment and thematic assessment forms the second and third stage of the NCSA process, respectively. Due to the limited time available until the NCSA project reaches completion, the stock take assessment and thematic assessment were conducted concurrently.