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Given the close inter-connections between land, water and coastal systems in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the integration of freshwater management with coastal area management is considered essential to foster effective cross-sectoral coordination int he planning and management of land, water and coastal uses. In Pacific SIDS, such integrated approaches to freshwater and coastal area management have been termed 'Ridge to Reef' to emphasise the inter-connections between the natural and social systems from the mountain 'ridges' of volcanic islands, through coastal watersheds and habitats, and across coastal lagoons to the fringing 'reef' environments associated with most Pacific SIDS. Inherent in the approach is the philosophy of cross-sectoral coordination in the planning and management of freshwater use, sanitation, wastewater treatment and pollution control, sustainable land use and forestry practices, balancing coastal livelihoods and biodiversity conservation, hazard risk reduction, and climate variability and change.

Given the close inter-connections between land, water and coastal systems in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the integration of freshwater management with coastal area management is considered essential to foster effective cross-sectoral coordination int he planning and management of land, water and coastal uses. In Pacific SIDS, such integrated approaches to freshwater and coastal area management have been termed 'Ridge to Reef' to emphasise the inter-connections between the natural and social systems from the mountain 'ridges' of volcanic islands, through coastal watersheds and habitats, and across coastal lagoons to the fringing 'reef' environments associated with most Pacific SIDS. Inherent in the approach is the philosophy of cross-sectoral coordination in the planning and management of freshwater use, sanitation, wastewater treatment and pollution control, sustainable land use and forestry practices, balancing coastal livelihoods and biodiversity conservation, hazard risk reduction, and climate variability and change.

Given the close inter-connections between land, water and coastal systems in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the integration of freshwater management with coastal area management is considered essential to foster effective cross-sectoral coordination int he planning and management of land, water and coastal uses. In Pacific SIDS, such integrated approaches to freshwater and coastal area management have been termed 'Ridge to Reef' to emphasise the inter-connections between the natural and social systems from the mountain 'ridges' of volcanic islands, through coastal watersheds and habitats, and across coastal lagoons to the fringing 'reef' environments associated with most Pacific SIDS. Inherent in the approach is the philosophy of cross-sectoral coordination in the planning and management of freshwater use, sanitation, wastewater treatment and pollution control, sustainable land use and forestry practices, balancing coastal livelihoods and biodiversity conservation, hazard risk reduction, and climate variability and change.

Given the close inter-connections between land, water and coastal systems in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the integration of freshwater management with coastal area management is considered essential to foster effective cross-sectoral coordination int he planning and management of land, water and coastal uses. In Pacific SIDS, such integrated approaches to freshwater and coastal area management have been termed 'Ridge to Reef' to emphasise the inter-connections between the natural and social systems from the mountain 'ridges' of volcanic islands, through coastal watersheds and habitats, and across coastal lagoons to the fringing 'reef' environments associated with most Pacific SIDS. Inherent in the approach is the philosophy of cross-sectoral coordination in the planning and management of freshwater use, sanitation, wastewater treatment and pollution control, sustainable land use and forestry practices, balancing coastal livelihoods and biodiversity conservation, hazard risk reduction, and climate variability and change.

Given the close inter-connections between land, water and coastal systems in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the integration of freshwater management with coastal area management is considered essential to foster effective cross-sectoral coordination int he planning and management of land, water and coastal uses. In Pacific SIDS, such integrated approaches to freshwater and coastal area management have been termed 'Ridge to Reef' to emphasise the inter-connections between the natural and social systems from the mountain 'ridges' of volcanic islands, through coastal watersheds and habitats, and across coastal lagoons to the fringing 'reef' environments associated with most Pacific SIDS. Inherent in the approach is the philosophy of cross-sectoral coordination in the planning and management of freshwater use, sanitation, wastewater treatment and pollution control, sustainable land use and forestry practices, balancing coastal livelihoods and biodiversity conservation, hazard risk reduction, and climate variability and change.

Given the close inter-connections between land, water and coastal systems in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the integration of freshwater management with coastal area management is considered essential to foster effective cross-sectoral coordination int he planning and management of land, water and coastal uses. In Pacific SIDS, such integrated approaches to freshwater and coastal area management have been termed 'Ridge to Reef' to emphasise the inter-connections between the natural and social systems from the mountain 'ridges' of volcanic islands, through coastal watersheds and habitats, and across coastal lagoons to the fringing 'reef' environments associated with most Pacific SIDS. Inherent in the approach is the philosophy of cross-sectoral coordination in the planning and management of freshwater use, sanitation, wastewater treatment and pollution control, sustainable land use and forestry practices, balancing coastal livelihoods and biodiversity conservation, hazard risk reduction, and climate variability and change.

Given the close inter-connections between land, water and coastal systems in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the integration of freshwater management with coastal area management is considered essential to foster effective cross-sectoral coordination int he planning and management of land, water and coastal uses. In Pacific SIDS, such integrated approaches to freshwater and coastal area management have been termed 'Ridge to Reef' to emphasise the inter-connections between the natural and social systems from the mountain 'ridges' of volcanic islands, through coastal watersheds and habitats, and across coastal lagoons to the fringing 'reef' environments associated with most Pacific SIDS. Inherent in the approach is the philosophy of cross-sectoral coordination in the planning and management of freshwater use, sanitation, wastewater treatment and pollution control, sustainable land use and forestry practices, balancing coastal livelihoods and biodiversity conservation, hazard risk reduction, and climate variability and change.

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) collaborated with implementing partner SPREP to host a five day ‘Writeshop’ (workshop) in Fiji in 2011. The Writeshop was funded by the UNITAR Climate Change Capacity and Development (C3D+) Support programme. The objective/outcomes of the Writeshop were twofold: 1. To build capacity of young Pacific country scholars, practitioners and policymakers to write quality publishable papers in the area of climate change, particularly on climate change adaptation and the linkages to disaster risk reduction. 2. To produce quality publishable papers ready for peer-review and facilitate the publication of peer-reviewed articles in academic journals to inform the policy making process on climate change. This Writeshop evaluation was informed by desktop research, an online survey and interviews with some key stakeholders. The evaluation was guided by a set of evaluation questions. · Were approximately 16 quality publishable papers published in academic journals as a result of the Writeshop? · What factors have contributed to achieving or not achieving intended outputs and outcomes of the C3D+ project? · What progress toward the outcomes has been made by the C3D+ project? Has the C3D+ partnership between UNITAR and SPREP been appropriate and effective? · To what extent have the C3D+ project outputs and assistance contributed to outcomes of the PACC programme?

In the Pacific, land and sea are life; livelihoods and the natural environment are inseparable. Culture, tradition and livelihoods, are underpinned by the incredible biodiversity of the nearly 3,000 islands and atolls of the Pacific. However, high birth rates, unsustainable use of natural resources, increasing dependency on the cash economy, labour migration, and the deterioration of traditional social systems, are changing traditional lifestyles. Globally, the Pacific is considered a unique region in the world, from both marine and terrestrial perspectives. However, the Pacific is also one of the most threatened with more extinctions per capita than anywhere else in the world. Less than 30% of the forest cover remains in a natural state and what is left is being removed at up to 4% per annum on some islands. The threat of extinctions will continue as more coastal areas are degraded by increased land based sources of pollution, the modification of critical habitats, the increasingly unsustainable exploitation of resources, and the impacts of climate change.

The Asia and Pacific region is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Unabated warming could significantly undo previous achievements of economic development and improvements of living standards. At the same time, the region has both the economic capacity and weight of influence to change the present fossil-fuel based development pathway and curb global emissions. This report sheds light on the regional implications of the latest projections of changes in climate conditions over Asia and the Pacific. The assessment concludes that, even under the Paris consensus scenario in which global warming is limited to 1.5°C to 2°C above preindustrial levels, some of the land area, ecosystems, and socioeconomic sectors will be significantly affected by climate change impacts, to which policy makers and the investment community need to adapt to. However, under a Business-As-Usual (BAU) scenario, which will cause a global mean temperature rise of over 4°C by the end of this century, the possibilities for adaptation are drastically reduced. Among others, climate change impacts such as the deterioration of the Asian “water towers”, prolonged heat waves, coastal sea-level rise and changes in rainfall patterns could disrupt ecosystem services and lead to severe effects on livelihoods which in turn would affect human health, migration dynamics and the potential for conflicts. This assessment also underlines that, for many areas vital to the region’s economy, research on the effects of climate change is still lacking.