Tectonic Plates and Fault Lines

The region is home to extremes in elevation and the world's most active seismic and volcanic activity. Southwest of India, the Maldives has a maximum height of just 230cm, while far to the north, the Tibetan Plateau averages over 4,500m across its 2.5 million square kilometres and is home to all 14 of the world's peaks above 8,000 metres. The Himalaya were born 70 million years ago when the Arabian Plate collided with the Eurasian plate.

Volcanic Explosivity in Asia-Pacific

This map shows the density of volcanic eruptions based on the explosivity index for each eruption and the time period of the eruption. Eruption information is spread to 100km beyond point source to indicate areas that could be affected by volcanic emissions or ground shaking.

Earthquake Intensity Risk Zones

This map shows earthquake intensity zones in accordance with the 1956 version of the Modified Mercalli Scale (MM), describing the effects of an earthquake on the surface of the earth and integrating numerous parameters such as ground acceleration, duration of an earthquake, and subsoil effects. It also includes historical earthquake reports.

Physical Exposure to Drought

Drought is a phenomenon that affects more people globally than any other natural hazard. Unlike aridity, which refers to a semi-permanent condition of low precipitation (desert regions), drought results from the accumulated effect of deficient precipitation over a prolonged period of time.

The units used in this product refer to the expected average annual population (2010 as the year of reference) exposed (inhabitants). The dataset includes an estimate of the annual physical exposure to drought. It is based on three sources:

8 December 2014, Lima, Peru - Describing themselves as an Early Warning System for the global community, the CANCC - the Coalition of Low Lying Atoll Nations on the issue of Climate Change was born this year comprising of Kiribati, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Tokelau and Tuvalu.

New Report Showcases U.S. Global Leadership in Landmine Clearance and Conventional Weapons Destruction

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Director’s Note and About Us 2

IPCC report signals harsh realities for the Pacific 3

SPREP and Marshall Islands agreement 3

Pacific islands training for Adaptation Fund proposals 3

Linking the right people through RTSM 4

Lightning training for Pacific Met services 4

Pacific Climate Change Portal and iCLIM 5

Adaptation Stories from the North Pacific and Cost Benefit Analysis in FSM 5

Pacific Voices in Negotiations and Vanuatu Awareness Seminar 6

Agroforestry training in Tuvalu 6

The Republic of the Marshall Islands has ratified an international treaty which enables the country to access a global gene pool of more than 1.6 million plants that belong to the most important food crops.

The Pacific Island nation has become the 132nd Contracting Party to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture through support from the treaty Secretariat, hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC).

OUR KEY MESSAGES

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has four key messages for effective action on the topic of human mobility in the context of environmental and climatic changes:

1 Environmental and climate-induced migration is a multicausal and multidimensional phenomenon.

ABSTRACT

Governments of Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, and the Marshall Islands request extension of Successful Regional Catastrophe Risk Insurance Pilot

There's been a huge drop in copra production in the Marshall Islands this year.

Read more on Radio New Zealand International

Recurrent floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, and seasonal typhoons present significant challenges to vulnerable populations in the East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) region. Some countries also face civil unrest and associated humanitarian impacts, as well as limited government capacity to respond to disasters. Between FY 2005 and FY 2014, USAID’s Office of U.S.

CONTEXT

A ground-breaking Letter of Agreement has been signed between the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands to support the development of urgently needed climate change adaptation activities.

Secretariat of the Pacifi c Community's (SPC) Applied Geoscience and Technology Division through the Disaster Reduction Programme is committed to working with offi cials and communities around the Pacifi c to strengthen the ability of countries to protect people as much as possible from the impact of natural and manmade disasters.

IN THIS ISSUE

• SPC supports countries in the lead up to the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reducti on

• First FSM and Fiji National Platforms for Disaster Risk Management

Officials in the Marshall Islands say they are doing their part to address climate change and now it's time for large countries to act.

Read the full article on Radio New Zealand International

Key messages

• The Pacific region is frequently hit by natural calamities such as floods, earthquakes and cyclones. Pacific countries rank among the highest in casualties and people affected per inhabitant.

• Promoting and enabling active participation of both women and men in training, planning and decision-making for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and emergency response is crucial for reducing vulnerability to natural calamities in the Pacific.

CLIMATE OUTLOOK

Normal to below normal rainfall is evident in many Pacific Island countries, with the Pacific Ocean showing renewed signs of El Niño development. There is a 50 per cent chance of an El Niño forming by the end of 2014. Water conservation measures are recommended.

Vanuatu

Drought conditions are being monitored on Emau Island, located in North Efate in Shefa Province. The island, with a population of 1,000 has not had rainfall since June 2014.

4 September, 2014 Apia, Samoa - Today the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) signed a historic partnership agreement that aims to improve the way in which weather and climate information is delivered, understood and acted on, by communities living with the everyday impacts of climate change. The three-year Letter of Agreement was signed at the SPREP headquarters in Apia by Jagan Chapagain, Director of the IFRC’s regional office for Asia Pacific and David Sheppard, Director …