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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.

For Pacific SIDS, the need for adaptation to climate change has become increasingly urgent. Long-term climate change, including the increasing frequency and severity of extreme events such as high rainfall, droughts, tropical cyclones, and storm surges are affecting the lives and livelihoods of people in PICs. Coupled with non-climate drivers, such as overexploitation of resources, increasing urbanization and population increase, development in the region is increasingly undermined. For the low lying atolls, the likely economic disruption from climate change pressures could be catastrophic, even to the extent of requiring population relocation to other islands or adding numbers to the Pacific diaspora, with the subsequent social and cultural disruption having unknown proportions. Failure to reduce vulnerability could also result in loss of opportunities to manage risks in the future when the impacts may be greater and time to consider options limited.