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The Fourth Pacific Regional Energy and Transport Ministers’ Meeting was organised by the Pacific Community (SPC) and hosted by the Government of Samoa at the TATTE Conference Centre, Apia, Samoa from 18-20 September 2019.

To formally launch the second phase of the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management (BIOPAMA) programme, a regional inception workshop for the Pacific was held at the Tanoa Tusitala Hotel, Apia, Samoa from 11th to 15th June 2018. The aim of the inception workshop was to ensure that all 15 countries in the Pacific ACP Group of States were engaged for the second phase of BIOPAMA. The working title of the workshop was ‘Regional Workshop on Improving Information and Capacity for More Effective Protected Area Management and Governance in the Pacific’. The invited participants primarily centred on people who are directly involved in work relating to marine, coastal and terrestrial (including inland waters)protected areas including: national government staff, NGO project officers; staff from national, regional and international agencies and institutions, and; resource persons with special technical skills and experience. The ACP Secretariat was represented by Mr Edmund Jackson. The full list of workshop participants can be found in Annex B

Samoa is home to abundant plant life including indigenous species and some foreign introduced plant species. A majority of the foreign plants were introduced to Samoa in the pre-independence era through arrival of the early missionaries, Germans and Japanese, for various purposes from medicinal use to construction. These plants can be found across all the four islands; Upolu, Savai’i, Manono and Apolima. As part of the EU-GIZ Adapting to Climate Change and Sustainable Energy (ACSE) programme, a component of the Energy Bill and Sustainable Bioenergy, Samoa project focuses on biomass resource assessments at the Samoa Trust Estates Corporation (STEC) Plantation at Mulifanua, Upolu. Through fieldwork for biomass resource assessments at the non-leased land areas within the STEC Mulifanua plantation, eight common plants were identified and further scientific analysis on each was conducted by the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (SROS). SROS laboratory tests took place over a period of 14 days using the Quality Management System implemented by SROS and which also meets the requirements of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards, ISO/IEC 17025 (2005). Thus, this publication provides a brief description of these plants as well as some data on moisture content and energy content under different conditions.

The importance of coastal and marine environments to every aspect of the lives of Pacific Islanders cannot be overstated. Pacific Island Countries (PICs) maintain resource rights and management responsibilities for over 30million square kilometres of ocean, equivalent to the total land area of Canada, China and the USA. The total population of coastal pacific islanders is only 2.6 million. There are 11 square kilometres of ocean for each Pacific Islander. Jurisdictionally, the ocean is 200 times more significant to the average Pacific Islander than it is to the average global citizen.  

Environmental monitoring and reporting at the national level was highlighted by the Rio Agenda for Sustainable Development (Agenda 21) and has since been supported at the global level through the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO) report series that started in 1997. The GEO project itself was also initiated in response to the environmental reporting requirements of the UN Agenda 21 and to a UNEP Governing Council decision of May 1995 which requested the production of a new comprehensive global state of the environment report. As a global report, GEO combines top-down integrated assessment with bottom-up environmental reporting. This approach, which depends on regional assessments from designated regional centres including SPREP, provides the framework for national level inputs into the rolling up of regional impacts and trends. GEO regional reporting preparation also contributed to strengthening national level capacity for the preparation of national SOE.

The overall objective of the project is to assist the Government of Samoa in its effort to support the relocation and rehabilitation of communities living in the Island of Upolu affected by the tsunami of September 29, 2009 through the provision of improved infrastructure access to relocation sites enhanced transport infrastructure and assistance to local communities to address future natural disasters.

The earth works like a greenhouse. Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and other naturally occurring greenhouse gases (GHGs), as well as human-made industrial gases trap heat from escaping into space. This keeps the earth’s temperature within a life-sustaining range. Without the greenhouse effect, Earth would be much colder—an average temperature of –19° Celsius (C). Human reliance on fossil fuels for energy has increased the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Biogenic emissions of GHG from land use have magnified the greenhouse effect. Deforestation and poor land use, which have reduced the absorptive capacity of plants, forests, and soils for CO2, have made things worse.

Th e Vanuatu Economic Report 2009 outlines the state of economy and social development in the country and presents a road map for addressing key development challenges. It identifies the principal binding development constraints and opportunities in public sector performance, private sector and social development, and governance.

This Climate Change Implementation Plan (CCIP) for the Pacific Regional Department (PARD) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) describes the areas of focus for PARD's operations and identifies key gaps between country and ADB actions, as well as opportunities for scaling up ADB's assistance related to mitigation, adaptation and associated cross-cutting needs. This gap analysis points to recommended interventions in regional and country programs for additional technical assistance (TA) and financial assistance, including access to new climate funds and adoption of new financing mechanisms. These include multi-donor Climate Investment Funds (Clean Technology Fund and Strategic Climate Fund), ADB's Future Carbon Fund, and possibly a new Sustainable Fuel Credits mechanism to promote reduced petroleum consumption. The CCIP will evolve through periodic updates in order to effectively guide ongoing and future programs and TA and project design. Going forward, specific climate change interventions will continue to be incorporated into the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) and Country Operations Business Plan (COBP) for each Pacific Developing Member Country (PDMC) and into the Regional Operations Business Plan (ROBP) for the Pacific region as a whole. TA and investment projects will be designed, taking into consideration regional and country variations in governance, institutional capacity, and geographic and local environmental conditions.