Institute’s expertise was also recognized by being subcontracted to implement the Coral Triangle Fiji project under the Asian Development Bank and as a local implementation partner (with PACE-SD) in the US$20 million USAID project on climate change in the region. The biodiversity assessment team also performed assessments under the IUCN.
2011
Another major consultancy of F$200,000 was an assessment of climate change adaptive capacity in the Pacific region commissioned by the Australian government. IAS lead a team of climate change researchers to develop a framework to assess adaptive capacity and applied it to several communities in eight Pacific countries which had participated in climate change adaptation projects conducted by various regional organization.
2009 – 2010
IAS successfully completed a community-based climate change adaptation project with USP’s PACE-SD. Major follow-up funding for such work was approved in principal from the European Union and AUSAid. NZAID has been supporting two major projects with IAS under its Government Agency Partnership Fund. A water supply and wetland sewage system was developed for an entire village. Additional funding was allocated to complete the work in 2010.
Through its climate change adaptation study, possible “soft” measures for coastal protection were evaluated. These include mangrove and vetiver grass planting and coconut trunk wave barriers. The partnership with New Zealand to develop a village waste management system has completed its design which treats “greywater’ at source and “blackwater” via a wetland. The two-stage wetland development is nearing completion. This is the first time in the Pacific that such a system has been developed for an entire village.