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This study reports on a preliminary assessment of storm surge risk from tropical cyclones at Rarotonga, Cook Islands. Analysis of a 175 year record of cyclones from the Cook Islands indicates minimum annual probabilities of 16% for storm surges and 5% for major storm surge impacts at Rarotonga. Storm surges have historically inundated areas of the coastal lowland where virtually all human activities and infrastructure are currently located. The impacts of such events have been particularly severe in the Cook Islands' capital of Avarua and adjacent communities on the north coast of Rarotonga. Detailed infrastructure mapping combined with analysis of historic storm surge impacts and cyclones tracks in the vicinity of Rarotonga indicates that the storm surge risk is greatest along the north coast where the majority of the Cook Islands' government functions and commercials, industrial, transportation and communication infrastructure is located. Damage to this infrastructure at the shoreline can have serious repercussions throughout the Cook Islands. Any efforts to increase the country's resilience to such impacts must be undertaken within the larger goal of adaptation to future climate changes and rising sea levels. The greatest risk presently to human life arises from many cyclone safety centres in locations where they are exposed to storm surges or flooding. A top priority should be relocation of these shelters to safer locations further inland so that they can provide suitable shelter from storm surges and flooding as well as tsunamis, taking into account other hazards presented by Rarotonga's rugged topography.

Protected Areas are key in helping communities and nature face a changing climate. They can help buffer the impacts of extreme climate events, ensure maintained provision of ecosystem services that are fundamental for human wellbeing, such as clean water, facilitate the adaptation of people and nature to new climate conditions, and contribute to climate change mitigation. Integrating protected areas in global climate planning and finance within and outside the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -UNFCCC- is an essential element in building resilience to climate change and supporting sustainable development globally. Several technical and political arguments support the case for including protected areas in climate change strategies that can contribute to climate-resilient development and promote a safer climate future.

Natural capital – our ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources – underpins economies, societies and individual well-being. The values of its myriad benefits are, however, often overlooked or poorly understood. They are rarely taken fully into account through economic signals in markets, or in day to day decisions by business and citizens, nor indeed reflected adequately in the accounts of society.

In the Pacific islands region the impacts of global climate change are becoming increasingly apparent, driving efforts to adapt and decrease the production of greenhouse gases (GHG) through combustion of fossil fuels. On Majuro atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), one initiative to mitigate the impact of climate change is the manufacturing of briquettes out of waste paper and cardboard, to replace the imported coal briquettes that are widely used for cooking.

This guide focuses on Target 11 on protected areas of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity. It is part of a series of guides which is meant to help Parties and other stakeholders take action in support of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity during the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity. Establishment of comprehensive, ecologically representative, effectively managed and financially secured protected area networks is a critical strategy not only for biodiversity conservation, but for securing ecosystem goods and services, enabling climate change adaptation and mitigation, and helping countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Recognizing these critical roles of protected areas, the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in February 2004 committed to a comprehensive and specific set of actions known as the Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA). By emphasizing the equitable sharing of costs and benefits, recognizing various governance types and by giving prominence to ecological representation, management effectiveness and multiple benefits, the PoWPA is the most comprehensive global plan of action for effective implementation of protected areas and is considered as a defining framework or “blueprint” for protected areas for the next decades. CBD Parties hailed PoWPA as the most implemented of CBD programmes and a successful initiative. Successive decisions of the CBD Conference of Parties (COP) from its seventh to tenth meetings established the policy environment fostering the implementation of the PoWPA.

Currently some 13% of the world’s terrestrial surface and 4% of marine areas (0-200 nautical miles) under national jurisdiction is protected. These areas serve to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem goods and services. However, it is well known that they face multiple drivers of change and threats that contribute to their decline and degradation. As our conceptions of the roles and functions of protected areas evolve over the coming decade, we expect that corresponding adjustments in policy will allow protected areas to continue contributing to livelihoods and cultural practices, generating tourism revenues, bolstering local and national economies, mitigating and adapting to climate change, and providing habitat for populations and species.

Birds are far better known than most other animals, and they are powerful messengers for the natural world. They are telling us how climate change poses risks to nature and people worldwide. This synthesis of hundreds of scientific studies illustrates the many ways by which climate change threatens birds and other wildlife. It describes actions underway to help nature adapt, and also shows for the first time how the BirdLife Partnership is implementing nature-based solutions across the world to reduce climate risks and build people’s resilience.

The world’s biodiversity is being lost faster than ever. As we destroy it, we lose its capacity to deliver the ecosystem services such as crop pollination, climate regulation and freshwater provision upon which we all depend. Concerted and coordinated action by governments, business and society is urgently needed in order to halt the extinction of species and stem the loss of natural habitats. The world’s governments have made commitments through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to tackle this issue, and the CBD has proposed 20 targets for 2020 in order to frame and focus action. Birds are better known than any other comparable group of organisms, and we have unparalleled information about which species are the closest to extinction, the threats they face, actions needed and critical sites (Important Bird Areas) that need safeguarding. These data can help to focus and target actions to tackle biodiversity loss. Furthermore, as birds are sensitive to environmental change, popular to watch, and relatively easy to monitor, indicators based on bird data are very useful for tracking progress in addressing the biodiversity crisis. In this booklet, we provide examples for 12 of the CBD targets of how birds can help to focus actions to meet these targets, and how data from birds can help to monitor success.

Ka Pili Kai is published quarterly by the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program (Hawaii Sea Grant), School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). Hawaii Sea Grant is a unique partnership of university, government and industry, focusing on marine research, education and advisory/extension services.

I have been deeply immersed in many dimensions of the climate change question for almost four years, since I was commissioned in April 2007 by all of the State and Territory Governments and then by the Commonwealth Government as well to the undertake 2008 Garnaut Climate Change Review. At the commencement of the Review, I faced the question that confronts all who are not climate scientists and who are required for one reason or another to take a position on the climate science: how do we know if propositions put forward by some climate scientists are right? I began with some general awareness of the issues (derived in part from my association with the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, which was undertaking research on the effects of climate change and its mitigation on global food security), but with no strong view and no more than a common knowledge of climate change science. I did not know how strongly the main propositions of climate change science were held in the mainstream science community. I was aware of sceptical views and set out to understand them.