Pacific islanders help shape response to climate change

A pilot project involving work with four communities in the Cook Islands has been successfully tested with the aim to develop a reliable ground-level approach to assessing the vulnerability of communities and help them adapt to climate change. According to SciDev.Net, this approach could be replicated across the region. "The pilot project had shown that adaptation to climate change was everyone's business, and that there was an important role for communities and community-based approaches in adapting to climate change that could not be easily addressed through national-level strategies," said Jay Roop, a senior environment specialist with the Pacific Department of the ADB.