Island Nations is a non-profit, civil society organization dedicated to advancing and supporting sustainable development policies and practices that benefit small island states.

Island Nations, as a service organization, will work closely with small island developing states, their various networks and organizations, to help them promote and implement a comprehensive strategy for sustainable development. Acting as a fulcrum to lift their voices and leverage their local, regional, and global influence, Island Nations will work in a spirit of empathy and respect.

Recognizing the traditional knowledge of island peoples, Island Nations will help them strengthen their communication capacity, identify appropriate technologies for transfer and utilization, and advance their social and economic well-being through programs that will promote sustainable energy, environmental protection, and disaster preparedness. This work will be done by teaming with technology, financial and organizational networks, and always in partnership with the leaders and peoples of the islands themselves.

Welcome,

It is said we islanders agree on only two things: one is how similar we are to neighboring islands, and the only other thing we unanimously agree on is -- how completely different we are to the islanders downstream.

Seriously though, there are two things we islanders really do agree on: one is the enormous danger posed by climate change. In fact these concerns drew the world's island governments to form the 43-member Alliance of Small Island States, which with a fifth of the votes in the UN General Assembly, is a political force to be reckoned with.

Indeed, it was the islands alliance which, against heavy opposition, introduced the issue of climate change onto the world stage where in plain view it morphed from "a small islands issue", when grudgingly it was included into the UN Rio Earth Summit agenda in 1992, into the most serious global problem. Any islander will tell you the seas are rising and that they make plans for moving their families to higher elevations and to distant lands.

Islanders also agree they are particularly worried about the health of the seas which absorbs up to half the carbon emitted into the air by man. Scientists tell us acidification of the oceans is softening the protective calcium shields of shell-fish and other key life forms in the deep and we can feel the ocean's struggle with acidification as it offers up fewer and less healthy seafood. Most frightening is the deadening of the oceans at an alarming rate which may make it a more clear and present danger than climate change. In fact, we feel ocean acidification is a threat of apocalyptic proportions.

Islanders are keenly aware of sustainable development because we can see the limits of our lands and we know resources are not finite. Many of our peoples have perished because of unsustainable use of resources, so for us sustainable development has been a matter of life and death.

But, because of size, or rather our lack of it, we are good at cooperation and building alliances. This is why the formation of the Island Nations Climate and Oceans Program is such an "island affair"; INCOP draws on the wisdom, strength, faith and hope from all corners of the world to help us deal with the challenges listed below.

Welcome to our team of people who believe that we, all of us in or bordering the oceans, are islanders, and we thank you for your support..

Mahalo,



Lelei TuiSamoa LeLaulu

• Climate Change: Island Nations will address and implement solutions regarding the preeminent issue of climate change. These actions will encompass both the terrestrial and the oceanic environments and deal with both mitigation and adaptation issues.
  
  
• Ocean: Island Nations recognizes there is no more important issue than the health of our oceans. But, the oceans face a tsunami of challenges from acidification, the huge depletion of seafood from overfishing and sea-level rise, so we will examine the findings and work with partners to identify possible solutions.
  
  
• Renewable Energy: The development of Island Nations is severely limited by its dependence on expensive, polluting, fossil fuels, so it is comforting to look into island applications of renewable energy sourced not only from the sun and wind but also from the ocean itself.
  
  
• Natural Resource Management: Island Nations will help build the capacity of small islands to manage their locally and globally significant natural resources, including their coastal and marine resources, their topsoil, forests, and fresh water resources, their biomass, solar, and other renewable energy resources, their tourist and economic development resources, and their diverse plant and animal resources.
  
  
• Disaster Preparedness: Island Nations will develop world- class action plans and capacities to assist when natural, man-made and environmental disasters occur.
  
  
• All three of these focal areas will be supported and enhanced through the work of Island Nations, which will fully develop and make accessible a communications system worthy of the best innovations of the 21st century.

• Island Nations Climate and Oceans Program ( INCOP ) Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are the countries least responsible for global climate change, yet are the most immediately at-risk to the associated extreme weather events from hurricanes to floods and droughts as well as sea level rise, vanishing mangroves and the critical new threat from ocean acidification. Scientific assessments consistently identify SIDS in particular, as the most vulnerable countries that will suffer disproportionately from the impacts of climate change.
  
  
• A Powerful Voice for Climate Change Action Small Island Developing States comprise one-fifth of the General Assembly of the United Nations. As sovereign nations, they are a political force to be reckoned with in the international arena. Together, they constitute a powerful voice for urgent action on climate stabilization and ocean protection. in the context of sustainable development. Small islands are especially vulnerable to climate change. Their concerns possess a special authenticity because, having contributed the least to the problems of climate change and ocean degradation, they are facing the greatest risks from these assaults. The traditional knowledge of island people and the steady drumbeat of scientific documentation have set forth a mounting set of interlocking ecological, social, and economic crises. The adverse trend lines threaten the well- being as well as the very survival of these small island nations.
  
  
• Small Island Developing States at the IPPC and COP: Climate change threats to SIDS have been widely documented by major scientific studies and at the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Conference of Party (COP) negotiations underway and at the historic Barbados Conference of Small Island Developing States in their Programme of Action. Yet new and unexpected thresholds are being reached. Greenhouse gases, settling in the seas in ever increasing amounts, could result in the acidification of the entire oceanic realm, endangering its basic life support system and the viability of the food chain itself. While the unfortunate and even tragic impacts of these environmentally disastrous trends are most dramatically evidenced in small island nations, these destructive forces will inexorably take their toll on coastal regions and continental countries. The agenda of island nations will ultimately be the world's agenda. Solutions for island nations can be a beacon for larger countries, lighting the way to a sustainable future.
  
  

INCOP is providing crucial and timely support to help find solutions to global warming – the most critical environmental issue of the 21st century – and a crisis that will either be won or lost “on our watch”. The actions we take in the next 4 years are critical to addressing the dire environmental and human consequences of global warming for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and for all nations. INCOP provides advocacy support and helps mobilize technical and financial resources to help Island Nations address their common challenges and find solutions to the catastrophic human and environmental consequences they face from climate change. The 4-year strategic action plan and priority initiatives for INCOP during the 4-year period, 2009 – 2012 include the following:

1. Assist SIDS in developing negotiation strategies, policy development and advocacy support for the IPCC and COP negotiations to ensure their voices are heard and interests fairly represented.
   
   
2. Help secure public and private sector financial support for SIDS climate change adaptation, mitigation and clean energy programs.
   
   
3. Provide technical assistance for the design, marketing and implementation of carbon sequestration programs for forestry, agroforestry and mangrove restoration appropriate for SIDS.
   
   
4. Assist SIDS with multi-stakeholder needs assessments and transfer of appropriate renewable energy technology systems to support Green House Gas (GHG) emission reductions.
   
   
5. Develop public education, communication initiatives and technical assistance with SIDS in response to the emerging and critical threats of ocean acidification.
   
   

• The Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) SPREP is an intergovernmental organization with its Secretariat based in Apia, Samoa. SPREP provides assistance and technical advisory services to Pacific Island Countries (PICs), territories and administrations in the protection and management of their environment. SPREP comprises 21 Pacific Island countries and territories. To prepare for and participate in the international meetings of the UNFCCC, The Pacific Island Leaders adopted the Pacific Islands Framework for Action (PIFACC) 2006-2015 and SPREP was directed to develop an Action Plan to implement PIFACC, by establishing a set of national and regional activities that would meet the key principles of PIFACC. SPREP performs a monitoring and evaluation function, amongst its other tasks, and allows PICs to gauge the degree to which national and regional actions have met those key principles. SPREP also represents its member countries at UN IPCC and COP conferences.
  
  
• The Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific (FSPI) Founded 43 years ago, and based in Fiji, FSPI is the largest and oldest NGO network among South Pacific Island Nations with affiliates and programs in 14 countries throughout the region, including: Australia, Cook Islands, East Timor, Federated Islands of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, New Zealand, Palau, Samoa, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea. The main function of the Fiji-based FSPI Secretariat is to coordinate the design and implementation of regional sustainable development projects for multiple sectors in civil society, economic development, natural resource management, sustainable tourism and related climate change programs. FSPI is renowned in the region for its public-private alliances and multi-stakeholder sustainable development projects that integrate traditional knowledge with modern science and technology. FSPI also serves as a key NGO implementing partner and liaison with regional donors including Asia Development Bank, AusAid, European Union and NZAID.
  
  
• Oceania Sustainable Tourism Alliance (OSTA) OSTA is based in Fiji and Australia and provides opportunities for sustainable community-benefit tourism in the Pacific Islands. In addition, as communities across the globe come to grips with adapting to climate change, the OSTA addresses new and inspiring ways of how vulnerable small island developing communities may “climate proof” their important tourism economies in the years and decades to come. The OSTA brings together leading NGO, University, private sector tourism businesses and international development organizations to assist destinations with designing and implementing innovative, integrated, and market-based tourism approaches that foster sustainable futures for individuals, local communities, micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as the large scale private sector tourism industry. Increasingly, bilateral and multi-lateral international development agencies have turned to sustainable tourism programs and activities to achieve strategic objectives related to economic growth and poverty reduction, biodiversity conservation, adapting to climate change and connecting communities with low-cost information technologies.
  
  

Oceania Sustainable Tourism Adaptation to Climate Change ( OSTACC )
Island Nations’ other major new initiative is the Oceania Sustainable Tourism Adaptation to Climate Change (OSTACC) Project. OSTACC is being implemented by a consortium that includes: INCOP, The Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific (FSPI), based in Fiji and the region’s largest and oldest sustainable development NGO, the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) a regional intergovernmental agency representing 21 Pacific Island Countries (PICs) based in Samoa, and the Oceania Sustainable Tourism Alliance (OSTA) an NGO based in Fiji and Australia.

The regional OSTACC project works with 13 Pacific Island Countries (PICs) which include: Cook Islands; Federated States of Micronesia; Fiji; Marshall Islands; Nauru; Niue; Palau; Papua New Guinea; Samoa; Solomon Islands; Tonga; Tuvalu; and, Vanuatu.

Background: Growing scientific and economic evidence of the negative climate change impacts and future threats to the tourism sector of SIDS in the Pacific have been documented in recent years. Various initiatives have been started to assist the region to assess and document these vulnerabilities and to find solutions that integrate traditional indigenous knowledge and that are acceptable to local communities while also addressing the economic needs of the public and private tourism sectors. This requires a fully integrated multi-stakeholder approach that combines awareness raising and training, as well as capacity building with local communities, NGOs, the private sector and government agencies.

OSTACC Project Description Summary: The Oceania Sustainable Tourism Adaptation to Climate Change (OSTACC) Project is a regional initiative focusing on climate change adaptation, mitigation and renewable energy initiatives for the tourism sector – the region’s leading economic driver and a sector particularly vulnerable to global warming. OSTACC is designed as a flagship project to help implement the Bali Roadmap and to facilitate consensus within the tourism sector in support of the post-2012 agreement on climate change. As such, OSTACC will provide an urgently needed policy framework, demonstration projects, public-private financing mechanisms and multi-stakeholder communication and outreach initiatives for the successful implementation of regional, national and local adaptation, mitigation and renewable energy projects for the tourism sector in Oceania.

OSTACC is a new initiative that will be closely aligned with the US$13-million GEF-funded Pacific Adaption to Climate Change (PACC) project which is being implemented by the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). PACC focuses primarily on adaptation projects for sectors involving food production and food security, water resources, coastal zone management and infrastructure. OSTACC will complement and leverage PACC resources by developing multi-stakeholder adaptation, mitigation and renewable energy projects for the tourism sector.

1. Enhance resilience and adaptation to the adverse effects of climate change for the public and private tourism sectors of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Pacific.
   
   
2. Model vulnerability/resilience/adaptation frameworks suitable for inclusion into tourism policies in Pacific island countries to guide strategy, planning, investment, marketing, and training in the new carbon economy.
   
   
3. Assess and develop the productive use of renewable energy (RE) to reduce GHG emission by removing the major barriers to the widespread and cost-effective use of feasible RE technologies (RETs) within the public and private tourism sectors in ways that also benefit local communities and indigenous groups.
   
   
4. Improve regional, national, local community and indigenous group access to public and private financing for adaptation, mitigation and renewable energy demonstration projects.
   
   
5. Develop multi-stakeholder capacity through education and outreach initiatives utilizing Internet, radio, TV and print to assure participation by traditional indigenous communities, NGOs, government and the private sector with the project.