Coastal protection: best practices from the Pacific

Pacific coasts are constantly changing as a result of natural processes such as tides, strong currents, rain, storm surges, strong wind, cyclones and sea level rise. With increasing human activities within the coastal areas in terms of human settlement, land use changes, flow of solid and liquid waste and coastal developments such as beach ramps, jetties, causeways, coastal protection structures, reef mining and extractions of sand and beach aggregates, there is ever increasing change along Pacific coasts. In addition, climate change and climate variability and extreme weather events have exacerbated the rate of change of Pacific coasts. The coast has been defined as the zone where the land and sea meet. The main features of Pacific coasts are dominated by coral reefs, reef ridges, inter-tidal ridges, beaches, cliffs, wave actions and mangroves. Pacific coasts are designated important areas for providing vital Pacific livelihood. The coastal ecosystems, human sett lement and other major supporting services and basic infrastructure are centred on the coastal zone. Coasts are being used for many reasons. The underlying problem is that Pacific coasts are in a state of crisis. A number of human engineering interventions over the past decade have contributed and accelerated the coastal erosion problem in the Pacific Region. The Pacific coastline is over 50,532 km long. Both natural processes and human engineering work are blamed for causing coastal erosion. This guide has been produced to inform and assist coastal experts, managers, and Pacific communities understand the various measures they can take to reduce coastal erosion

Food security: best practices for the Pacific

This report presents selected good practices and techniques that may contribute to improving food security and building community resilience to the impacts of climate change and other factors on agriculture, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, forestry, and natural resources in the Pacific region. The objective of this report is to provide a summary of best practices that can improve people’s livelihoods for policy-makers, teachers, researchers, and communities. It is non-prescriptive as food security is complex and multi-dimensional. All countries in the Pacific experience different levels of food security issues so solutions to their challenges are not the same. The intent is to cover a wide range of food security issues, best practices, techniques, and methods so that each country may choose relevant interventions which suit their needs. The report highlights the importance of the traditional knowledge held by early Pacific settlers. It considers the importance of links between food, water and energy, and defines food security as ‘having the social, economic and physical access to nutritious and safe food at all times leading to healthy life’. The report highlights that there is more involved with food security than the problem of hunger. There are diseases such as non-communicable diseases (NCD) and HIV/AIDS, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies (VMD) and malnutrition issues that affect food security. The challenges highlighted include growing populations, changing diets, price increases, and local foods being affected by environmental and climatic factors. The links between global, regional and national instruments and frameworks are all part of providing an enabling environment for food security. At the global level, FAO summarises the important global themes as: the right to food; nutrition; poverty; resilience; social protection; climate change; biodiversity; energy; fisheries; forestry; land and soil; sustainable agriculture; tenure rights; and water. In the Pacific, the regional framework highlights seven important themes: 1. building national and regional partnerships to address challenges of food security; 2. developing effective legal instruments that ensure food control systems are in place; 3. having access, availability, stability and uses of locally produced food; 4. the consideration of infants and vulnerable groups by all actors; 5. provision of good information for making informed decisions; 6. provision of good food indicators for effective monitoring and evaluation; and 7. addressing several cross-cutting areas in appropriate and practical ways. At the national level, most countries have legal frameworks in place that have links to food security but few countries have developed food security policies. The need to incorporate DRR in policy-making is highlighted. The report provides background on the use of different tools and methods relating to food security for assessment and monitoring purposes. These tools or methods are options that policy-makers may choose to adopt or modify as relevant to their needs. These include vulnerability guidelines (CFSVG); emergency food security analysis; indicators of food security; crop models; participatory models and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Case studies are presented on project and programme interventions that build adaptive capacity and community resilience in terms of food security that have positive effects on health and livelihoods. These include the Safe Food Awareness Campaign; tracking progress in maternal and child survival; improving child nutrition; the ‘Towards A Food Secured Pacific Strategy’; a mixed gardening project in Kiribati; restoring sustainable livelihoods and seaweed farming in Fiji; traditional crops and sponge culture in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM); revival of ‘sup sup’ gardens and aquaculture in the Solomon Islands; community-based fisheries management in Tonga; and pearl oyster farming in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). Case studies on food security adaptation and mitigation interventions are given including: the use of traditional knowledge; improving drainage and farming of climate resilient crops; ‘ridge to reef management’, and seed banks in Fiji; adaptation to drought; best performing crops - sweet potato and taro in FSM; developing a nursery of drought-tolerant crop seeds in PNG; testing taro for salt tolerance and piloting aquaculture for mangrove crabs in Palau; introducing drought resilient varieties of cassava and sweet potato and fish pond farming in Vanuatu; agroforestry in Vanuatu, Tonga and Solomon Islands; and ‘keyhole’ gardening in Timor-Leste. Examples of mitigation measures include: REDD+ in Fiji; agroforestry in the Pacific; trees for protection and shelter in Kiribati; sustainable fishing schemes; climate proofing fisheries assets; demersal fish management, pond aquaculture, and post-harvest processing; protecting fish stocks, habitats and breeding grounds; promoting ecosystem based management; and improving soil health and minimising polluted runoff