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Strengthening capacity to face challenges
and Vanuatu. The project will focus on practical, long-term adaptation strategies in land
management, agriculture and forestry. Senior officials from the environment, agriculture
and forestry sectors of the three countries met in Suva early February to set directions and
identify outputs for the Pacific-German Regional Programme on Adaptation to Climate
Change in the Pacific Island Region, as it will be known. The Euro 4.2 million
programme is being funded by the Federal Republic of Germany. German Technical
Cooperation (GTZ), the implementing agency, will work in partnership with the
Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). The programme, which will be based with
SPC's Land Resources Division in Suva, complements the Pacific Islands Framework for
Action on Climate Change, 2006-2015. At the meeting, Fiji delegate, Epeli Nasome,
Director of the Fiji Department of Environment, highlighted the cross-cutting impact of
climate change and the need to streamline climate change into the polices and plans of all
sectors. Added value: 'Aleki Sisifa, Director of SPC's Land Resources Division,
supported his comments, stressing the added value to be gained from integrating possible
interventions with other relevant activities being carried out in the project countries and
by regional agencies.
The project will directly strengthen the capacity of SPC to respond to the needs of Pacific
countries facing climate change challenges. Included in this capacity development will
be improved communication and information tools to enable SPC to act as a hub for
information exchange and advice on climate change issues relating to agriculture,
forestry, and land management. Advice and services will cover the identification of
resistant/resilient plant species for tree and crop production and the compilation of best
practices for adaptation and mitigation in agriculture and forestry. The "information hub"
will be linked to existing regional and international information portals and sites.
Support for Vanuatu and Tonga will include integrating climate change issues and
adaptation strategies into land use policies and planning. This is an important step in
building the resilience of local farming communities to climate change, given that its
impact will be intensified by poor land use practices and limited land use options.
SPC has already taken steps to identify resilient crops, trees, and livestock and will be
introducing these climate-change-ready technologies to farming communities.
In Fiji, programme support will focus on developing the knowledge and capacity required
to participate in the international carbon market through REDD (reducing emissions
through avoided deforestation and forest degradation).
Pilot sites: The feasibility of integrating REDD into the international carbon market is
under review. But it is widely recognised that avoiding deforestation will be an important
strategy in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
It is anticipated that some agreement on the mechanism will be reached at the UNFCCC
COP 15 (Conference of the Parties) in Copenhagen, December 2009. In the meantime,
the programme will work with Fiji authorities to increase stakeholders' knowledge of
