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In 2014, Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand produced our foundational environmental report on issues affecting communities in Oceania. Small yet strong: Voices from Oceania on the environment drew on interviews with groups from our Caritas and Catholic networks to paint a picture of environmental changes and issues impacting the lives of people throughout the Pacific. From this initial work, we identified five issues we will follow over future years. We will report on those issues in an annual State of the environment in Oceania report on St Francis’ Day each year.

This compendium showcases programmes and projects from across the Pacific region that address climate change and disaster risks, through climate change adaptation (CCA), disaster risk management (DRM) and/or greenhouse gas emissions reduction. These forty case studies cover different topics across Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) and showcase significant work undertaken by the region to address climate and disaster related challenges and to build resilience. These actions have occurred while the regional policy frameworks on climate change (Pacific Islands Framework for Action on Climate Change 2006-2015) and DRM (Disaster Risk Reduction and Disaster Management: A Framework for Action 2005–2015) have been in effect. Both frameworks expire in 2015 and are superseded by the Strategy for Climate and Disaster Resilient Development in the Pacific (SRDP).

The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) were engaged to assist the Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji (MSAF) with an oil spill environmental risk assessment. The project team visited Fiji’s major ports and transfer terminals. The aim of this exercise was to provide recommendations to support Fiji’s commitment to improve oil spill prevention and response.