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One of the three pillars for acquiring sustainable development at any national level is the environment – more specifically a healthy environment. It is widely recognized that pollution of the environment is one of the major threats to sustainable development in the Pacific islands and has a direct influence on the quality of people’s lives. It has the potential to cause negative impacts on national development activities, including tourism and trade, food supplies, public health and the environment. The generation and disposal of wastes has direct and indirect linkages to economic development. Waste materials represent wasted money, in terms of the original cost of the materials, the costs of disposal, and also the potential value of the material as a reusable resource.

While leatherback turtles share many features of their biology with the hard-shelled turtles, Family Cheloniidae, leatherback turtles also are characterized by a number of unique features. The leatherback turtle can be regarded as a warm-blooded reptile. They can maintain a core body temperature well above that of the surrounding waters. To maintain these elevated temperatures they must be able to generate endogenous heat via utilisation of thermogenic brow fat tissue.

The Indian Ocean - South-East Asia (IOSEA) 'Year of the turtle 2006' aims to unite nations and communities to celebrate marine turtles and to support their conservation. While increasing public awareness and understanding of the threats faced by marine turtles, the campaign highlights the work of dedicated organisations that are striving to conserve these ancient creatures and the habitats on which they depend.

The National Capacity Self Assessment Project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through UNDP is assisting stakeholders in Solomon Islands self asses their capacity to address global and environment issues and develop a plan of action to address priority capacity building needs. The project focuses on three international Conventions, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). This thematic report focuses on the UNFCCC and is a follow up from an earlier stocktake report. The thematic assessment process is intended to identify climate change issues and a range of related convention requirements that are not adequately addressed, their underlying causes, the contributing factors, and the key barriers. The analysis leads to an assessment of the nature of the capacity needs and opportunities for capacity development. This report presents the outcomes of a comprehensive analysis of the stock take report and recommendations from a national consultation workshop in July 2006 that considered the Stock-take report, and establishes the root causes of the capacity gaps identified.

The Papua New Guinea's (PNG's) National Assessment Report (NAR) on the Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action (BPoA) for the Sustainable Development of Small Island States (SIDS) reflects the country’s implementation of the BPoA commitments. Part IV of the NAR notes the progresses made in pursuing the BPoA commitments and also identifies certain problems and constraints that affected its effective implementation in the country. Further, attempts have been made to identify possible actions and measures to overcome the impediments that stand in the way of implementing the BPoA

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.