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Published by

South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC)

December 2004

Cover Photo: Celebrating World Disaster Reduction Day in Honiara, Solomon Islands 2003

Co-sponsored by:

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD ...... 4 PACIFIC REGIONAL MAP ...... 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 6 INTRODUCTION...... 8 Lessons Learned...... 11

PART I: THE REGION...... 15

CHAPTER 1: THE PACIFIC ISLANDS REGION...... 16 Summary Of Key Statistics Relating To Regional Countries...... 20

CHAPTER 2: THE HAZARD AND RISK ENVIRONMENT ...... 22 Disasters In The Pacific Is lands Region 1994-2004 ...... 31

CHAPTER 3: REGIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT ...... 36

PART II: PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES...... 43

CHAPTER 4: NATIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT STRUCTURES IN PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES...... 44

CHAPTER 5: DISASTER REDUCTION IN PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES...... 49

CHAPTER 6: DISASTER PREPAREDNESS, RESPONSE AND RECOVERY DEVELOPMENT IN PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES...... 59

PART III: NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA ...... 65

CHAPTER 7: NEW ZEALAND DISASTER MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES ...... 66

CHAPTER 8: AUSTRALIAN DISASTER MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES ...... 76

References...... 91

Annexes A Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World ...... 92 B Aitutaki Declaration On Regional Security Cooperation...... 102 C “Biketawa” Declaration ...... 104 D The United Nations Millennium Development Goals...... 106 E Extract From The Programme For Action For Small Island States...... 108 F Extracts From The Johannesburg Declaration On Sustainable Development And Plan Of Implementation Of The World Summit On Sustainable Development...... 110 G Pacific Questionnaires ...... 114 H Disaster Management Support Projects In The Region 1994-2004 ...... 123 I Pacific Region National Profiles...... 131 J List Of Abbreviations And Acronyms...... 139 K Useful Disaster Management Websites...... 141

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FOREWORD

The ten-year review of the implementation of the 1994 Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action was undertaken by the SOPAC Secretariat as part of its regional mandate for disaster management coordination and as a contribution by the Pacific to the preparations for the Second World Conference on Disaster Reduction, which will be held in Kobe, Japan in January 2005.

This conference is a milestone event to increase the profile of Disaster Risk Reduction in development planning and practice and therefore provides a unique opportunity for the Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to highlight to the global community the extreme vulnerability of the region in relation to the frequency and intensity of natural disasters and the disproportionately high economic, social and environmental consequences of these events.

SOPAC, through its partnership with the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) Secretariat, will continue to promote and support improvements to disaster risk reduction practices and in particular provide regional leadership to ensure the successful implementation of the agreed outcomes from the Second World Conference in Kobe to support the objectives of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and the Millennium Development Goals.

This regional report provides a valuable reference point in relation to the progress of implementation of the agreed strategy and plan of action that was decided in Yokohama in1994 and we therefore encourage our member countries to consider the lessons that have been identified and to use them for improving future national disaster risk reduction practices.

On behalf of SOPAC I would like to thank Joe Barr the review consultant and principal author of the report and the many agencies and individuals who willingly provided their time and resources as well as valuable information.

Particular thanks also to the Australian Agency for International Development, the New Zealand Agency for International Development and Emergency Management Australia who generously funded and supported the development of this report and the ongoing preparations for the Kobe Conference.

While much progress has been made since Yokohama, the 1995 Pacific Forum Leaders vision that “Vulnerability to the effects of natural hazards, environmental damage and other threats will be overcome” still remains a challenge for all Pacific Island Countries and one that we should strive to achieve through the development of improved national disaster risk reduction policies and programmes aimed at strengthening community resilience.

Cristelle Pratt Director

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PACIFIC REGIONAL MAP

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

When preparing for the 1994 World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction in Yokohama, the Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) contributed to a regional report entitled “Natural Disaster Reduction in Pacific Island Countries”. This report was well received by participants in the conference and by the Secretariat to the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). In preparation for the Second World Conference on Disaster Reduction to be held in Kobe, Japan in January 2005, it was decided to produce a similar report covering not only the Pacific SIDS but also Australia and New Zealand.

Because of the difference between scale and structure of disaster management in the Pacific SIDS and Australia and New Zealand, the report has been prepared in three parts. Part I comprises Chapters 1 to 3 and gives a general overview of the region, its geography, demography and hazard setting as well as regional arrangements and responsibilities. Part II, which contains Chapters 4 to 6, describes the disaster management structures in island countries as well as the various reduction, preparedness, response, and recovery activities that take place in those countries. Part III provides a picture of arrangements in New Zealand (Chapter 7) and Australia (Chapter 8) respectively. A series of Annexes provide supplementary information.

Review Methodology

Visits to all of the sixteen countries in the region as well as the donor countries supporting their disaster management activities was impossible in the time available so two questionnaires were prepared, one for national authorities and one for donor and technical agencies that provided regional or specialised support. Copies of the questionnaires can be found in Annex G. The questionnaires were distributed; and to supplement the responses, visits were paid to national and regional organisations in Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand and Australia. An extensive range of statistics and documents, particularly those at the SOPAC Secretariat library were also referenced.

The initial draft prepared as a result of this activity was presented at the First ISDR Kobe Preparatory Committee Meeting in Geneva in May 2004. A more developed draft was then presented at a Regional Stakeholder Planning Workshop in Fiji in June 2004 where further comment was elicited and some outstanding questionnaires were collected. A final working draft was prepared in September 2004 in time for the Second ISDR Kobe Preparatory Committee Meeting in Geneva in October 2004. Further comments were then taken into account and amendments incorporated in this final report.

Terminology Used

Throughout the region a variety of terms are used to define the subject matter of this report. The terms include: “disaster management”, “emergency management”, “disaster risk management” and “civil protection” (‘Protection Civile’ in the French Territories). These terms encompass sub-sets of activities variously called disaster or emergency “reduction”, “prevention”, “mitigation”, “preparedness”, “response”, “recovery”, “reconstruction” and the application of risk management techniques that require the addition of the word “risk” to any or all of the original terms.

At the regional planning workshop held in Fiji at the end of June 2004, it was agreed for the purposes of this report to use the term “disaster management” to describe all the activities since risk management techniques are considered to be only one of the tools that are

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available to those working in this field while risk reduction is considered to cover just a part of the total range of activity in which these tools are applied.

This decision in no way commits or obliges Pacific SIDS to alter the terminology they currently use. There was general support for the view that changes to terminology confuse the community and non-professional practitioners and should be avoided whenever possible.

Group discussions at the Pacific Stakeholder Workshop and Preparation for the second World Conference on Disaster Reduction, June 2004.

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INTRODUCTION

The Pacific Region covered by this report can be divided into two parts; the Small Is land Developing States (SIDS) and Papua New Guinea and the two developed countries of the region, Australia and New Zealand. Although their government systems are different, the French territories in the region and the one remaining British colony, Pitcairn, are included in the same group as the SIDS with which they have much in common.

The region is highly disaster prone with all countries threatened by a variety of natural hazards of geological and meteorological origin as well as health hazards and increasing environmental hazards. In the period since the Yokohama Conference social hazards have also increased as a result of population increase, urban drift, uneven wealth distribution and political pressures. Tropical cyclones are the most frequent cause of disasters in the region, but other hazards have the potential to cause greater losses.

Except in Australia and New Zealand, disaster management in the region was rudimentary until the start of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) in 1990. There was emphasis on disaster response and some attention was being paid to disaster preparedness but disaster reduction and prevention measures were only being implemented in a fragmentary and accidental manner, usually as a by-product of development projects.

Regional Coordination

Regional disaster management meetings began in 1990 but regional coordination of disaster management really began with the Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator (UNDRO) establishment in Fiji of a South Pacific Programme Office in that year. This office’s disaster management coordination responsibilities were transferred to a regional organisation, the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) in 1996. SOPAC has retained this responsibility and has links with international and regional organisations, government agencies, non-government organisations (NGOs) and scientific and technical agencies.

National Organisations

All except the smallest countries in the region have some form of national disaster management structure. Most have nominated ministers with responsibility for disaster management and national disaster committees (NDCs) that are responsible for developing policy and overseeing disaster management development. They also have offices, generically called national disaster management offices (NDMOs), with staff trained and tasked to coordinate national disaster management programmes. While in 1995 the main tasks of the national organisations were related to disaster response and preparedness, increasing attention has been paid in the last ten years to disaster reduction and prevention activities.

Disaster Reduction

While disaster reduction has continued to be a by-product of development activities, formal coordination of disaster reduction has been developed, led and conducted regionally. Key programmes have included the South Pacific Disaster Reduction Programme (SPDRP), conducted by UNDRO’s South Pacific Programme Office, and the Comprehensive Hazard and Risk Management (CHARM) Programme and the Pacific Cities Project conducted by SOPAC. All three programmes have helped SIDS in the region to share in developing practices, procedures and activities that are appropriate to the region and to national

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The initial CHARM National workshop was held in Tonga, in 2001. capabilities and requirements. While there is still a great deal of work needed in order to extend disaster reduction practice to all levels of society, particularly down to community level, there is clear recognition of the value of disaster reduction practices. At the highest regional level, the Pacific Forum Leaders’ Conference in 2003, national leaders endorsed adoption of the CHARM Guidelines by all member countries.

Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recovery

In the face of continuing risk, development of disaster preparedness for response and recovery has made significant progress since the Yokohama Conference. Disaster response plans were developed and are in place in most countries. A number are in the process of being reviewed and amended in the light of recent developments. Warning capabilities and systems have also been improved since 1995, particularly cyclone warning systems which have benefited from the professional training and equipment made available by various donors including Japan, New Zealand and Australia. Climate monitoring capabilities have also been enhanced.

A particular success in the years since the Yokohama Conference was the development of regional disaster management training. The Pacific Emergency Management Training Advisory Group (PEMTAG), with current representation from SOPAC, the Pacific Office of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Regional Office and The Asia Foundation (regional provider of training funded by the Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) of the US Agency for International Development) acts to coordinate training and training development in the region. In addition to providing a forum for coordination and synchronisation, a key aim of PEMTAG is the professionalisation of disaster management training in the region as an encouragement towards wider recognition of its value. Negotiations to achieve recognition of certain training by tertiary institutions are close to completion. Training provided by OFDA through The Asia Foundation has been targeted at organisational level with the aim of producing a core set of training materials and regional trainers who can present the courses. Regional trainers are now conducting some of the

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planned courses while other courses are still being developed. Similarly IFRC is developing training and trainers who can work at community level.

New Zealand

During the period since the Yokohama Conference, disaster management in New Zealand has also developed significantly with increasing attention being paid to disaster reduction activities. After major reviews of its disaster management structure, New Zealand enacted new legislation in 2002. The country has now adopted an all-hazards multi-agency approach to all aspects of disaster management centred on the community. Its disaster management structure is community-based with the legislation providing overall direction but planning and implementation conducted at community level. Organisations are responsible for their day- to-day business and for planning together how they will coordinate their activities in relation to disasters. A 10 years national Civil Defence and Emergency Management Strategy has four goals; increasing community awareness, understanding and participation; reducing risk; enhancing the capability to manage emergencies; and enhancing recovery capability. Regional and local authorities are required to adopt a risk management approach that links hazard management with disaster management. Hazard analysis is carried out and all development planning takes account of environmental and hazard risks.

Australia

Australia takes a federal approach to disaster management in which each State or Territory has prime responsibility for its own disaster management activities and the Australian Government has a support and guidance role. The national system is a partnership between all levels of government. There are disaster management organisations at national and State/Territory levels while local governments have specific responsibilities within their areas of responsibility.

In 2003 Australian and State and Territory Governments agreed to the implementation of the commitments and recommendations arising from a major review of national disaster mitigation, relief and recovery arrangements. These include the establishment of a National Emergency Ministerial Council that meets annually to oversee arrangements. This is supported by the Australian Emergency Management Committee, at senior officials level, that oversees implementation of mitigation programmes, relief and recovery arrangements, data collection, land use planning, development and building control regimes, community awareness, education and warnings, volunteer activities, response operations and indigenous community activities. A Disaster Mitigation Australia Programme was adopted as a result of the review. Under this programme five-year national risk assessment is being implemented, building codes are being reviewed and coordinated national hazard reduction strategies are being developed and implemented.

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Lessons Learned During the preparation of this report, a questionnaire was circulated to regional countries and to donors, international agencies and non-government organisations involved in disaster management activities in the region. Among the questions was a request that responders list any lessons learned during the last decade. The following pages contain an edited and sorted list in which lessons of broadly similar content have been combined.

General

q Always be patient! Change takes place slowly. There is always a level of conservatism to be overcome and where there are competing pressures, priorities may differ.

q The commitment and support of politicians and senior officials is a vital element in the development of an effective disaster management system.

q Attending meetings does not necessarily mean that people are communicating! Communication is a two-way process in which it is necessary to listen as well as speak.

q The international developments in communications and other technology are not always available or supportable in developing nations. Effective communications use reliable systems available to all participants – not necessarily the most modern systems!

q The key to effective disaster management is the involvement of all levels of society, right down to the poorest rural dweller. If the most vulnerable people are not involved, the system is not working.

q In cultures that rely on oral transfer of history, personal interviews will often provide the most profound source of information.

Programme/Project Management

q Facilitating Teams that include representatives of government, NGOs and the private sector can guide delivery of programmes far more effectively than a single agency. Local stakeholder support can be fundamental to the success of projects.

q Sustainable projects contain ongoing support and advice elements after the high profile activities are completed.

q Community-based projects require constant monitoring and support as most of them are development projects that are related to human behaviour and mindsets.

q In areas of geographical remoteness and isolation it is vital to allow sufficient time for data collection and to deliver or transfer projects.

q If projects introduce new or unfamiliar concepts and practices, institutional capacities of SIDS may not be sufficiently developed to make use of them. It is important to incorporate pre- and post-action assessment and training elements in the programme

Data Collection

q When using non-specialists with limited skills or background, data collection will be facilitated and accuracy improved if templates or pro-formas are developed and

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supported by a standardised dictionary that explains terminology in appropriate non- technical language.

q GIS/GPS data collection is being used increasingly in regional projects. It is important to support this valuable resource with appropriate training for end-users.

q It is important to clearly identify data needs and existing data resources. Inclusion of an Information Gap Analysis component in projects helps to identify gaps in both hazard data and infrastructure.

Training

q Regional training activities need to be coordinated if they are to achieve optimum progressive capacity building across the range of disaster management disciplines.

q Any training programme, and particularly a coordinated regional programme, will always benefit from a comprehensive training needs analysis by a neutral provider. Effective analysis for a region requires pilot activities to be conducted in representative countries to refine the process and ensure that appropriate cultural factors are taken into consideration.

q The analysis should be followed by a review and planning process in which training recipients and potential providers participate.

q Training programmes must include a practical application element if knowledge is to be transferred successfully.

q When training is provided, it is often difficult to ensure that the right people attend. Key people are busy people and may not be able to be spared. The substitutes they send may not be able to influence change.

q For training to have a lasting effect, regular and ongoing support (personnel and financial) is needed.

q Training materials should not be generalised. They need to be designed to meet the needs of the target audience.

q Video training materials produced in the country, or even in the region are far more effective than those from other cultures.

q Training people from a cross section of society enables greater sharing of experience and improves networking. In turn this leads to stronger awareness and support among organisations, particularly during times of crisis.

q Training people from a variety of agencies in the same activity helps people to use the same terminology and develop a common approach to problems.

q Computer graphics-based simulations can provide a valuable way of visualising events like the impact of a tsunami and assist participants to assess effects.

q Negotiating accreditation of technical training activities towards achievement of academic awards is a powerful incentive for individual participation in training programmes.

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q Regular, preferably annual, evaluation of training programmes makes a vital contribution to the continued effectiveness of training programmes.

Exercises

q Exercises are very useful in identifying deficiencies and areas for improvement. They are a useful tool that can assist a country to prioritise its needs for improvements to systems, processes and capabilities.

q In exercises it is valuable to include staff from agencies and ministries that are critical to effective communication and cooperation. They can provide valuable input to syndicate work and can monitor the thinking and progress of participants.

Planning and Legislation

q There is a need for effective legislation that clearly identifies authorities and responsibilities.

q Planning responsibilities and processes need to be defined and should be inclusive so that those with defined roles feel that they have been adequately consulted and have ‘ownership’ of the plan.

q The existence of a plan does not mean that everyone involved knows their responsibilities in it, accepts those responsibilities or even knows where there is a copy of the plan. Regular review and updating with participation by all involved helps to ensure understanding and ownership.

q Allocating responsibilities to regional or local government without training or support is likely to be ineffective.

q Planning for disaster response must cover actions to be taken if people or resources are not available.

Community Awareness and Education

q Community awareness and education are continuous activities. One-time messages rarely stick in peoples’ memories.

q Community awareness materials must use the media that are available to most of the population – not just those in the capital city.

q Communities will only continue to follow valuable traditional practices if they are encouraged to do so and assured of their value.

q Inclusion of disaster management material in school curriculum is a valuable investment. It needs to be developed in cooperation with educational authorities and supported with a regular flow of information and up to date resources.

NGOs

q NGOs often have closer links to the community than government agencies and are the most effective channel for broad-based and continuing community education.

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q NGOs are particularly effective in providing channels of communication to and from the community. Their close relationships with ordinary people can often be used to identify community concerns and community-based solutions.

q NGOs involved in disaster management activities should develop strategic partnerships with disaster management authorities, relevant government ministries and departments, other NGOs and the private sector.

Indigenous Knowledge

q Indigenous disaster reduction and management practices have been discounted and eroded over the years yet they often provide the most cost-effective way of reducing the impact of disasters in rural areas of developing nations. Unless these practices are recorded and their value recognised and supported they continue to die away leaving communities more dependent on outside support.

q The activities of representatives of developed nations who exploit indigenous knowledge for profit and leave little or no reward have created a culture of distrust in which traditional knowledge-holders are now reluctant to share their knowledge. This culture will continue to be reinforced and the knowledge may eventually be lost unless the world community takes action to prevent such exploitation.

High-Level Advocacy

q Disaster Management activities in the region have focussed primarily on developing capacity to prepare for and respond to natural hazards with only limited support from national governments.

q Disaster Management programmes have tended to operate outside of the mainstream government process and therefore levels of community vulnerability have not decreased significantly.

q There is a need for high-level advocacy to obtain the highest level of commitment and support for the integration of disaster risk management into national development policy and plans.

Dr Langi Kavaliku and members of the SOPAC High-Level Advocacy Team met the Fiji Prime Minister in 2002.

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PART I: THE REGION

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CHAPTER 1: THE PACIFIC ISLANDS REGION

1.1 The Pacific Ocean covers almost one third of the earth’s surface. Generally thought of as a region of small island countries with limited populations, the Southwest Pacific Region is extremely large (see map). It stretches from Guam in the north to New Zealand in the south (and by extension to Antarctica) and from Australia in the west to Pitcairn in the east. The distance from Perth in Western Australia to Pitcairn Island is similar to the distance from Los Angeles to Istanbul. It is a region nearly as large as Asia that straddles both the equator and the International Date Line.

1.2 The Southwest Pacific contains coral atolls, active volcanoes, sub-Antarctic mountains, tropical jungles, temperate rain forest, volcanic peaks and wide desert plains – as well as huge stretches of ocean. Its countries range in size from Tokelau, which consists of three coral atolls with a total land area of 12 sq km, to Australia, the sixth largest country in the world.

1.3 The climate of the region ranges from tropical to temperate. Rainfall in some of the Pacific islands and in parts of northern Australia is amongst the highest in the world yet much of inland Australia is desert. Damaging floods occur every year, yet drought is always present in the region and is particularly common in El Niño periods. Atolls with high rainfall can become short of water after only a few dry days, as their sandy soils retain little moisture. Tropical cyclones occur every year; major thunderstorms and occasional tornados cause damage in many places; frost damages crops in the highlands of Papua New Guinea; and snow falls every year in parts of New Zealand and south-eastern Australia.

1.4 The Pacific islands dominate the image of this region. Although they and the West Indies are often compared, the whole area covered by the West Indies would fit into just two Pacific countries, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Even the smaller countries can sprawl over vast distances and claim large Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) – Kiribati, as wide as the USA has a land area of only 811 sq km in an EEZ of 3.6 million sq km. The total EEZ areas of the island countries exceed 38 million square kilometres. Distance is a dominating influence in the region.

1.5 Because of disparities of size the countries of the region are often discussed individually. However, they can be divided into four basic groups based on their size, geological structure, resources and level of development1.

Group 1. The developed countries: Australia and New Zealand

1.6 Australia and New Zealand are the only economically developed countries of the region. Australia is an old and relatively stable continental landmass, greatly eroded and predominantly flat with a low mountain range, the Great Dividing Range, running north to south down the east coast. Parts of the country are relatively fertile but much of the remainder has such low rainfall that in most years it can be considered desert or semi-desert, incapable of supporting agriculture. Nevertheless the country’s great mineral wealth supports a sound economy. New Zealand is thought to be a detached part of this landmass but is geologically far less stable, being close to the tectonic plate boundary. It has higher mountains, some of them active volcanoes, generally fertile soils and a mild climate that makes agriculture the mainstay of its economy.

1 This analysis is based on that in McGregor AM and McGregor I.K.L 1999 Disasters and Agriculture in the Pacific Islands. UNDP, Suva.

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Group 2. The relatively large countries of Melanesia: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu

1.7 These are the largest of the island countries with over 90% of the island land mass and 85% of the population. They all lie relatively close to the tectonic plate boundaries and consist predominantly of mountainous islands with Papua New Guinea having the highest peaks in the region. However, all the countries also have some atoll islands. These countries have the best natural resources of the island countries with fertile soils and each with some exploitable mineral wealth. Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have predominantly agricultural economies with a high proportion of the population engaged in subsistence agriculture. In all three countries there is an increasing incidence of urban drift as the younger members of society seek paid work and better lifestyles – many unsuccessfully. Despite their relative richness, all three countries have low rankings on the UN Human Development Index and their economies are fragile.

1.8 Fiji and New Caledonia have more diverse and secure economies dominated by cash cropping and mining respectively but with increasing growth in garment manufacture and the sale of water. Tourism is also an important generator of work and wealth in both countries with a much higher proportion of their populations already urbanised.

Group 3. The middle level Polynesian countries: Samoa and Tonga

1.9 Although considerably smaller than the countries above, these two countries have much stronger economies. Samoa consists of two large and a number of smaller islands, with the two main islands being ‘high’ islands of volcanic origin with fertile soils. Tonga is a much larger archipelago with a mixture of atoll and ’high’ islands. Both have generally agricultural economies with cash cropping for export being important. The economies of both countries also benefit significantly from remittances from expatriates in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Group 4. The resource-poor, predominantly atoll countries: American Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Pitcairn, Tokelau, Tuvalu and Wallis and Futuna

1.10 These countries all have small land areas but they vary from single small islands to archipelagos spread over enormous areas of ocean. Their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) are rich in marine resources and the licensing of foreign vessels to fish those waters makes an important contribution to their economies. The EEZs often have potentially valuable deep ocean-bed mineral resources. Land resources are much more limited. The islands have mainly sandy soils of limited fertility able to support a restricted range of vegetation. Some of the countries are able to grow specialised export crops and others have developing tourism industries but all of their economies depend to some extent on expatriate remittances. All of their economies are vulnerable and many are aid dependent. Many of the countries are physically vulnerable to water shortages and contamination, sea level rise, coastal erosion and population growth. The level of development in these countries varies considerably, with some being relatively high on the UN Human Development Index while others are, at best, moderate.

The People

1.11 Distance has been a significant influence on the settlement and development of countries in the region. Populations in the region are distributed unevenly. The three largest countries in the region, Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, have a total

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population of nearly 30 million people while the total population of all the other countries is less than 3 million.

1.12 Ethnically the indigenous people of the region fall into four major groups, which current scientific thought considers to be descended from different migrations out of Asia. With a few exceptions, Polynesian people live in the east of the region in an area stretching from the Hawaiian chain in the north to New Zealand in the south and from Easter Island in the east to parts of Solomon Islands in the west; Melanesians live in the central west of the region from the island of New Guinea through the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia east to Fiji; Micronesians live in the north west, from Palau to Kiribati; and Aboriginal people live in Australia.

1.13 Since the colonial era in the nineteenth and twentieth century, the region was also settled by large numbers of people from other parts of the world. People of European origin, mainly from Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, were followed by others from the Indian sub-continent, Japan, China and other parts of Asia. As communications have improved, people from other countries have also arrived in small numbers. The majority of the populations of Australia and New Zealand are now of overseas origin. More than a third of the population of Fiji is of Indian origin whose ancestors were brought to the country by British colonial authorities to act as cheap labour

1.14 Language has a significant influence on culture in the region. Polynesian languages share a common root that makes it possible for people from the various Polynesian countries to communicate easily and retain significantly common cultures. Communication in Melanesian countries is very much more difficult since most communities developed in isolation. As a result the people of the major Melanesian countries speak many different languages and have had to adopt one or more artificially developed languages to enable groups to communicate easily. Micronesian island groups tend to use their own languages developed from a common root. Each country has an official language and all the countries also use English as an official language.

1.15 To facilitate communication in the region and with the rest of the world, English or French have been adopted as alternate official languages in each regional country depending which of the former colonial powers had the greater influence during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Only Vanuatu, which was a condominium governed jointly by France and Britain, uses both French and English as official languages in addition to Bislama, the artificial language of that country.

Traditional Social Structures

1.16 As they developed in relative isolation, traditional social structures continue to have a significant influence on societies in the region. In the Polynesian countries, traditional hierarchies still exist with roles being passed down in families on a hereditary basis. Tonga, with its royal family and grades of nobility is normally considered the prime example of this structure but Samoa and other Polynesian nations retain their nobilities who have a special role in the community and an advisory role to the government of the country.

1.17 Melanesian chiefly systems vary in their structure and are not necessarily hereditary, some form of democracy often being involved in the selection of leaders. At local and community level the leaders continue to exert significant influence and in Fiji and Vanuatu, they have an advisory role to the national government similar to that of the nobles in some Polynesian countries.

1.18 In the Pacific SIDS the family, the clan, place of origin, the island and the language group have a significant social influence on culture and behaviour. The obligations at each

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level of society are complex and very influential on behaviour. They are not lightly rejected. Support for other members of the group is personally and culturally very important, providing a safety net in times of stress including emergencies and disasters. Although the island countries do not have the resources to develop the complex formal social security systems of western nations, there is actually less need for such systems for the majority of the population. When people take the drastic step of separating themselves from their social structure, by behaviour or physically their need for outside social support increases. Such people are on the margins of society, notably those who have drifted to urban centres, and are often among the worst affected by disasters

1.19 Table 1 gives a summary of key statistics for regional countries. More details appear in Annex I.

Isolated Pacific Communities are at risk to natural as well as environmental and technological disasters.

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TABLE 1: SUMMARY OF KEY STATISTICS RELATING TO REGIONAL COUNTRIES.

Country Inhabited Land Area EEZ Elevation Population2 Pop Pop. Urban Pop Urban Pop Lang- Estimated Islands Sq km (Million Sq Metres Density Growth 1999 Growth uages Per Capita GDP km) (Pop/sq Rate (%)3 (%) (%) US$4 km)

American 7 197 0.39 966 70,260 (2003)5 357 2.224 33 Not avbl 2 8,000 (2000) 4 Samoa Australia NA 7,682,300 15.00 2,228 19.9 million (2003) 3 1.2 92 1.8 1 25,370 (2001) Cook Islands 15 237 1.83 652 21,008 (2003)4 62 -5.8 59 0.6 2 5,000 (2001) 4 Federated 607 701 2.98 791 118,500 (2000) 169 1.9 27 0.4 4 2,070 (1998) States of (65) Micronesia Fiji 320 18,333 1.26 1,324 868,531 (2003) 4 44 1.0 71 2.6 3 4,850 (2001) (105) French 59 3,521 5.03 2,241 262,125 (2003) 4 66 1.6 53 1.4 2 5,000 (2001) 4 Polynesia Guam 1 541 0.21 406 154,800 (2000) 286 1.9 3 15,541 (1995 estimate) Kiribati 33 811 3.55 87 98,549 (2003) 4 110 2.2 37 2.2 2 800 (2001) 4 (20) Marshall Islands 29 181 2.13 3 56,429 (2003) 4 285 1.6 65 1.8 2 1,600 (2001) 4 Nauru 1 21 0.32 70 12,570 (2003) 4 599 2.5 0 0 2 3,450 (1998) New Caledonia 7 18,576 1.74 1,628 210,798 (2003) 4 11 1.7 71 2.7 32 14,000 (2002) 4 New Zealand NA 268,680 1.3 3,754 3.8 million (2001) 14 0.6 86 1.2 2 20,100 (2002) 4 Niue 1 259 0.39 65 2,145 (2003) 4 7 -3.1 35 1.2 2 3,600 (2003) 4 Palau 200+ 458 0.63 242 19,717 (2003) 4 43 1.0 69 1.2 6 9,000 (2001) 4 Papua New NA 462,243 3.12 4,697 5,295,816 (2003)4 10 2.2 15 4.1 700+ 2,100 (2002) 4 Guinea Pitcairn 1 5 0.8 347 47 (2003) 4 9 0 0 0 2 Not available Samoa 9 2,935 0.12 1,860 178,173 (2003) 4 61 1.1 21 1.2 2 6,180 (2001) (4)

2 2000 figures from SOPAC. 2003 figures from UNDP Human Development Indicators Report 2003 3 SOPAC 2000 unless otherwise indicated 4 2001 figure from UNDP Human Development Indicators Report 2003. Remainder from SOPAC Country Profiles 5 The World Fact Book (www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook)

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Country Inhabited Land Area EEZ Elevation Population2 Pop Pop. Urban Pop Urban Pop Lang- Estimated Islands Sq km (Million Sq Metres Density Growth 1999 Growth uages Per Capita GDP km) (Pop/sq Rate (%)3 (%) (%) US$4 km)

Solomon 347 28,370 0.60 2,447 509,190 (2003) 4 16 2.6 13 6.2 89 1,910 (2001) Islands Tokelau 3 12 0.29 5 1,500 (1995) 125 0 0 0 2 1,000 (1993) Tonga 171 649 0.70 1,030 100,300 (2000) 155 0.5 32 0.8 2 1,868 (1998) (36) Tuvalu 9 26 1.30 5 11,305 (2003) 4 404 1.9 42 4.8 2 1,100 (2000) 4 Vanuatu 84 12,190 0.71 1,877 199,414 (2003) 4 16 2.2 21 4.3 108 approx 2,900 (2002) 4 Wallis and 23 274 0.3 765 15,734 (2003) 4 57 Not Appl Not Appl 2 2,000 (2000) 4 Futuna

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CHAPTER 2: THE HAZARD AND RISK ENVIRONMENT

2.1 Countries in the Southwest Pacific are at risk from a wide range of hazards, geological, meteorological, biological, medical, environmental and social. Although the number of deaths caused by these hazards is low in absolute terms, the relative death and injury toll in countries with small populations is actually very high. A casualty count of 65 deaths in a country like Vanuatu is proportionally the same as a total of 122,000 deaths in Bangladesh. Similarly, damage costs are usually low by world standards but often, particularly in smaller countries, they amount to a significant proportion of gross national product (GNP) and can even exceed the annual GNP on occasions. The impact of such a hazard on a primary industry-based economy and on the subsistence communities that form a high proportion of the population in developing countries in the region is devastating and the recovery rate can be very slow. As populations increase and pressure on available land grows, vulnerability is increasing.

2.2 Improved travel links and better communications have exposed the region to a number of new risks and their extent is not yet fully assessed. Increased civil unrest, exposure to terrorism risks (albeit aimed at other nationalities), exposure to involvement in drugs and arms smuggling, combined with the pressure from outside governments to conform with safeguards designed to reduce their risks; all have the potential to increase regional risks.

2.3 Compiling details of disasters in the Pacific Island Region is particularly difficult because of poor record keeping, short corporate memories and limited national database collection. Economic costs of hazard impacts are rarely assessed despite the significant effects they may have on development and on national aspirations. Understanding of the difference between occurrence of a hazard event and its impact as an emergency or disaster tends to be restricted with death tolls the most likely measurement. Table 2 at the end of this chapter lists disasters in the region during the period 1994-2004.

2.4 Coordinated risk assessment is at an early stage of development in this region, although the lack of models from other regions suggests that this level of development is not unusual. While geological, meteorological and health risks have been studied in isolation for decades, less attention has been paid to many other hazards. Development of comprehensive national risk assessments has been fragmented. It is only since the 1990s and the activities of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) that a more inclusive approach has been explored. The change has not been without problems and there is resistance in some professions to participation by ‘outsiders’ while acceptance of the risk management techniques has been slow.

Disasters in Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

2.5 At both the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States in Barbados in 1994 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002 there was recognition of the vulnerability of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to the impact of disasters. The Barbados Programme of Action (See Annex E) agreed to at the first of these key meetings contains the following statement. “SIDS being located among the most vulnerable regions in the world to the increasing intensity and frequency of natural and environmental disasters, face disproportionately high economic, social and environmental consequences”. Section VII of the Plan of Implementation of the WSSD specifically addresses sustainable development of Small Island Developing States. It emphasises the need for developed nations to “Extend assistance to Small Island Developing States in support of local communities and appropriate national and

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regional organisations of small island developing states for comprehensive hazard and risk management, disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness and help relieve the consequences of disasters, extreme weather events and other emergencies;” (see the extracts from the Plan in Annex F).

2.6 While disasters in this region may appear small compared to the terrible events that occur in Africa and Asia, it is helpful to consider the proportionality mentioned in the Barbados Plan of Action. Every person and every asset contributes to the viability and development of a developing country. In a small country with a small population and limited resources the contribution of the individual is proportionally much greater than that of an individual in a larger or more developed country. A tropical cyclone death toll of twenty people in a country like Vanuatu may seem a minor event to the rest of the world but twenty people in a population of one hundred and ninety thousand people is equivalent to a death toll of 13,300 in Japan, 6,200 in France or 29,600 in the United States of America. None of these death tolls would be considered minor. The impact on national consciousness and even on the economy would be devastating and would inspire major political support, searching inquiries and extensive recovery assistance to the affected communities. Yet small island developing States in the Pacific are expected to bounce-back quickly with limited recovery assistance being provided to supplement their limited resources. Elsewhere in this chapter there is a description of the impact of a school dormitory fire in the tiny nation of Tuvalu. A small event on the world stage but a catastrophic event for Tuvalu – so serious that the Prime Minister and Cabinet visited every inhabited island in the country to convey the sorrow and apologies of the government for the event! It is not unusual for the direct cost of a disaster in this region to equal half the annual government budget; some exceed that budget even without taking account of the indirect costs. Disasters in the Pacific rarely make world headlines but their local impact can be more damaging to an affected country than that of much greater event to an overseas country.

The Tuvalu Dormitory Fire

Late in the evening of 8 March 2000 a fire broke out in a girls’ dormitory at Motufoua Secondary School on the island of Vaitupu in Tuvalu. The dormitory was locked for security reasons and a key was not immediately available. As a result of the fire 18 of the girls died together with the Matron, who was trying to free them. A further 18 girls escaped, three of them with burns. It is thought that the fire was caused when a girl, doing revision for a class test by candlelight under a blanket, set fire to her bed.

With an area of 4.9 sq km, Vaitupu is the largest island in Tuvalu and has a population of 1,300. It is situated some 130 km north of the capital, Funafuti. The school is the only government secondary school in the tiny nation. The destroyed building was built of wood and the school had no fire fighting equipment. Vaitupu has no airport – it was impossible to bring help to the scene. The victims came from seven different atolls and most of the extended families that form the core of Tuvaluan society are thought to have lost at least one member. As a result, the fire traumatised the population of Tuvalu.

In a larger country this event would have been a tragic, but transitory, accident. In Tuvalu it was a disaster that killed a significant proportion of the teenaged girls in the country. Apart from the distress it has caused to the present population of Tuvalu, its effects can be expected to influence the population and development of the nation long into the future. In scale the loss is equivalent to the loss of more than 200,000 girls in a single event in Japan.

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Geological Risks

2.7 The Southwest Pacific geological hazard environment is dominated by the presence of tectonic plate boundaries between the Austro-Indian Plate and the Pacific Plate and between the Philippines Plate and the Pacific Plate. Close to the boundary of the former lie New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, while close to the latter lie Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia.

2.7.1 Earthquake. The constant movement of the plates along these boundaries, produces an environment in which frequent earthquakes occur and active volcanoes proliferate. While many of the earthquakes occur deep beneath the earth’s surface producing little or no effect at surface level, occasional major earthquakes at shallow depths close to island countries can cause significant injury and damage. A number of major population centres in the region are at risk from earthquakes.

2.7.2 Tsunami. Earthquakes are the major trigger mechanisms for the tsunamis that occur in this region. Many regional tsunamis are small and localised but even these can cause coastal flooding and damage while a major tsunami, like the one that occurred near Aitape on the north coast of Papua New Guinea on 17 July 1998 following a nearby Magnitude 7 earthquake, can cause large numbers of casualties and significant damage.

Tsunami – Aitape, Papua New Guinea

It was a quiet evening in the fishing villages of the Sissano Peninsula, west of the small town of Aitape, on Papua New Guinea’s north coast on 17 July 1998. The villages had an idyllic setting three to four metres above sea level in palm groves on a sandy peninsula between the sea and Sissano Lagoon. They were home to about 9,000 people. Cool breezes alleviated the heat of the day and the evening meal was being cooked in many of the houses.

Shortly after dark, at about 7.30 pm, the ground started to tremble as yet another earthquake shook the area. Earthquakes are not uncommon along this coast, which lies close to the boundary between the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates. This one was more severe than most but after a short time the shaking stopped and life resumed as local houses are not normally damaged by seismic events.

About ten minutes after the earthquake, a loud roar was heard and the water rapidly receded from the beach. A few people realised what was happening and began to run but before most could react the sea returned in a wave up to nine metres high that washed houses, people and everything away. It was the first of three such waves that swept everything on the peninsula except the largest trees into the lagoon. Some people managed to cling to debris or canoes and gradually made their way to the other side of the lagoon but most did not. In a few minutes more than 2,200 people died and over 600 were seriously injured. Houses and household goods were lost and the only assets that survived were the food gardens inland.

Although the tsunami was detected along 50 kilometres of coastline, few casualties occurred beyond this small peninsula. The waves penetrated up to one kilometre inland but swept right across Sissano Lagoon, depositing bodies and debris along its farther banks. The smell of death was so strong that search dogs sent from the United States to locate bodies could no longer differentiate individual corpses and had to return with limited success. Hundreds of bodies have never been found.

The Aitape Tsunami made headlines worldwide. Aid converged from many countries in far greater volumes than were needed by the affected population. It overwhelmed Papua New Guinea’s logistic resources and took many weeks to sort. The survivors were initially housed in a number of care centres inland and close to their food gardens and have now settled into villages in the region.

Subsequent investigation indicates that undersea slumping after a Richter magnitude 7.0 earthquake approximately 35 km west of Sissano Lagoon caused the tsunami. Discussions with local elders appear to indicate that such events have occurred in nearly every generation – but the people accept the risk “because it is such a beautiful place to live”. They suggest that in a few years people will move back into the area again!

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2.7.3 Landslide. In the steeper islands, particularly those in high rainfall areas, earthquakes often cause catastrophic landslides or trigger slower moving landslips that affect the viability of food gardens and cash cropping areas on which rural economies are heavily dependent. Heavy rain causes landslides in many countries in the region. Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Solomon Islands have all suffered casualties and/or damage from rain-induced landslides during the last ten years.

2.7.4 Volcano. Destructive volcanic eruptions are not frequent in the region but they appear to have been the greatest single cause of natural hazard induced deaths in the historical period. In Papua New Guinea, eruptions of the Rabaul volcanoes in 1937 and of Mount Lamington in 1951 caused more than 3,500 deaths. There are eight known active volcanoes in Papua New Guinea, four in Solomon Islands, ten in Vanuatu, five in Tonga and single active cones in a number of other countries. New Zealand also has a number of active volcanoes that pose a risk to sizeable population centres. There are also an unknown number of active undersea volcanoes in the region. Some regional volcanoes are in continual eruption and the local populations are usually well aware of the risks posed by any increase in the frequency or intensity of activity levels. Others that erupt less frequently can cause significant loss of life and damage to local communities. The fertile land around volcanoes may be intensively cultivated so that the impact of a relatively localised event can have a significant impact on local rural economies. Eruptions in Guam, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu in the last century all caused significant casualties and damage.

Meteorological Risk

2.8 Meteorological phenomena produce the most frequent hazards in the region with a number of disastrous events occurring every year.

2.8.1 Tropical cyclones. Much of the Southwest Pacific Region lies in the tropics and is subject to tropical cyclones. North of the Equator, the peak season for tropical cyclones (known there as typhoons) is from April to November; while south of the Equator it is generally agreed to be from October to May. The number of cyclones in each season varies but the frequency of occurrence is higher north of the equator. During the 1992/93 to the 2003/4 southern tropical cyclone seasons there were an average of 8 cyclones per season south of the equator while during the equivalent 1992- 2003 north-west Pacific seasons there were an average of 16.8 per season.

2.8.2 Many of the storms remain over oceanic areas and have little significant impact on regional countries but in each season damaging events do occur. Regional countries most prone to cyclone impact are Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Fiji, Wallis and Futuna and Australia in the southern sector and Marshall Islands in the northern sector. Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Marshall Islands, Niue, the Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu experience cyclones less frequently while Kiribati and Nauru, situated close to the equator, are not in a cyclone area. New Zealand is affected by an occasional persistent cyclone that leaves the tropics to track further south.

2.8.3 Cyclone damage may be caused by strong winds, flash floods, storm surge, high waves and salt spray damage to vegetation. Salt pollution of the freshwater lens in atoll islands can also cause serious hardship to the population. It is rare for the whole of a country to experience direct damage in a single cyclone but occasionally, as in the case of Niue in 2004, this does happen. However, any cyclone will have an effect on the national economy and development of a country and is likely to interrupt national communications and inter-island as well as international travel.

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Source: UK Meteorological Office via http://www.met- office.uk/sec2/sec2cyclone/tcgraphs/tcactivity

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Tropical Cyclone Zoë – Solomon Islands

On 28 December 2000, Severe Tropical Cyclone Zoë struck the remote islands of Tikopia and Anuta in the Solomon Islands. As often happens in this ‘quiet’ news period, the impact made world news headlines when a newsman chartered a helicopter from nearby Vanuatu three days later to fly to the islands for an initial reconnaissance that resulted in reports of helpless people devastated by the storm and abandoned by their government and by regional donors. While the people of Tikopia and Anuta were seriously affected by the disaster, the early reports did not reflect the inherent resilience of these island communities.

Tikopia and Anuta are among the most remote islands of this widely dispersed nation. With a total population of around 1,500, they lie 1,000 kilometres from the capital, Honiara, and 16 hours by boat from the provincial capital, Lata. The people are self-sufficient, living by subsistence agriculture Damaged Water Supply in Namo, Tikopia Islands. and fishing, as have their ancestors for centuries. The islands have no airstrip, harbour or jetty. Small island supply ships, that visit approximately every three months and land goods by canoe over the beach, meet their minimal external needs. These people have always lived in a tropical cyclone area and have developed survival skills that rely on the preservation of food for emergency periods and the use of recognised shelters whatever the wind direction.

Solomon Islands itself was in the first stage of recovering from an extensive period of virtual civil war and was economically bankrupt. The radio that linked Tikopia and Anuta with the outside world had been out of action for three months because the government could not afford the cost of despatching a ship just to provide spare parts. Government and donor priorities were ending the violence and bringing lasting peace to a fractured nation.

Recognising the likely impact of Zoë, the government had requested outside assistance and a Royal Australian Air Force C-130 Hercules flew over the islands on the same day as the reporter’s helicopter. The Australian aircraft took photographs that were passed to the Solomon Islands Government, which also debriefed the crew in Honiara.

The problems facing the country meant that government could not meet the needs but Red Cross and NGOs (Oxfam World Vision and ADRA) funded supplies to relieve the situation but lacked the funds to charter a suitable ship or to refuel a Police patrol boat for the journey to deliver them. With donor funds, a ship was chartered and the patrol boat fuelled. Supplies were procured and loaded and a multi-agency assessment team from Solomon Islands Government, Red Cross, NGOs, donors and the UN embarked for the islands, together with a small medical team.

As soon as the seas were forecast to be safe enough both vessels sailed and arrived at the island to find people already starting to rebuild houses and prepare food gardens for planting. During the landing seas were still rough, the small boat carrying the medical team capsized and the boat’s engines were damaged but the relief reached the islanders. It was found that there were no fatalities and only minor injuries. The islanders had survived on coconuts and fish, part of their staple diet, but needed assistance with other staples as garden crops had been destroyed by wind and by salt-water contamination. The government eventually continued to supply staples until 2004 when gardens were again productive.

Footnote. Subsequently a ship from another country arrived at only one island without any checks with national disaster management officials. It delivered a mixture of foods, some of which were unknown to the islanders and could not be used, and some that were enjoyed but have created unrealisable expectations since the people have little disposable income. Non-delivery to the other island created jealousies that had to be relieved by a hard- pressed government.

2.8.4 Tropical storms. Less intense and more localised than tropical cyclones, tropical storms are experienced in many countries in the region. They can cause local casualties and damage. The low pressure induced in such storms can also cause storm surges.

2.8.5 Hailstorms. Hailstorms are a significant hazard in parts of Australia where sudden storms bring hail stones up to 5 cm in diameter that cause major damage to

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buildings, vehicles and infrastructure. Australia’s highest insurance cost disaster was a hailstorm that struck Sydney during 2000.

2.8.6 Floods. In most mountainous countries in the region, floods are a constant hazard. Flash flooding is often a risk after heavy rain, particularly during and after tropical cyclones. Longer lasting floods can occur in the major river systems of Fiji, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Australia experiences occasional long lasting floods that spread over vast inland areas and move through river systems over a period of months before reaching the sea or draining into an inland lake.

2.8.7 Drought. Paradoxically in an area dominated by the Pacific Ocean, drought is a very real hazard in the region. Atoll islands are particularly vulnerable since the people rely on a restricted freshwater lens below ground but above the salt water table. The lens is replenished by rainwater filtering through the sandy soil and even relatively short periods without rain can induce drought conditions. Drought is also a hazard in other regional countries with those in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji during and after the 1997/98 El Nino event being particularly severe. Australia is regularly affected by drought with periods of drought lasting longer than three years being experienced in some areas in the 1990s.

2.8.8 Bushfire. Major bushfires occur annually in parts of Australia and New Zealand, reaching catastrophic proportions every few years. Smaller, but still damaging, bushfires also occur in other countries with Fiji, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and Vanuatu being regularly affected. The incidence of deliberately lit bushfires and escaping land clearance fires appears to be increasing.

2.8.9 Cold-Weather Risks. The highlands of Papua New Guinea experience occasional night frosts each year during the southern winter but staple food crops can be severely depleted if the frosts occur over longer periods or are particularly severe. As such periods are most likely during drought, famine can result from the combined impact of the two phenomena. New Zealand experiences the most severe cold weather hazards with frost and avalanches risks occurring in most years.

2.8.10 Tornado. Tornados are rare but they have been recorded in a number of regional countries.

Biological Risks

2.9 All the countries of the Southwest Pacific have been isolated from the rest of the world for many years. Consequently their ecosystems are vulnerable to exotic insect and vermin infestations and to crop and animal diseases. When an exotic organism is introduced it can have a devastating impact on crops and livestock affecting not only the subsistence lifestyles of rural populations in island countries but also the cash crops on which economies in the region are substantially dependent. Most countries have introduced a wide range of quarantine regulations to reduce the risk of exotic pest introduction but policing the regulations is difficult as is the ability to explain the reason for the regulations to potential trade partners and to relief donors after a disaster. Quarantine failures, such as the introduction of coffee rust to Papua New Guinea in the 1980s and taro blight to Samoa after the tropical cyclones of 1990 and 1991 can require expensive countermeasures or even lead to these organisms becoming endemic.

Health Risks

2.10 There are a number of hazardous diseases endemic in regional countries. Insect- borne diseases include malaria in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu that is

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resistant to many drugs and dengue fever in a much broader range of countries. Water- borne and poor hygiene-related diseases occur in most of the developing countries and lead to occasional outbreaks of cholera. Upper respiratory tract disease is a problem among children.

2.11 In recent years HIV/AIDS has been increasingly detected in the populations of many regional countries that are ill prepared and ill-equipped to combat the pandemic. The extent of its spread is still being assessed but it is clear that in some populations the spread is rapid despite the education campaigns of the World Health Organisation and national health authorities, supported by donors.

2.12 Tourism-dependent countries are also at risk when international disease scares, such as that for SARS in 2003, impact on the tourism market. Reductions in the number of incoming tourists can have a serious impact on their national economies.

Environmental Risks

2.13 Environmental risks are having an increasing impact on regional countries. Excessive land clearance, uncontrolled logging and intensive monocropping have all contributed to increased erosion, which enhances the impact of other hazards. Poor rubbish disposal practices, uncontrolled use of fertilisers and inadequate disposal facilities are also posing risks to the environment. These in turn are being intensified by the ‘dumping’ on developing country markets of materials that can no longer be sold or used in countries with tighter environmental standards.

2.14 In Australia and New Zealand, as well as some of the major urban areas of other countries, there is concern about the increasing impact of air pollution from vehicles and manufacturing processes. While legislation is reducing some risks, the overall level of pollution and its impact on vulnerable elements of the population and on the ozone layer remains high.

2.15 Of particular concern to low-lying countries in the Southwest Pacific are the threats of climate change or climate variability and sea-level rise. These threats are of particular concern to small low-lying atoll islands like Tuvalu, Tokelau and the Marshall Islands that are less than 10 metres above sea level. Early impacts are likely to include more frequent inundation by high tides and storm surges as well as high waves, which present a risk of contamination of their freshwater lenses. Early measurements seem to be recording the first signs of rise and the populations are increasingly concerned that gradually their countries will become uninhabitable.

Social Risks

2.16 In recent years a number of risks to social order have developed to such a level in the region that they pose a significant risk to economies and to the safety of life and property.

2.16.1 Civil Unrest. Until recently, the Southwest Pacific was considered a peaceful region with limited but acceptable crime risks and little likelihood of conflict. This image has been changed in recent years by the events generally referred to as the Bougainville Rebellion, the various Fiji coups and the outbreak of civil strife in Solomon Islands. All three of these events have caused loss of life and serious economic damage to the countries concerned.

2.16.2 Crime. The risks imposed by law and order problems in major cities are reported from many parts of the world but the serious breakdown of law and order has increased the risk in parts of Papua New Guinea. The level of crime in its cities is now so

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severe that, as well as affecting the safety of life and property; it is discouraging economic activity and seriously hampering development. In parts of the country the availability of firearms has increased, reportedly funded by drug production. Elsewhere in the region there is concern about the possible use of island countries by organised crime but examples of such activity are few at present. The most recent was a major drug production facility detected in Fiji.

2.16.3 Urban drift. Urban drift, which is occurring in most regional countries, is resulting in the growth of squatter settlements and putting pressure on available utilities. Risk are also increasing due to lack of land use planning, limited building standards and poor enforcement of those standards. In addition, the increasing populations and growth of central business areas have engulfed some sensitive facilities in urban areas. Consequently major fuel and hazardous goods storage facilities are now located in areas where large numbers of people are either working or living. This poses a high risk of casualties in an accident.

2.16.4 Terrorism. There is also concern about the possibility of terrorist attacks on tourist facilities in the region but there have been no incidents reported at this stage. The closest was the Bali bombing in 2001 and the abductions of innocent local people and tourists in the Philippines.

2.16.5 Urban Fire. Urban fires pose a constant risk in island countries. Few houses are built to any fire resistant standard and many contain highly flammable materials. The Tuvalu school fire mentioned earlier in this report demonstrates the impact that even a single fire can have. Fire Services in the region are under resourced and therefore have little if any capacity to deal with a large outbreak of fire. This is compounded by the constraints of poor reticulated water supplies and a lack of vehicle and equipment replacement programmes. The most effective solution is to increase the levels of fire protection in buildings through compliance with appropriate building codes and promote public awareness and community safety.

2.16.6 The capitals of Pacific island countries nearly all have squatter settlements where people who have moved from rural areas build shelters from any available materials. The materials are often highly flammable and the dwellings very closely packed. It can be impossible for emergency vehicles to reach these dwellings and fires in the settlements can cause great damage before they burn out or are brought under control.

2.16.7 Fires in business premises can also have a significant impact on small countries. These countries often lack the number and diversity of supply and storage resources of larger countries so the loss of a single business or warehouse can have an immediate adverse effect while the resultant shortage of supplies will have an immediate economic effect and logistical weaknesses can significantly delay recovery. Fiji has suffered a number of losses of this type during the last decade and the impacts are still being felt. Fire destroys a shopping centre in Majuro, Marshall Islands, 2002

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TABLE 2. DISASTERS IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS REGION 1994-2004

Year Location Disaster Type Population Affected Lives lost Estimated cost Notes 1994 Papua New Guinea: Volcano 50,000 3 Buried much of Rabaul Town Rabaul Fiji Tropical Cyclone Minor damage Thomas Niue Drought 1,200 NZ$ 2 million Major crop losses 1995 Fiji Tropical Cyclone 3,500 25 US$ 18.3 million Gavin Vanuatu Volcanic eruption Environmental damage Australia Floods 34,500+ 1 ACT, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Tasmania. 8 events. 1996 Papua New Guinea: Volcano 3,000 17 Manam I Madang Fiji Tropical Cyclone June Minor damage Papua New Guinea Landslide 38 Palau Bridge collapse US$ 7.2 million Affected transport between major islands Niue Bushfires 100 NZ$ 50,000 Forestry damage Vanuatu Tropical Cyclone Beti Vt 3 million Shelters and food gardens Australia Floods 99,500 11 New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria Western Australia. 17 events. 1997 Papua New Guinea: Tropical Cyclone 15,000 8 Housing and crop damage on mainly atoll islands Milne Bay Justine Papua New Guinea: El Nino Drought 3,158,961 380 US$ 80 million + Nationwide Solomon Islands: El Nino Drought Nationwide Fiji El Nino Drought 400,000 US$ 60 million Agriculture in 75% of the country affected. Impact on food and water supplies, schools etc, Fiji Tropical Cyclone 14,000 7 US$ 26 million Building and crop damage Gavin Tonga Tropical Cyclone Hina Not avbl T$ 18.2 million Building and crop damage Tonga Tropical Cyclone Ron 500 T$ 1.1 million Housing and building damage on Niuafo’ou Island Australia Floods 21,350 3 New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. 14 events. Guam Typhoon Federated States of: Typhoon Micronesia

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Year Location Disaster Type Population Affected Lives lost Estimated cost Notes 1998 Papua New Guinea: Floods 38,000 28 Ramu R, Madang Papua New Guinea: Floods 23,000 0 Sepik R. East Sepik Papua New Guinea: Tsunami 12,427 2,227 Aitape, Sandaun Australia Floods 41,000 8 New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. 17 events Samoa Tropical Cyclone Tui 1,143 1 SAT 2,506,602 6 houses damaged, power and communications disrupted, Food crops destroyed Samoa Drought and bushfire SAT 402,722 Forests and agricultural crops destroyed Tonga Tropical Cyclone Cora 77,000 T$ 19.6 million Housing and agricultural sector damage Niue Tropical Cyclone Dovi 100 NZ$ 1 million Structural damage to only wharf Vanuatu Tropical Cyclone Vt 800 million Housing and schools, agriculture, water supply and health Katrina facilities Federated Sta tes of El Niño Drought 103,000 - Water supplies and agriculture affected Micronesia Marshall Islands El Niño Drought Tuvalu Drought 10,000 AU$ 1.5 million 1999 Papua New Guinea: Floods 10,000 Mid Fly, Western Fiji Tropical Cyclone Dani 2,000 12 US$ 2 million Housing, business, agriculture damage – mainly by flooding Solomon Islands Civil unrest 60,000 + Continued until 2003. Major internal displacement. Vanuatu Tropical Cyclone Ela 28,600 5 Vt 700 million Housing, agriculture, schools and health facilities damage Australia Floods 39,600 7 New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia. 13 events Vanuatu Earthquake & 5,000 10 Housing and crop damage from earthquake, tsunami and Tsunami landslides 2000 Papua New Guinea: Thunderstorms 400+ 1 Houses and gardens destroyed Pangia, S Highlands Papua New Guinea: Floods 1,000 Food gardens destroyed Laloki, Central Papua New Guinea: Tsunami & Flood 1,600 Houses and food gardens destroyed Bougainville & Buka, N Solomons Papua New Guinea: Earthquake 100,000 Kina 14 million Infrastructure and property damage E New Britain

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Year Location Disaster Type Population Affected Lives lost Estimated cost Notes Papua New Guinea: Volcanic Ash Fall 3,750 House and crop destruction W New Britain Papua New Guinea: Floods 16,000 Destruction of infrastructure S Highlands Papua New Guinea: Floods 500+ Bereina, Central Papua New Guinea: Landslide 5 2 Morobe Papua New Guinea: Flood 1,900 Long I, Madang Fiji Coup and subsequent mutiny Tonga Tropical Cyclone 65,000 T$ 4.2 million Agriculture damage Mona Vanuatu Tropical Cyclone Iris Housing and agriculture damage Fiji Floods 5,000 4 Minor damage Australia Floods 60,700 New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia. 10 events. 2001 Papua New Guinea: Floods 400 Infrastructure destroyed Mumeng, Morobe Papua New Guinea: Explosion 60+ 5 Madang Town (Contaminated kerosene) Vanuatu Tropical Cyclone 1 Housing and Agriculture damage Paula Fiji Tropical Cyclone 7,000 1 Housing damage Paula Storm Surge Tonga Tropical Cyclone 20,000 T$ 700,000 Tourist resort damage Paula Vanuatu Volcanic eruption 1,700 + Water supply contamination, Respiratory problems, crop damage Samoa Floods 5,000 directly, - SAT 11 million Houses, commercial buildings flooded and damaged. 28,000 indirectly Lifelines (roads, bridges, water supply, hydro power stations damaged and supplies interrupted Palau Tropical Cyclone Utor 11,000 US$ 4 million Homes destroyed, communications, transportation and utilities systems disrupted Tonga - Tropical Cyclone 68,000 T$ 104 million 470 houses destroyed. Food supplies, power system health Waka and sanitation damage

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Year Location Disaster Type Population Affected Lives lost Estimated cost Notes Tuvalu Boarding school fire 36 18 AU$ 500,000 Affected almost every family in the country Guam Earthquake Australia Floods 21,500+ 1 New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. 6 events 2002 Papua New Guinea: Earthquake 5,000 4 Building damage Wewak, East Sepik Papua New Guinea: Volcano 13,000 Lifelines disrupted, Major bridge destroyed by mudflow, Mt Pago, W New Homes affected by flooding. Major evacuations affected Britain agriculture. Papua New Guinea: Floods Houses affected Ramu R, Madang Papua New Guinea: Earthquake & 138 36 Village destroyed Wantuat, Morobe Landslide Papua New Guinea: Mild El Nino drought 35,000 Reduced food security Milne Bay Vanuatu Hailstorm 3,000 Vt 800 million 500 houses destroyed. Agricultural, infrastructure and water supply damage Federated States of Tropical Cyclone 8,000 Damage to housing and agriculture Micronesia Mitag Guam Tropical Cyclone Pongsona Federated States of Tropical Cyclone 1,000 47 Damage to housing and crops. Many landslides Micronesia Chata’an Guam Tropical Cyclone 1,600 US$ 60 million Damage to housing, agriculture and utilities Chata’an Vanuatu Earthquake 1,100 Housing, schools and churches damaged Tuvalu Tidal surge 50 AU$ 20,000 Flooded all low lying areas Australia Floods 47,000 1 New South Wales 2003 Papua New Guinea: Floods 4,365 Sepik R, E Sepik Tuvalu Tropical Cyclone Ami 27 AU$ 6,000 Coastal damage Solomon Islands: Tropical Cyclone Beni 2,010 Housing and agriculture damage Rennell & Bellona Fiji Tropical Cyclone Ami 60,000 15 US$ 22.8 million Housing, infrastructure and agriculture damage New Caledonia Tropical Cyclone Erica 1,000 + Housing and agriculture damage Solomon Islands: Tropical Cyclone Zoe 1,678 Housing, schools, clinics and agriculture damaged. Water Tikopia and Anuta supplies affected

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Year Location Disaster Type Population Affected Lives lost Estimated cost Notes Tonga Tropical Cyclone 15,000 T$ 1.9 million Housing, harbour facilities and resort damage. Eseta Papua New Guinea: Landslide 13 Housing and crop damage S. Highlands Papua New Guinea: Floods 1,197 Bukawa, Morobe Papua New Guinea: Internally displaced 13,000 Madang Town Federated States of Tropical Cyclone Lupit 2,000 Damage to housing, water supplies and crops Micronesia Australia Bushfires 4 ACT, NSW, Victoria

American Samoa Floods and landslides Australia Floods 9 Queensland and South Australia. 5 events 2004 Papua New Guinea: Landslides Highlands Highway – the main transport link – disrupted. Simbu Cash crop movement stopped Papua New Guinea: Floods Major bridges destroyed or damaged. Cash economy Pamu R. Madang disrupted. Markham R, Morobe Tuvalu Fire 16 AU$ 6,000 American Samoa Tropical Cyclone Heta Samoa Tropical Cyclone Heta Total SAT 90 million (US$ 50+ houses destroyed, Wind damage to houses, crops, 35 million) utilities, and coastal ecosystems. Wave damage to roads, culverts and seawalls as well as depositing debris across roads and in coastal villages. Niue Tropical Cyclone Heta 1,300 1 US$ 23 million Whole country affected. Damage to housing, hospital, commercial buildings, crops, utilities, transport systems. Wallis & Futuna Tropical Cyclone Heta Damage to power supplies and agriculture New Zealand Floods NZ$ 180 million Housing, transport systems, utilities and agriculture affected Tonga Tropical Cyclone Heta 1200 T$ 950,000 Housing and agriculture sector damage Fiji Storms and Floods 36,500 23 FJ$ 3 million Vanuatu Tropical Cyclone Ivy 54,000 2 Vt 900 million Housing, agriculture, schools, health facilities and water supply system damage Federated States of Tropical Cyclone 12,000 Damage to housing, public and commercial buildings, crops, Micronesia Sudal utilities

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CHAPTER 3: REGIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT

3.1 Regional activity in relation to disaster management is relatively recent in the Pacific. Various donor-supported national disaster preparedness activities had been taking place in the region since at least the early 1980s with the level of support increasing after Tropical Cyclone Isaac struck Tonga in 1982 and after the threatened eruption of volcanic cones around Rabaul in Papua New Guinea during 1984. A number of these activities were conducted by, or under the auspices of, the Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator (UNDRO) but the approaches were fragmented. Although national disaster management structures and plans had been developed in a number of countries, there was no regional coordination or management structure in place. Fortunately similar national disaster management structures had been developed in many of the regional countries as a result of cooperation between countries and between the two main supporting donors, UNDRO – now the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ([OCHA) – and the Australian Development Assistance Bureau (AIDAB) – now the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).

3.2 In October 1990, UNDRO established a South Pacific Programme Office (SPPO) in Suva, Fiji as a focal point for the provision of disaster management assistance to the region. In March 1991, UNDRO SPPO convened a Seminar in Suva entitled “Strengthening Disaster Management in the South Pacific”. The seminar was attended by representatives of ten Pacific island countries as well as those of various UN agencies, aid donors (including Australia and New Zealand) and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs). The Seminar made 24 recommendations. The following extracts from the recommendations are relevant to the subject of this report:

q Institutional (iii). …. Pacific island countries are urged to view UNDRO/SPPO as a clearing house for disaster related information, to support its role in mitigation and preparedness in the various countries, and to cooperate with it in its negotiations with the international community for the resources needed to improve effective management of disasters. q Institutional (iv). …. Government of the small countries in the region are urged to charge their respective NDCs (National Disaster Committees) and planning offices with the responsibility to examine all future development plans in the light of disaster mitigation requirements. …. q Training (i). …. it is necessary that a comprehensive inventory of training needs, resources and training institutions be prepared. ….. q Training (iii). …. Appropriate and ongoing public awareness programmes must be developed for each country using effective mass presentation systems available in the country. These programmes should not only be directed at the general population but also form a part of the curriculum in schools. … q National Disaster Committee (iii). …. Since disasters, the environment and development are heavily interlinked mitigation requirements could very well be written into disaster legislation where appropriate. …… q Financing (ii). …. Disaster should be considered as integral negative elements in the process of development. All development plans for key sectors of the economy should have disaster mitigation plans built into them. …. q Disaster, Development and Insurance (i). The level of risk awareness must be raised among decision-makers and development planners. A risk analysis of all development projects must be considered of priority. Hazard or vulnerability mapping of the entire country relative to the types of disaster to which it is prone is a matter of urgency.

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q Disaster, Development and Insurance (iii). As a result of the findings of risk analysis studies, governments are encouraged to develop rules and codes that would mitigate the effects of disasters. …… q Roles of NGOs (i). … NGOs should develop their capabilities to operate effectively in relief and recovery operations and mitigation and preparedness activities. q Roles of NGOs (v). NGOs should be geared to offer help in fostering community support and public awareness about disaster management. q Roles of NGOs (vi). NGOs should develop guidelines to strengthen their roles in the preparedness and mitigation aspects of disaster management.

3.3 In response to another recommendation of the 1991 Seminar, the Australia Coordination Committee for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) funded and convened a South West Pacific Disaster Managers Workshop in Honiara, Solomon Islands in May 1992. 12 regional countries as well as UNDRO SPPO were represented at that meeting, which was the first of a series that continues to the present time although because of increasing travel costs, full meetings now occur every two years with supplementary sub-regional meetings convened in the interim period. The most recent full regional meeting, at Sigatoka, Fiji in May 2003, was attended by representatives of 14 regional countries (including Australia and New Zealand) while observers represented a wide range of disaster management agencies, six of the members of the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific (CROP), four other donor countries, four UN agencies and professional and commercial bodies.

3.4 In 1992 the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) replaced UNDRO so UNDRO-SPPO became DHA-SPPO. The Office continued to function as a focal point for disaster management activities in the region and in 1994 it began to implement the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) South Pacific Disaster Reduction Programme (SPDRP), which became a key regional activity over the next six years.

3.5 Despite the value of the activities of DHA-SPPO, regional countries considered that it would be more appropriate for coordination to be carried out by a regional organisation. At the third annual Regional Disaster Managers meeting in Suva, Fiji in September 1994 delegates noted and reaffirmed a 1990 decision by the South Pacific Forum (now the Pacific Islands Forum), the paramount regional intergovernmental organisation, that gave the Forum Secretariat the mandate for coordination of natural disaster management in the region. Recommendations of the Regional Disaster Managers meeting relating to the performance of mandated activities were passed to the Forum Secretariat and delegates undertook to raise this subject with their governments.

3.6 The initiative coincided with a review of regional organisation functions that was considered by the annual Forum Leaders Meeting at Madang in Papua New Guinea in 1995. As a result of the review, the Forum Leaders decided to transfer the mandate to the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC). DHA-SPPO moved to SOPAC later in 1995, gradually transferring its activities and some staff until SOPAC had established its Disaster Management Unit and was ready to assume the disaster management focal point role that it retains.

3.7 The Forum Leaders in their annual discussions have paid increasing attention to developing a regional approach to common risks. In 1995 at Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, the Leaders agreed to the Aitutaki Declaration on Regional Security Cooperation (Annex B). The Leaders define security in a very broad sense as anything, including natural disasters and environmental damage that affects the sovereignty, security and economic integrity of Forum members and jeopardises economic and social development.

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3.8 The Aitutaki Declaration lists four broad principles governing security cooperation in the region: q The Forum is committed to promoting a comprehensive, integrated and collaborative approach to security in aid of the region, q Good governance, sustainable development and international cooperation, including preventive diplomacy, are among the most effective ways of overcoming the vulnerability, building mutual confidence and strengthening the overall security of states in the region, q Recognising that it is best to avert the causes of conflict, the Forum is committed to reducing, containing and resolving all conflicts by peaceful means, including by customary practices, q Forum members will give effect to their shared commitment to peace and security by engaging in practical forms of cooperation in accordance with this Declaration and international law.

3.9 In 2000, after a coup in Fiji and with growing unrest in Solomon Islands, the Forum Leaders at their annual meeting in Kiribati agreed to the Biketawa Declaration (Annex C) that focussed on regional support in times of social unrest but once again made it clear that security of regional countries has wider implications including the impact of disasters. This declaration defines regional options during times of crisis and the way in which regional countries can intervene to reduce crisis while not infringing national sovereignty.

Regional Organisation Responsibilities

3.10 In 1995, SOPAC, the regional organisation responsible for coordination of research into geological processes, was nominated as the regional organisation with responsibility for disaster management coordination. Its overall role is to contribute to sustainable development, reduce poverty and enhance resilience for the people of the Pacific by supporting the development of natural resources, in particular non-living resources, investigating natural systems and the reduction of vulnerability, through applied environmental geosciences, appropriate technologies, knowledge management, technical and policy advice, human resources development and advocacy of Pacific issues. Its three operational divisions all have roles that are directly relevant to disaster reduction as their mandates are to concentrate on:

q Assisting member countries to better understand and manage natural non-living systems; q Strengthening community lifelines by enhancing access by member countries to affordable and sustainable water resources, sanitation services, energy and information and communication technologies; and q Assisting countries to incorporate comprehensive hazard and risk management practices into national development plans to improve the effectiveness of disaster resilience, preparedness and response.

3.11 SOPAC represents the region on the ISDR Taskforce.

3.12 The role of the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), based in Samoa, is to promote cooperation in the South Pacific region and provide assistance in order to protect and improve its environment and to ensure sustainable development for present and future generations. Its annual work programmes in natural resources management, pollution prevention and waste management and climate change and variability are particularly relevant to disaster reduction. SPREP places emphasis on strengthened meteorological services and has a close relationship with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) who’s Pacific Regional Office is located on the SPREP campus.

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3.13 The oldest regional organisation in the Pacific is the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) (previously the South Pacific Commission). It provides technical advice, assistance, training, research and support to member countries in relation to a broad range of issues relevant to disaster reduction. Since the Yokohama Meeting in 1994 relevant activities have included:

q Agriculture, including plant protection and pest management, animal health and protection, and veterinary public health; q Marine resources, including training of seafarers to promote safer ships and cleaner seas; and q Social resources, including monitoring and surveillance on health issues comprising HIV/AIDS, nutrition and non-communicable and vector-borne diseases, population issues, and human resource development.

3.14 The Pacific Islands Development Program (PIDP) at the East West Center, which is located on the campus of the University of Hawaii, acts as Secretariat to the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders and its Standing Committee and provides professional services and research information to island governments as well as assisting with development-related activities. Past projects have included research into disaster management activities and PIDP has continued to take an interest in the subject.

3.15 The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) is the administrative arm of the Pacific Islands Forum and undertakes programmes and activities that support or implement decisions made by Forum leaders. Its only direct responsibility in relation to disaster management at the time of the Yokohama Conference was to administer the Regional Disaster Relief Fund, which makes grants to regional countries experiencing disasters. In recent years the Secretariat has paid increasing attention to security issues in the region and it was instrumental in the preparation of the Aitutaki and Biketawa Declarations as well as instituting a Regional Security Committee to develop a regional approach to security issues, including the reduction of tensions and the encouragement of peace making measures.

3.16 In overseeing implementation of Pacific Islands Forum decisions PIFS is responsible for promoting regional and international cooperation and monitoring international developments of interest to the region. It represents the region at international meetings on subjects that include climate change and sustainable development.

3.17 The University of the South Pacific (USP) has campuses in Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu at which under-graduate and post-graduate education is provided to regional students. USP also carries out research programmes, many in cooperation with other regional organisations. The University is paying increasing attention to studies and research relating to the vulnerability of regional countries to natural, environmental and other hazards and increase the resilience of communities to the effects of those hazards. It is currently examining the feasibility of cooperating with universities in other countries to offer post- graduate in disaster management and disaster reduction-related subjects.

3.18 The Fiji School of Medicine (FSchM) aspires to be a centre of excellence in quality health professional education, training and research, serving the communities of the Pacific. It provides undergraduate and postgraduate programmes through four schools: Medical Sciences, Public Health and Primary Care, Health Sciences and Oral Surgery. It has recently developed a Flexible Learning and Telehealth Unit to coordinate distance and flexible education and telehealth services to a region in which distance and transport costs are a severe hindrance to effective cooperation and networking. These can be expected to have a significant impact on health threats in the region, particularly in the smaller island countries with restricted health and medical resources.

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Coordination

3.19 These agencies, together with two other agencies that have their own specialised responsibilities, are members of a high-level body known as the Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific (CROP). CROP exercises an advisory function on key policy and operational issues and seeks to take advantage of opportunities for sharing and pooling the region’s resources.

3.20 Tropical cyclone warning systems in the region are coordinated by the Tropical Cyclone Committee for the South Pacific and South East Asia (TCCSP) of the WMO. This committee, which has representation from all WMO member countries in the region, meets every two years to review the cyclone forecasting and warning plan and progress with programmes related to all aspects of cyclone meteorology.

Other Organisations Working Regionally

3.21 In addition to the government-oriented agencies operating in the region, there are other organisations whose activities, while supporting national disaster management in various ways, are conducted regionally. Major regional disaster management and disaster reduction programmes are conducted by:

3.22 The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) - an international humanitarian organisation whose members are the national Red Cross societies of the world. Its mission is “to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity”. IFRC has a Secretariat in Geneva supported by regional offices around the world, including a regional office for the Pacific in Fiji, from which it coordinates activities, programmes and projects that strengthen the capacity of national Red Cross Societies. The regional office for the Pacific currently works with 14 Red Cross societies in the Pacific to carry out effective disaster preparedness, disaster response, health and community care as well as assisting those societies to cooperate regionally. .

3.23 The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - a separate organisation within the Red Cross Movement that has an exclusive humanitarian mission to protect the lives and dignity of victims of war and internal violence and to provide them with support. It directs and coordinates the international relief activities conducted by the Red Cross Movement in conflict situations. ICRC also endeavours to prevent suffering by promoting and strengthening humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles. It has specific responsibilities under a number of international humanitarian conventions that have been signed by many Pacific nations. The Headquarters of ICRC is in Geneva in Switzerland but a regional office is maintained in Fiji to conduct regional training, education and advocacy in relation to these principles and conventions. Specific training in the protections afforded by the Geneva Conventions, which have been signed by most regional countries, is provided to national military, para-military and police forces. In recent internal conflicts in Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Solomon Islands, ICRC has been active in promoting the safety of non- combatants and of displaced persons.

3.24 The Asia Foundation (TAF) in Suva provides training and technical advice for capacity building in the field of disaster management to the Pacific Island Countries through support from the USAID/Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. TAF has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with SOPAC and is co-located within the SOPAC Secretariat for better coordination of activities.

3.25 The Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) in Hawaii is managed by the East-West Center, which is a post-graduate centre on the campus of the University of Hawaii. It provides

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applied information research and analysis support for the development of more effective policies, institutions, programmes and information products for the disaster management and humanitarian assistance communities of the Asia Pacific Region. PDC has provided hazard- related technical support in a number of regional countries, while the East-West Center provides periodic regional workshops and training activities on aspects of disaster management.

3.26 The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) in Bangkok, although primarily meeting Asian needs, provides training and other services of benefit to Pacific countries. It has a Memorandum of Understanding with SOPAC that governs cooperation between the organisations and coordination of their activities.

3.27 The Australasian Fire Authorities Council (AFAC), which represents all of the Urban and Rural Fire Services in Australia and New Zealand, also has a Memorandum of Understanding with SOPAC and is providing a range of capacity building support to the Fire and Emergency Services in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu. This includes institutional strengthening, training, and where appropriate, the supply of equipment. The Fire Services of the region are key community safety organizations that need to be strengthened to ensure that they can play their role in assisting the process of building safer communities in PICs.

3.28 Emergency Management Australia (EMA) through its partnership with SOPAC is assisting capacity building in the region in the key areas of promoting public awareness, improving national disaster management planning and strengthening emergency coordination and communication. Improving the ability of PICs to be able to effectively coordinate the response to disasters through adequately resourced Emergency Operations Centers and reliable communication networks, particularly when communicating with their outer islands is vital to ensuring that timely information is provided to the NDMO that allows critical decisions to be made regarding immediate relief needs. EMA has provided assistance on a national basis to Fiji, Cook Islands, Niue, Tuvalu and Vanuatu and supported a number of regional workshops and training programmes.

EMA Director Mr David Templeman testing the new Barrett radio communication system provided to the Fiji NDMO.

3.29 New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (NZMCDEM) are assisting PICs to review and update their national disaster plans and working closely with SOPAC to ensure a coordinated approach to national capacity building in Tonga, Samoa, Niue and the Cook Islands.

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Non-Government Organisations (NGOs)

3.30 A number of international NGOs work regionally in the Pacific, operating national offices that bring regionally organised developmental, humanitarian and disaster management programmes to the relevant countries. Many of these programmes are designed to develop community disaster reduction and preparedness capacities by bringing the principles of disaster management to a level appropriate to each particular community. NGOs that work in this way include Caritas, World Vision, Oxfam/Community Aid Abroad, and the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).

Other Coordination Groups

3.31 In 2002, national Red Cross societies in the region formed the Emergency Management Core Group of the Pacific. This group meets twice yearly to provide advice to regional Red Cross Societies on disaster management matters. The group has a rotating membership with the societies from Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands and Tonga providing the current membership with IFRC Regional Office attending meetings in an advisory role. ICRC, Australian Red Cross and New Zealand Red Cross attend as participating observers.

3.32 Discussions of the group are wide-ranging and result in advice relating to such subjects as community risk reduction, national societies’ capacity building in disaster response, the contents of relief container stockpiles, training and the use of volunteers in assessment.

3.33 Two organisations foster cooperation between national NGOs conducting humanitarian activities in Pacific countries. The Pacific Islands Association of Non- Governmental Organisations (PIANGO) with NGO members from 22 regional countries facilitates networking among NGOs in the region to promote access to, sharing and dissemination of information and ideas to build and target the capacities of NGOs. The Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International (FSPI) is a group of linked, national NGOs, supported by partners in the United Kingdom, USA and Australia, committed to community development and poverty alleviation.

Donors

3.34 Many donors working in the Pacific islands support regional as well as national projects. Some provide the core programme funding that enables regional organisations to perform their functions. These are joined by others in a grouping that supports regional capacity development programmes, many of which have significant value in assessing risk, identifying and supporting appropriate mitigation and reduction, and enhancing warning systems and preparedness. Major donors are continuously support regional capacity building that has an impact on risk and vulnerability to hazards include the United Nations agencies (FAO, UNDP, WHO, UNICEF, OCHA, UNEP, UNESCO, UNIFEM, WMO, UNAIDS, etc) and major bilateral donors including the European Union, Japan, China, USA, New Zealand and Australia. The Table in Annex H shows a selection of the projects that are supported by the donor community and the wide span that these projects encompass.

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PART II: PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES

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CHAPTER 4: NATIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT STRUCTURES IN PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES

4.1 This is a region of Small Island Developing States, many of which have limited human and material resources and receive significant amounts of donor development assistance. In the smaller countries, governments must budget to meet international as well as national social, economic and developmental needs for smaller populations and more limited financial resources than those of medium or small towns in the developing world. The countries are vulnerable to a range of natural and other hazards. Their ability to develop and maintain disaster management capabilities that enable them to deal with the impacts of these hazards must be viewed within the context of these limitations.

4.2 Disaster management in regional Small Island Developing States relies on the flexibility and resourcefulness of the few officials involved. Called upon to develop effective structures that can adapt to a continuous flow of innovations from other parts of the world they display openness to change and willingness to try new ideas that should be the envy of older and larger nations. There is no worldwide model to follow so the countries develop structures that meet their needs and learn from their mistakes at a rate that belies the limited resources available. Systems and structures are coordinated through the application of skills from a range of disciplines, agencies and structures, both government and non-government and with SOPAC’s support there is an evolving whole-of-country approach to disaster management that is based on the most effective use of available resources.

4.3 Continuous development since the 1980s has led to the adoption of broadly similar disaster management structures in many of the island countries of the Pacific. The structures in Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu vary according to local needs but all have a system headed by a peak national disaster council or committee supported by a national disaster management office that acts as its secretariat and source of day-to-day coordination and support. Similar committees operate at sub-national levels of government while village or community committees are the mechanism through which the population can connect with and influence the system most effectively. Table 3 summarises national structures in the region.

National Disaster Committees

4.4 Each of the governments has established a peak national committee or council to set policy and oversee disaster management arrangements. The titles of these bodies vary with the country and the culture of the government concerned. Typically, a representative of the responsible ministry is appointed to chair the committee and membership consists of senior representatives from key government agencies usually with representatives of the national Red Cross Society and key NGOs. In some countries a small number of ministers sit on the committees while in others the Cabinet or a small Cabinet Committee provides political and policy guidance.

4.5 The functions of the committees vary but a typical example is found in Fiji’s National Disaster Management Act of 1998, which is among the most recent in the region. In Fiji the national-level committee is called the National Disaster Council. The Act states:

“The Council shall:

(a) have overall responsibility for disaster management irrespective of whether there is a disaster or not;

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(b) develop suitable strategies and policies for disaster mitigation and preparedness and for training, management and public education in disaster management; (c) prepare and implement adequate rehabilitation programmes after disasters; (d) recommend policies, strategies and alternatives to Cabinet; and (e) form sub-committees to execute specific tasks within their specific fields of competence in addition to those mentioned in section 7.”

4.6 Section 7 of this legislation requires the creation of an Emergency Committee, a Preparedness Committee and a Mitigation and Prevention Committee, each with relevant responsibilities and each operating in support of the National Disaster Council.

4.7 The responsibilities of similar committees in the earlier legislation used in other island countries places greater emphasis on preparedness and response activities but, in practice, their committees now pay increasing attention to risk assessment and mitigation issues.

4.8 National committees are usually required to meet at regular intervals to review disaster management plans and activities but the regularity of these meetings varies from country to country. When a crisis occurs, the committee is expected to coordinate response and recovery activities on behalf of the national government but its operational responsibilities are usually delegated to a small group of senior officials from operational response or recovery agencies. This group is often called the Central Control Group.

National Disaster Management Office (NDMO)

4.9 National disaster committees are part time bodies but in almost every country they are supported by a small, full-time government national disaster management office (NDMO) whose title varies from country to country. The NDMO normally provides secretariat and operational support for the national disaster committee and acts as day-to-day national focal point for operational, training and development activities.

Sumeo Silu, the Disaster Management Coordinator in Tuvalu provides support to the nine separate atoll islands of his country.

4.10 The responsibilities of the NDMO is often defined in legislation, of which a typical example, is the Solomon Islands National Disaster Council Act 1989. This Act states:

“The functions of the management office shall be:

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(a) to be responsible to the Council in the administration of this Act, the national disaster plan and other plans which relate to national disaster; (b) to ensure that the national disaster plan and other plans referred to in paragraph (a) are periodically reviewed and updated; (c) to keep and maintain proper accounts and such registers as the Council directs; (d) to prepare the annual reports and other reports or bulletins as the Council may direct; (e) to ensure that the provinces are in a state of preparedness to execute the provincial disaster plans, if the need to do so arises; and (f) to perform any other functions that may be assigned to it by the Council.”

4.11 The NDMO’s daily activities make a significant contribution to disaster reduction and preparedness. It is generally responsible for coordinating disaster response and preparedness planning, training activities, public awareness and education campaigns, and providing a wide range of advisory functions, particularly to sub-national committees and local government.

4.12 A key coordination function is maintaining relations with national technical agencies and with the national Red Cross Society and with non-government organisations (NGOs) involved in disaster management-related activities. Many community-level disaster management training and development activities are conducted by the NGOs and NDMO Directors have found it critical to consult with the relevant organisations to ensure that, as far as possible, terminology and practices are standardised. . 4.13 NDMO staff members are among the best-trained and most experienced disaster managers in their countries and are often the only full-time government officials working in disaster management. The Director is usually the focal point for liaison with international and regional organisations like OCHA, ISDR and SOPAC.

4.14 The NDMO Director represents the country at the regular Pacific Regional Disaster Managers Meetings convened by SOPAC, at which regional programmes are discussed and initiatives and ideas shared.

Sub-national Disaster Management Structures

4.15 The disaster management structure below the national level varies with the country. In the larger island countries there are provincial, island or divisional disaster committees, similar in structure to the national committees and responsible for activities within their area of administrative responsibility. These committees consist of senior officials and NGO representatives from the province. They rarely have the resources to appoint full-time support staff but a local government official is often allocated part-time responsibility for disaster management support activities and liaison with the NDMO.

4.16 Below local government level, and in smaller countries, district and village committees are increasingly being developed. They are usually made up of the same group of people who lead the community – often its traditional leaders.

Legislation

4.17 Specific disaster management legislation exists in most regional countries but its emphasis is usually on defining a structure for coordinating disaster response and occasionally preparedness and recovery activities. Some aspects of response and disaster reduction are covered in other sectoral legislation. In recent years increased appreciation of the value of hazard and risk management practices has exposed gaps in most suites of legislation. Measures are being taken in a number of countries to address these gaps and

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amend legislation accordingly. There is also growing recognition of the need to examine the full legislative range with the aim of coordinating its content. The current status of disaster management legislation in the region is shown in Table 3.

Disaster Plans

4.18 Most Pacific regional countries have had some form of national disaster plan for many years. Initially, most countries had response plans describing the arrangements and responsibilities for responding to natural disasters and providing some guidance on the needs expected after particular disasters. The UNDP SPDRP, administered by DHA-SPPO from 1994-2000, assisted a number of countries to develop more comprehensive national disaster plans covering preparedness, response and recovery activities. Some countries also developed support plans relating to specific hazards. Updating and maintaining these plans is often adversely influenced by the limited interest of governments and the shortage of suitable funds and human resources.

4.19 While some legislation discusses other forms of disaster, threats in the region are overwhelmingly from natural events. It is only in recent years that other threats have been recognised.

Standing Operating Procedures

4.20 The concept of Standing Operating Procedures is relatively new to many countries in the Pacific Region except to people serving in military, para-military or police forces. In recent years, attendance at Emergency Operations Centre Management workshops and courses conducted by SOPAC and The Asia Foundation has exposed participants to the value of such procedures. Although procedures did exist in some countries, these were rarely comprehensive and not regularly maintained. In the last three years updated procedures have been developed for the emergency operations centres of a number of countries, including Cook Islands and Fiji.

2003 Regional Disaster Managers Meeting and Communities at Risk Conference, 5- 7 May 2003, Sigatoka, Fiji.

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TABLE 3: SUMMARY OF NATIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS

Country National Disaster National Specific National Disaster Comprehensive Sub National Village Standard Council Disaster Disaster Response Plan National Disaster Plan Disaster Plans Disaster Operating Management Legislation Plans Procedures Office American Samoa Australia Yes Yes Yes 6 Yes Not Required Yes Yes Yes Cook Islands Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Federated States of Yes Yes No Micronesia Fiji Yes Yes Yes 1998 Yes 1995 Yes 1995 Yes Not Required Yes French Polynesia Guam Yes Yes Kiribati Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Police only Marshall Islands Yes Yes Nauru No No No No No No No No New Caledonia New Zealand Yes Niue Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Not Required Yes Yes Palau Yes Yes No Yes 1999 No Yes No No Papua New Guinea Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Samoa Yes Yes Yes Yes 1997 No No No Yes Solomon Islands Yes Yes Yes 1989 Yes 1987 No 7 No No No Tokelau No No No No Not Required No No Tonga Yes Yes No 8 Yes 1999 Yes 1999 Not Required Not Required Some Tuvalu Yes Yes No Yes 1987 Partial Not Required Not Required N Vanuatu Yes Yes Yes Yes 2000 Yes 2000 Not Required Not Required N

6 At State and Territory level where responsibility lies 7 Drafted but not accepted 8 Currently being developed

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CHAPTER 5: DISASTER REDUCTION IN PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES

Introduction

5.1 At a Summit Meeting in September 2000, world leaders agreed on the Millennium Development Goals as an agenda for reducing poverty and improving lives. Targets were set that the world should try to achieve by 2015. The Goals, which are shown in Annex D, address many of the core causes of disaster, particularly in developing countries. Progress towards achievement of the Goals will have a significant influence on prevention, reduction and mitigation of disasters as well as on development.

5.2 In 1994, the Barbados Conference of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) agreed to the Barbados Programme of Action for Small Island Developing States, which highlighted the particular vulnerability of SIDS to both natural and environmental hazards and their limited capacity to respond to, and recover from, such disasters. An extract from the Programme can be found in Annex E.

5.3 Successful hazard reduction or mitigation is hard to demonstrate. While effort and expense committed to increasing prosperity or improving ways of life can often be measured in the material benefits it produces, it is much more difficult to measure the value of activities that have prevented or reduced the scale of impacts. It is only in recent years, when the economic impact of hazards on fragile economies has been studied, that governments have accepted that there is a need to manage hazards and risks.

5.4 Every country in the Pacific Region is at risk from natural, environmental, social or health hazards and many of these risks have existed for as long as the countries have existed. Traditional societies reduced many of these hazards by practices that were developed in the light of experience over many generations. As in much of the world, regional countries began developing their formal disaster management skills with response activities. Formal disaster prevention and mitigation were rarely addressed directly although many development activities had significant hazard reduction and disaster prevention and mitigation impacts. Unfortunately many early development activities were activated without considering traditional knowledge and its sources and causes. Much of the latter gradually became forgotten except by older generations and there is a danger that it will die out if not rescued.

5.5 Vulnerability in this region is enhanced by distance – distance between countries, distance between islands within countries, and distance from major sources of relief and support. Consequently countries have a particular incentive to adopt effective prevention and mitigation measures to reduce their dependence on others during times of crisis.

5.6 Traditionally, many cultures in the region accepted natural hazards as part of everyday life. While they evolved and implemented measures that experience and common sense showed were effective in preventing and mitigating disasters, the concept of formal disaster or risk management remained somewhat alien. This influenced the slow acceptance of disaster management as a discipline in many regional countries. In a typically conservative approach, they seek evidence of the value of change before adopting new ideas that make heavy demands on their limited resources. Solutions that may seem eminently logical to outside experts and to donors are often not adopted because in subsistence economies the costs are beyond the means of families and communities.

5.7 Finally, the ready availability of outside relief assistance after disasters in the last twenty years has reduced the incentive to take appropriate preventive and mitigative

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measures, either traditional or introduced. This factor is common to most cultures and can be found in much larger countries like Australia where rural families no longer hold stocks of food to tide them over in times of isolation during floods. They know that they can now call for assistance and it will probably appear fairly rapidly.

Traditional Practices

5.8 In the same way that they accepted the hazards as part of daily life, many traditional island cultures adopted various hazard reduction practices as part of their culture. Over the centuries they had discovered, adopted and refined, actions that could be taken to reduce or mitigate hazard impacts. Historical studies often reveal that such practices have been so embedded in the culture that the original reasons for them have become blurred. It is only when a hazard strikes after a long time that the value of the practices is recognised. An example is the placing of a ‘tabu’ or restriction on growing food in certain parts of one of the islands in Vanuatu. In recent years it has become apparent that in certain wind conditions acid rain falls on this area, destroying crops at harvest time and increasing the risk of famine.

5.9 Traditional disaster reduction practices identified in Pacific island countries fall into a number of general categories:

5.9.1 Land use planning. The location of villages and housing was often influenced by hazard vulnerability. Where possible they were situated on higher ground, clear of storm surge and flood levels, in areas not prone to landslide and, on volcanic islands, in areas where lava flow was less likely and prevailing winds did not deposit ash or acid rains on crops. Likewise, food gardens were located in less vulnerable areas.

5.9.2 Building methods. In many cyclone-prone areas where cave shelters were not available, measures were taken to provide wind-resistant housing. In parts of Polynesia, a number of the open plan ‘fales’, built without walls, had strongly constructed roof frames and thick thatch. As a cyclone approached the roofs of these houses could be lifted off their support poles and lowered to the ground where the wind could not get under the eaves. Families would then enter through a hole in the thatch and shelter in relative safety until the wind died. The hole in the thatch could be secured from within. In Vanuatu, some villages constructed special shelter houses with the support poles buried more deeply than usual (often with stub branches still attached to hold them down better) and with thick roofs that extended to ground level. House ends exposed to the most dangerous winds would be rounded to reduce resistance.

5.9.3 In many countries the only available method of securing the frame of houses was by use of creepers and locally made rope. Such construction gave the house flexibility when exposed to strong winds or earthquakes. The increasing use of nails in local construction, while making construction easier, has actually made buildings more vulnerable to damage from these hazards.

5.9.4 Food Resilience. Hazard-resistant varieties of food crops were developed in most traditional agricultural societies and this practice was followed in the Pacific. Like farmers everywhere, people identified plant varieties that produced the best crops in the local environment. Land use and crop planting was planned so that food was available for as long as possible in each year while varieties that could be preserved were grown and processed for lean periods.

5.9.5 Mixed cropping was practiced to reduce the risk of famine should the whole crop of one food plant be destroyed by disease or pests. Often companion planting was used, with sturdier plants providing protection for less robust varieties.

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5.9.6 Alternative foods were also identified – plants that, while not as nutritious or pleasant as normal crop plants, were edible and could be used in times of shortage. Some were specially cultivated while others were wild but their growth was encouraged.

5.9.7 Over the centuries, many methods of preserving surplus food were developed. The preserved foods were then kept for times of shortage and hardship, particularly after disasters. Smoking, steaming, fermenting and drying were all used in different cultures.

5.9.8 Agricultural Resilience. Recovery priorities in parts of the tropical Pacific differed from those of some other parts of the world. To promote rapid regrowth of crops destroyed by hazards, it was common practice in many subsistence societies to give a higher priority to replanting crops than to rebuilding shelter. Viable cuttings from damaged plants would be saved and replanted but much of the replanting was from saved seed and from crops deliberately grown in sheltered areas as ‘plant banks’ for replanting in emergencies.

5.9.10 Social Resilience. The most basic of risk reduction strategies are the social and cultural practices of society. Wherever people began to live together as families, then as communities, patterns of behaviour evolved that reduced the risk of social disruption and violence. Daily experience was shared and strategies noted that proved effective in reducing personal, property, community and economic risk. Many of these strategies continue to be used in everyday life. Governments and larger communities have adopted them in enlarged form.

Survival of Traditional Practices

5.10 Unfortunately, the arrival of western civilisation in the islands had an adverse impact on traditional practices. In adopting the advantages brought by new ways of life, many valuable lessons were forgotten or rejected. Western colonial and missionary arrivals, knowing little or nothing of the reason for certain practices, did not encourage people to maintain them. Indeed some were actually discouraged as the short-term advantages of monocropping were promoted. Use of traditional practices continues to a varying extent in subsistence farming areas but the growth of education and the drift of younger people to urban areas limit the opportunity for knowledge of traditional practices to be handed down through the generations.

5.11 Cash cropping has had another influence. As natural bush areas were and are cleared for copra and newer crops, the availability of land for a growing population and growth of traditional building materials is reduced. Some new villages are now being located on land previously not considered safe and villagers are forced to use imported or manufactured building materials because traditional materials are no longer available in sufficient quantities. In Samoa, traditional houses are now reported to be more expensive to build than houses using manufactured and imported materials. Cost has become a significant influence on construction and houses are built to a budget rather than for safety.

5.12 The attractiveness of imported foods, the shortage of family labour resulting from urban drift and the expectation that relief supplies will arrive from overseas in an emergency have all influenced the gradual reduction in the use of traditional food storage practices. Despite a number of recent programmes designed to encourage a return to traditional foods and improve nutrition there is little sign of a resurgence of these practices.

5.13 In recent years agricultural extension programmes have started to support the use of successful traditional practices. Programmes are being developed, particularly by NGOs and community groups, to collect and encourage the transfer of traditional and low-cost practices,

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such as composting however, funding is often limited and progress relatively slow. In archipelago countries where travel costs are high and resources restricted, it can be difficult to mount effective national campaigns.

5.14 Unfortunately the practice of some western companies of researching traditional practices, particularly the use of certain plants for medicinal purposes, then patenting these plants and their use is adversely affecting the willingness of people to share their knowledge. There is a clear need for international protection of traditional knowledge from capitalistic exploitation.

5.15 The close family and community ties in island countries and the support that these ties provide to those affected by disasters are a significant factor in creating social resilience and dealing with the trauma caused by extreme events. While these links remain strong in most cases, the increasing alienation from their families of those who have moved to urban areas, particularly those in squatter settlements, poses a growing problem that is not always widely recognised by governments. The needs of these alienated people are only being identified slowly and treatment in plans is rare.

Risk Reduction Development

5.16 Risk reduction has been an integral part of development for Pacific island countries. Wherever and whenever a risk has been perceived to the safety or development of the country, measures have been taken to reduce that risk. Many of the measures are integral parts of normal development programmes. They are straightforward precautions taken by governments, agencies or communities to ensure the success of the programmes. Others are common-sense precautions taken by communities to preserve their investment in development. Many risk reduction measures have been followed for so long that they have become part of everyday life or work practice. They are often not noted or recorded by disaster managers yet they have a significant influence on the vulnerability of nations and communities to hazards of all types.

Basic National Risk Reduction Mechanisms

Pre-existing Measures

5.17 Pacific SIDS are constantly reducing the impact of hazards by development, although hazard reduction is not always the primary aim of the development. Development measures that reduce vulnerability and risk include those relating to education, health, communications, transport, agriculture and social development.

5.18 Some past development programmes recognised specific risks and vulnerabilities and were designed to reduce them. These included:

q Enhanced national meteorological services. q Coastal protection measures including sea walls, groynes and breakwaters to protect vulnerable coastal villages and resources from coastal erosion and flooding by storm surge and storm-induced seas; q Rehabilitation of coastal plains in Fiji to protect agriculture, particularly the sugar cane fields against encroachment of the sea and against sea-level rise; q Flood protection and reduction measures including dredging of rivers, building and maintenance of drainage channels, land use controls, bunds and levee banks; q Catchment management and soil conservation in Samoa to reduce topsoil loss and environmental damage; q Improved road systems with better protection from sea, flood and landslide damage; q Development of engineered building standards for major buildings;

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q Housing rehabilitation and reinforcement programmes in Tonga and Fiji to reduce the risk of damage from tropical cyclones; q Research into hazard-resistant crops that were then made available to farmers in the relevant countries. Successes include: · Cyclone resistant cassava varieties; · Taro varieties suitable for both wet and dry-land farming; · Pest resis tant fruit trees in Cook Islands; · Sheep breeding in Fiji. q Agricultural protection measures including crop rotation, seed and cutting banks, basic soil sterilisation, extension officers to train rural-dwellers; and q Increasing attention to safer ship and boat building to reduce the loss of life at sea;

Change since 1994

5.19 Despite the influence of all these measures on national vulnerability, there was little coordination of hazard reduction activity in the Pacific islands before the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). Hazards and the frequency and potential impact of those hazards were rarely considered in national development plans. Disaster management-related development projects were sometimes seen as ancillary projects absorbing funds that could be better committed to other, higher-profile development projects. Disaster management projects funded by donors predominantly addressed preparedness measures. Risk reduction measures were generally a by-product of other development assistance programmes.

5.20 The main exception was in the health sector where the World Health Organisation (WHO) worked with national health authorities and donors to reduce health risks by improving hygiene and public health through better mitigation and prevention measures. The growing influence of WHO-coordinated regional programmes to reduce malaria, polio, cholera and respiratory diseases and to improve nutrition was an excellent example of the value of regional cooperation in hazard mitigation.

5.21 During the IDNDR, and as DHA-SPPO became established; there was increasing interest in disaster reduction programmes. This interest grew after the Yokohama Conference in 1994 with particular support from the Australian IDNDR Committee. Initially the majority of donor-funded projects continued to concentrate on improving disaster management structures and preparedness measures but gradually the scope of projects widened. There was increasing interest in projects relating to risk assessment and mapping, hazard reduction, and community development. Annex H lists the major disaster management-related projects in the region since 1993. The list includes some that continued from earlier years. The Annex shows that interest in hazard reduction has continued to grow in the years since the end of the decade.

Major Risk and Vulnerability Reduction Programmes

5.22 A number of major programmes have had a particularly significant influence on risk and vulnerability in the region. These are discussed below.

5.22.1 South Pacific Disaster Reduction Programme (SPDRP). The South Pacific Disaster Reduction Programme (SPDRP) was approved for United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funding in February 1994. Phase I of the SPDRP was a four-year programme designed to help Pacific island countries to improve their disaster management systems and to develop cooperation for disaster management within the region. Its three immediate objectives were:

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i. Strengthen human resources and institutional capacity to manage the effects of natural disasters effectively and rapidly; ii. Provide appropriate technical support materials for use in disaster management at national, local and community levels and establish a disaster management information system; and iii. Achieve an acceptable and sustainable level of regional cooperation and collaboration.

5.22.1.1 Activities in SPDRP Phase l were based on six programme components:

i. In-country training and technical assistance; ii. Regional training; iii. Disaster mitigation; iv. Regional support materials; v. Information management; and vi. Regional cooperation and coordination.

5.22.1.2 SPDRP was managed by the UNDHA-SPPO (later OCHA-SPPO) in Fiji, which worked in partnership with USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), Emergency Management Australia (EMA), SOPAC, SPC and New Zealand’s Centre for Earthquake Research (CERA). Funding was provided by USAID, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), AusAID and NZAID.

5.22.1.3 By the end of SPDRP Phase I:

q 14 out of 15 Pacific island countries assisted had functioning national disaster management offices q 13 out of 15 countries had National Disaster Plans and some had Support Plans for specific hazards; q Disaster management training, directly supported by US OFDA had been provided to some 162-disaster managers and others at regional level and a further 110 at national level. In the process a regional cadre of disaster management trainers had been established who could assist neighbouring countries; q A variety of disaster mitigation research and planning activities had been conducted; q A number of technical support materials specifically developed for Pacific island countries had been produced; q Cooperation and collaboration between a range of regional multi- disciplinary agencies; and q In cooperation with EMA, the IDNDR annual Regional Meeting of Disaster Managers had been accepted as a forum for disaster managers, donors, regional organisations, technical agencies and NGOs to discuss disaster management issues and related subjects.

5.22.1.4 Disaster managers from participating countries discussed the need for a second phase of the SPDRP at the Regional Disaster Managers Meeting in 1996. Phase II objectives were to:

i. Empower communities to reduce their vulnerability to natural disaster; ii. Establish training capacity at regional and national levels; iii. Enhance national capacity to reduce natural disaster risk through development and the implementation of mitigation measures; and

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iv. Strengthen sustainability of disaster management activities through transferring regional coordination and support to a regional organisation.

5.22.1.5 Funding for Phase II of the SPDRP was approved by UNDP late in 1998 and as preparatory funding had been provided throughout the earlier part of that year the Phase was able to begin immediately. However, the 1999 Disaster Managers Meeting agreed to a Business Plan that envisaged the replacement of OCHA-SPPO by a Disaster Management Unit in SOPAC and the SPDRP was eventually closed at the end of 2000 when the Disaster Management Unit was established. A number of SPDRP activities were not carried out in the abbreviated period but Phase II achievements included:

q Pilot development of comprehensive national disaster management programmes in Tuvalu and Vanuatu; q A training module on community vulnerability reduction developed in cooperation with the Overseas Services Bureau, an Australian NGO and the Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific International; q Continued disaster management training activities in partnership with TAF-OFDA and EMA; q National training policies established in six countries which were running their own training programmes and national training working groups or focal points established in nine countries; q Studies completed and distributed on ways for six countries with national building codes to implement and promote their codes. q Transfer of responsibility for future regional coordination and support to SOPAC.

5.22.1.6 Development materials relating to unachieved objectives were handed over to SOPAC as the new regional coordinator, on the closure of SPDRP.

5.22.2 Comprehensive Hazard and Risk Management (CHARM). A 1998 review of Disaster Management Strategies in the region identified a clear need for a programme that would support countries in their efforts to enhance community resilience and achieve long-term sustainable development. With the help of the Counter Disaster and Rescue Services Division of the Queensland Department of Emergency Services, SOPAC developed the concept of Comprehensive Hazard and Risk Management (CHARM). CHARM was based on disaster management initiatives already developed in Australia from the Australia/New Zealand Risk Management Standard of 1999, but modified to meet the needs of the island countries. After a pilot programme in Kiribati, CHARM Guidelines for Pacific Island Countries were prepared. The Guidelines take a whole-of-country and an all-hazards approach that requires the participation of the widest possible range of government and non-government entities in the steps to achieve the final goal. They describe the steps that should be followed to implement CHARM and identify the sequence of actions as:

q establish the context within which disaster management must be established; q identify the risks; q analyse the risks; q evaluate the risks; and q treat the risks in the most effective way.

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The CHARM Guidelines have been welcomed as appropriate for the region and in 2003 the Forum Leaders endorsed adoption of the Guidelines by all member countries. The pilot programme in Kiribati continues and measures to operationalise the guidelines are in progress.

To support the introduction of CHARM into the region, SOPAC appointed a High-Level Advocacy Team led by Dr Langi Kavaliku a former Deputy Prime Minister in Tonga and a long standing champion for improved disaster management practices in the Pacific. The team has visited a number of Pacific Island Countries and held discussions with key Cabinet Ministers to encourage the adoption of a Whole-of-Government and integrated approach to Disaster Risk Management.

5.22.3. Catastrophe Insurance This study was an initiative of the World Bank and the Australian Government in conjunction with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. It was conducted by SOPAC and takes the first steps towards considering the option of catastrophe insurance as a financial tool against the impacts of disasters and sharing the costs through a regional scheme. The study, while focussed on Port Vila, Vanuatu as the pilot area has highlighted the work that needs to be done in each country as a prerequisite to developing a regional scheme. It required input from a wide range of disciplines including urban planning, geotechnical engineering, social development, asset valuation, insurance broking and future aid funds. Catastrophe insurance should go hand in hand with other elements of effective disaster management including mitigation and adaptation.

5.22.4 The Pacific Cities Project. SOPAC’s Pacific Cities Project conducted between 1998 and 2002 made a significant contribution to disaster management in the region. Using major cities in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu as a base, Pacific Cities conceptually ties together projects having disparate origins and funding sources. The Pacific Cities Project relies on the geographic information system (GIS) MapInfo database as a tool to provide an infrastructure for the management of spatial information. Information from fields as diverse as geology, meteorology, physiography, engineering and population distribution is stored on a single database in multiple layers. The impacts of potential disasters can be estimated by querying interactions between layers of the GIS, and the results of the numerical modelling of selected disaster scenarios can be incorporated with this.

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5.22.4.1 One of the cornerstones of the project has been the building assets survey. A database in each city provides an assessment of the potential performance of individual buildings under earthquake, tropical cyclone, flooding or unfavourable foundation conditions. The information will ultimately be linked to the demographic databases of the appropriate city councils and census authorities to assess the risk to the populace.

5.22.4.2 In recognition of the fact that many of the hazards facing Pacific Cities originate or impact in the near-offshore area, swath-bathymetry and seismic reflection surveys have been completed or are planned for the harbours of each city in the study.

5.22.4.3 The Pacific Cities databases form part of the new generation of information transfer, with less emphasis placed on written reports, and more on visual representations of hazard and risk in a two and three-dimensional graphics format. Information coming from this programme is contained on compact disks rather than on the printed page. The geographic information system should ideally be able to answer questions posed it by a user of the system, such as a town planner or disaster manager.

5.22.4.4 Pacific Cities was designed to aid understanding of the hazards facing Pacific Island communities in order to assess the elements at risk and their vulnerability - particularly human vulnerability. It sought to define the physical setting and the infrastructure for sustenance of the community, to model likely disaster scenarios and use GIS technology to define and illustrate the problems, thus leading users towards better preparedness.

5.22.5 Environmental Vulnerability Index

The development of the Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI) provides a relatively quick and inexpensive way of measuring and characterising the vulnerability of natural systems. The EVI specifically looks at environmental vulnerability or the risk of damage to the natural environment of a country, which underpins all human social and economic activities. The EVI is a composite index that measures the vulnerability of ecosystems integrity through a set of 50 “smart” indicators that capture the various levels of risk to hazards that act on the environment, the inherent resilience of the environment to risks and the acquired vulnerability (environmental degradation). The EVI can be used to support disaster risk management in a number of ways including identification of high levels of vulnerability and prioritising environmental actions, measuring changes in

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environmental conditions and raising awareness of environmental vulnerability. Vulnerability management is critical to effective sustainable development planning and therefore the EVI is a valuable tool to assist the process of strengthening the resilience of Pacific SIDS.

5.22.6 Reducing the Vulnerability of Pacific ACP States Project. Eight Pacific island countries nations, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, are receiving European Union- funded SOPAC assistance with the reduction of their vulnerability to hazards. The Project, which runs from 2002 to 2004, concentrates on three key focal areas in the island system: hazard mitigation and risk assessment, aggregates for construction (these are not always readily available in regional countries); and water resources supply and sanitation. The Project is concentrating on developing the human resource base by providing specialist training, making accurate and timely data from a range of sources readily available, and supporting the development of policies, management plans and regulatory frameworks relating to the focal areas. The project was extended in 2004, to increase its reach to six more Pacific Island nations: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue and Palau.

Research and Development

5.23 Meteorological, geological and social research in the Southwest Pacific has been conducted over many years but most of the results of this research are held in academic and research institutions overseas. They are rarely readily available in the countries. In recent years there has been a move to relate more pure research to the practicalities of everyday life in the region and particularly to the requirements of disaster management. Key organisations in this process have been SOPAC, SPREP, the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) and SPC at regional level and WMO at international level.

5.23.1 Meteorological. During the decade 1994-2003, long-term research into the frequency, location, movement and effects of tropical cyclones in the region has continued. Following the 1997/98 El Niño event, the relationship between the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon and tropical cyclone activity in the region has been studied with consequent improvements in seasonal forecasting. Significant work has also been done in Guam on the effects of various wind speeds on regional vegetation and crops. This enables meteorologists to relate expected wind speeds to impacts and provide information in a way that is more understandable to rural communities and to development and agricultural planners.

5.23.2 Geological. Much of the research carried out by SOPAC during the past decade is important for disaster managers. The major and continuing work on coastlines of Pacific countries provides a valuable resource for disaster managers when considering the impact of short-term hazards, like storm surge and tsunami, and long-term hazards like sea-level rise.

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CHAPTER 6: DISASTER PREPAREDNESS, RESPONSE AND RECOVERY DEVELOPMENT IN PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES

Introduction

6.1 As vulnerable island states, subject to a wide range of natural disasters that strike with variable frequency, Pacific island countries had an early interest in developing their disaster response mechanisms. As they gained independence from the colonial powers, countries depended on the initiative and ability of experienced government officials who extended their already heavy load of responsibilities to deal, often on an ad-hoc basis, with the impact of disasters. Resources were usually inadequate to meet all the needs and there was significant dependence on outside assistance when major disasters occurred. Unfortunately, coordination developed slowly and usually as a result of initiatives by percipient politicians and senior officials who realised that effective response to disasters required better preparedness and some sort of formal structure, plans and arrangements with agreed responsibilities and funding arrangements. Cook Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea were pioneers in the early stages of island disaster management development but by the mid 1980s an increasing number of countries had established national disaster management offices. As most countries had limited resources, these offices were small and were minimally equipped while their initial staff members were untrained. With assistance from various donors, some fragmentary basic training was provided but there was little commonality of approach and no training framework or structure was developed.

6.2 The development of regional disaster preparedness measures had its beginnings in the late 1980s. At that time, AusAID began providing fragmented assistance to national disaster management offices and to fund scholarships for Pacific island disaster management office staff and others to attend the annual disaster management courses at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre. Other staff attended short courses at the Australian Counter Disaster College, now fully incorporated in Emergency Management Australia. More coordinated training began following the establishment of the UNDRO South Pacific Programme Office in 1990 and the first South West Pacific Disaster Managers Workshop in Honiara in 1992.

6.3 AusAID and UNDRO had also begun to assist regional countries to compile or update their disaster plans following a series of tropical cyclone disasters in the 1980s. These plans were basically response plans but the planning process gave countries an opportunity to begin examining their organisational and support needs, then to define responsibilities and management and decision-making systems.

Planning

6.4 By the time of the Yokohama Conference in 1994, regional disaster managers had recognised the need for more comprehensive plans and for a regional approach to disaster management. UNDRO SPPO had initiated a programme that was designed to assist regional countries to develop their disaster response plans into comprehensive disaster management plans that also covered preparedness, response and recovery issues. Through the remainder of the IDNDR, the SPPO programme assisted the development of comprehensive disaster management plans in thirteen regional countries following a standard set of guidelines. Some countries also developed supporting plans to cover special events or needs. Since the programme ended, these plans have generally become better known in the wider community and although there are still cultural problems in some governments about reviewing and updating them to meet changing circumstances, they form

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the foundation for national disaster management activities. Reviews of a number of the disaster management plans will be completed in the next few years.

6.5 Disaster management plans in the region are designed to cover all hazards but they were written around the natural hazard impacts that are the most common in the region and with which the region has most experience. In recent years when social disasters, particularly outbreaks of violence, have occurred, the management of response to and recovery from these events has been based on the existing structures and plans. They have generally proved equally suitable for these events.

Training

6.6 In the early stages of disaster management development in the Pacific, most of the training provided was overseas based funded by donors. These programmes enabled island participants to be exposed to a wider range of skills and experience, but often the context and lessons learned were difficult to apply to island environments with small agricultural economies and limited resources. The need for training to be developed for the region to meet its own environmental and cultural requirements was soon realised.

6.7 As part of the UN’s International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR), UNDHA initiated Phase I of the South Pacific Disaster Reduction Program (SPDRP), a four- year regional programme serving 10 countries in the South Pacific in 1994. Core funding was provided by UNDP, AusAID, China and other donors. The US Government through the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) agreed to fund a Regional Training Component (RTC) in support of UNDHA/SPDRP. This training programme was modelled after the OFDA training programme that began in Latin America/Caribbean in 1988.

6.8 In 1995 the South Pacific Disaster Training Program, managed by The Asia Foundation on behalf of OFDA, began as the RTC to the UN’s SPDRP. The aim of the training programme was to develop appropriate training courses for the region, to document them in self-contained packages that were adapted for national use, and to train a core group of regional trainers who could present the courses either regionally or nationally.

6.9 The regional training programme has been operating successfully throughout the period since the Yokohama Conference. After developing a successful ‘Introduction to Disaster Management’ course that introduced officials and communities in any country to the concepts and basic needs of disaster management, the programme has developed a suite of regional courses, which include:

q Introduction to Disaster Management q Training for Instructors q Exercise Management q Emergency Operations Centre Management q Initial Damage Assessment

6.10 Courses have been presented at both the regional and national level with over 450 people trained on regional courses and more than 1,000 in national courses. A core group of trainers was established, to present the courses at either level. Regional courses are generally presented by a group of trainers from different Pacific countries.

6.11 Other donors also provide training for the region either through formal courses or workshops at which a range of participants share their knowledge and experience. Training provided by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) in developing a Pacific United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) Team has been beneficial to the region in equipping representatives from a number of countries

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with training in assessment, coordination and reporting skills. These skills have been applied by UNDAC Team members deployed to various regional disaster sites and have also been influential in the development of national capacities in these disciplines.

6.12 New training opportunities are being provided by a system of partnerships between emergency services in island countries and their counterparts in Australia and New Zealand. Initially this system was applied to police services but in recent months partnerships have been established between fire services and these will provide opportunities for training and mentoring for island fire services as well as attachments to more experienced services and even equipment support.

6.13 A small amount of training is still provided outside the region. A few Pacific island participants attend Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) courses in Bangkok each year. Since 1994 a total of 71 students from Pacific island countries have attended such diverse activities as:

q Asian Development Bank Disaster Management Course q Advanced Disaster Management Course q Community Based Disaster Management Course q Crisis Management Course q Disaster Management Course q El Niño Course q Flood Risk Management Course q Inter-regional Training Course on Public Health and Emergency Management in Asia and the Pacific q Management of Technological Hazards Course q Seismic and Cyclone Hazards and Mitigation Course q Seismic Hazards and Mitigation Course q Urban Disaster Management Course

6.14 Pacific Island participants who have attended Community Based Disaster Management Courses have found them to be particularly valuable and ADPC and SOPAC through a partnership arrangement are currently planning to conduct the courses in the region. A similar course, provided by the International Institute for Disaster Risk Management in Manila, is being used as a basis for disaster management training for community groups being developed by World Vision Australia for presentation in Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. World Vision is also providing a "Training for Trainers" Course in these countries.

6.15 The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is providing a separate training programme for Red Cross Societies in regional countries. Its Community-Based Self Reliance Programme trains Red Cross Society members in the skills needed to develop the capacity of communities in community-based disaster preparedness, first aid and public health. The programme also enables societies to implement self-reliance projects in targeted communities where needs are identified after in-depth assessments. Other courses provided by IFRC to various regional countries include:

q Regional Relief Training q Community-Based Disaster Preparedness Skills q Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment q Disaster Management Planning q Community Disaster Management Planning

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IFRC has also trained selected staff from national Red Cross societies to participate in the Red Cross Field Assessment and Coordination (FACT) Teams that are drawn from Red Cross societies around the world to assist societies in disaster affected countries with assessment and coordination activities.

Training Coordination

6.16 As training in the region proliferated it became obvious that a measure of coordination would be needed to standardise approaches and reduce the risk of duplication. The Pacific Emergency Management Training Advisory Group (PEMTAG) was established in 2002. It currently consists of:

q The Manager of SOPAC’s Community Risk Programme q The Program Director for The Asia Foundation q The Regional Disaster Response Adviser for OCHA q The IFRC Regional Disaster Management Delegate.

The immediate objectives of PEMTAG are:

q To be a forum to share information on workshops and other capacity-building activities proposed by the member organisations or their partners. q To act as a consultation and validation group for new emergency management training (EMT) initiatives. q To avoid duplication and gaps in the content of EMT provided for Pacific island countries. q To avoid concentrating regional EMT on too narrow a group of managers in the countries, so that they are no longer double-booked and absent from their posts at critical moments, and the benefit of the EMT is spread more widely. q To maintain an inventory and calendar of EMT and other relevant emergency management events occurring in the region or of relevance to the region. q To be the repository of information on the participants in all regional and national- level formal EMT courses and ad hoc workshops held in the Pacific island countries since 1994, and to hold this information in an accessible central database. q To create a joint database of competent regional emergency management trainers, who may also be potential consultants for other activities.

PEMTAG will also work towards the following agreed longer-term objectives:

q To establish linkages with and set up a support structure for the Natural Disaster Training Advisory/Working Groups already established in Pacific island countries. q To set up a series of emergency response exercises rotating to a different regional country each year, run by the relevant National Disaster Management Office and supported by all PEMTAG members, in accordance with their roles. q To offer services such as training needs analysis, EMT quality assurance and effectiveness evaluations for member organisations and their regional partners. q To professionalise emergency management in the region, by promoting EMT that is formally accredited by a reputable academic institution, to contribute to a recognised ‘Graduate Certificate in Emergency Management (Pacific)’. q To position PEMTAG where it is at all times fully cognisant of all EMT across the region, so that it can act as an adviser and point of entry for other potential providers of EMT in the region, such as Emergency Management Australia, Queensland Department of Emergency Services, New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC), and relevant NGOs.

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Exercises

6.17 The value of exercises and simulations for training and for testing plans, procedures and practices is well known in other parts of the world but it has not previously been a part of island country culture. This is changing, both as a result of the initiatives of those who have participated in Exercise Management Courses and as a result of exposure to exercises overseas. Papua New Guinea has been a pioneer in the use of exercises in the region and the annual evacuation exercises in Rabaul are considered to have had a significant influence on the low casualty rate experienced in the volcanic eruptions that devastated the city in 1994. Simulations are now included in some training courses in the region and there is increasing interest in conducting exercises and simulations within countries. Fiji has conducted two major earthquake and tsunami exercises and other exercises are being considered.

Participants at a Regional Exercise Management course.

Relief Supplies

6.18 In countries with restricted resources it is difficult to fund and maintain stockpiles of relief supplies. Most regional countries that experience frequent emergencies and disasters have a small stockpile of basic, low-maintenance supplies but to relieve the impact of major events, governments rely on purchasing stores from local suppliers. If needs cannot be met from national resources, appeals for overseas assistance are made.

Warning Systems

6.19 Meteorological warning systems have continued to improve throughout the last ten years. The WMO, through its regional system, provides valuable coordination and support for meteorological systems in developing countries. With WMO support and that of a number of major donors, notably New Zealand, Australia and Japan, Fiji has been able to maintain the Regional Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre (TCWC) in Nadi despite shortages of qualified staff. Nadi TCWC monitors regional activity and provides cyclone watch and warning messages to countries in its area of responsibility. Staff shortages have restricted some recording activities but the information is maintained for appropriate storage when sufficient trained professional staff members become available.

6.20 The capabilities of the meteorological offices of most other countries have also developed during the last decade. Most offices that were previously run by meteorological observers and forecasters now have at least one forecaster while the scale of equipment and the skills in operating that equipment have been considerably enhanced. Only in Solomon Islands, where the operations of the meteorological office were severely affected by the unrest between 1998 and 2003, has operational capability deteriorated. But even there, hard

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work and assistance from donors, together with the restoration of reliable communications, is starting to restore capabilities.

6.21 One natural hazard for which regional countries are still developing their warning systems is flooding. Very few flood-monitoring systems exist in the region. Tropical cyclone warnings and even storm warnings may include information on the potential for storm surge or exceptional tides and these tend to be the only flood warnings provided in most countries. Warnings of potential river or flash flooding are rare.

6.22 The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii provides watch and warning messages on Pacific-wide tsunamis to all countries around the Pacific. It is not possible for the Center to provide local tsunami warnings. These often occur very shortly after an earthquake and it is rarely possible for national systems to assess the size and location of an earthquake and the tsunami potential in time to produce a warning. Public awareness and local knowledge must be relied on to reduce the toll caused by local events.

Public Awareness and Education

6.23 Some regional countries have developed comprehensive programmes of public awareness activities. Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu schedule annual disaster weeks, usually late in the year before the regional tropical cyclone season. Various activities are conducted; including children’s art competitions, public and community meetings, radio broadcasts, poster and information exhibitions, newspaper advertisements and supplements. Both government and non-government organisations are involved in organising the weeks.

6.24 Other countries conduct special awareness campaigns relating to particular hazards. They use radio broadcasts (the preferred medium for reaching rural communities), pamphlets, posters and newspaper articles as well as public and community meetings to spread the message.

6.25 Disaster-related material is included in school curriculum in a few countries, including Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga. The subject is covered at various levels and is incorporated into existing subjects, mostly in the science and social studies areas. Other countries are still studying the best way to initiate this activity. Tertiary institutions in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Samoa are paying increasing attention to studies relating to disaster management.

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PART III: NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA

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CHAPTER 7: NEW ZEALAND DISASTER MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Introduction

7.1 This chapter covers both the internal New Zealand developments and New Zealand’s contribution in the Pacific region.

7.2 The term “disaster management” is used in this chapter rather than the more frequently used New Zealand term of ”emergency management”. “Civil defence” is a term also used in New Zealand for historical reasons. It has served to distinguish natural hazard emergencies from those dealt with on a daily basis by the emergency services of police, fire and ambulance. The two terms were combined in the latest legislation to connect the historical context with the new comprehensive, all-hazard approach to disaster management.

7.3 New Zealand uses a “4Rs” approach to disaster management in which the terms reduction/mitigation, readiness/preparedness, response and recovery take the place of the prevention, preparedness, response and recovery terms that guide the “PPRR” approach used in many other countries.

The New Zealand Hazardscape

7.4 New Zealand’s dynamic physical environment and level of technological development means the country is subject to a wide variety of hazards. Flooding is the most common natural hazard and volcanic eruption and earthquake are the most dangerous potential hazards. Other significant natural hazards include snow, wind, landslide and severe storms. Coastal erosion, storm surge and tsunami pose significant risks to many coastal areas of the country. New Zealand’s increasing exposure to risks from natural hazards is consistent with international trends.

7.5 In addition to natural hazards, technological development has created new hazards and risks. Reliance on lifeline utilities (including electricity, gas, water, sewerage, communication and transport systems) leads to greater vulnerability in the event of their failure. The increasing complexity and interdependency of these services raises the possibility of multiple failures, progressive failures or extended outages beyond the control of individual utilities. The 40-day electricity supply interruption in the Auckland central business district in early 1998 was a technological emergency that caused significant social and economic disruption, with up to 5% of New Zealand’s workforce affected at a cost of approximately 0.3% of New Zealand’s GDP or approximately NZ$300 million. (Source: “Auckland City Council: Perspective on their Power Crisis” Address by Manley, C. (1998).)

7.6 Hazardous substances and introduced organisms may also adversely affect New Zealand’s environment, health and economy. The threat of terrorism also poses a risk to public safety and national security that no one can ignore, although the risk is deemed to be less in New Zealand than in some other countries.

The New Zealand Disaster Management Context

7.7 New Zealand’s most successful move forward in this field over the past 10 years has been the introduction of new legislation, the Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Act 2002, replacing the 1983 Civil Defence Act. This followed a series of reviews over the 1990s as to the effectiveness of the Civil Defence Act 1983, New Zealand emergency management arrangements, and capacity to manage significant disasters. New Zealand has effective, modern and well-resourced emergency services for dealing with day-to-day

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emergencies and local government has, for decades, been effectively working alongside these agencies to deal with small localised mostly flooding and storm events. The reviews, however, found that New Zealand had significant gaps and deficiencies with respect to dealing with a major “nationally significant” disaster and a need for a more holistic approach across risk reduction, planning and response and recovery.

7.8 The environment prior to the Act had a traditional focus on response planning for small, local emergencies. Responsibilities were held separately at local community level by 86 local authority Civil Defence officers (often employed part-time), with the Fire Service providing much of the manpower and the Police involved as the law and order authority. Regional planning was non-existent, national planning existed on paper, but was never tested and was probably ineffective in that there was no substance behind the written plan. A national committee structure in functional areas met infrequently. There were extremely variable levels of commitment and accountability within local and national levels of government. Major government restructuring during the 1990s was the focus of central government attention and at local government level, significant resource constraints and a lack of priority meant that civil defence was the preserve of a handful of struggling, dedicated individuals. These individuals were predominantly recruited from the armed services.

7.9 The external reviews of New Zealand’s capability to manage a significant disaster led, in 1999, to a differently structured central government ministry with a mix of more variously and widely educated and experienced staff. The initial work resulted in the passing of the CDEM Act, 2002 that introduced new responsibilities and structures that encouraged a paradigm shift in the way New Zealanders think about hazard and disaster management.

Key drivers in New Zealand’s disaster management approach

(Key drivers that are necessary for the effective implementation of a comprehensive disaster management approach are highlighted in bold italics)

7.10 New Zealand takes an all-hazards, multi-agency approach, across the 4Rs of reduction/mitigation, readiness/preparedness, response and recovery.

7.11 The “4Rs” (as defined in the New Zealand National CDEM Strategy):

q Reduction. Identifying and analysing long-term risks to human life and property from natural or man-made hazards; taking steps to eliminate these risks where practicable, and where not, reducing the likelihood and the magnitude of their impact.

q Readiness. Developing operational systems and capabilities before an emergency happens. These include self-help and response programmes for the general public, as well as specific programmes for emergency services, utilities and other agencies.

q Response . Actions taken immediately before, during or directly after an emergency, to save lives and property, as well as help communities to recover.

q Recovery. Activities beginning after initial impact has been stabilised and extending until the community’s capacity for self-help has been restored.

7.12 New Zealand’s emergency management system is fundamentally centred in the community. It is driven down to individuals and their families through education that informs people they are responsible for their own welfare. The structures are community-based structures, using organisations located in the community and volunteers from the community. Legislation provides an overall direction: planning and implementation is done at the community level and according to variable community profiles and needs.

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7.13 New Zealand, unlike many western nations does not have specific stand-alone, organisations that step into managing disasters. Therefore the disaster management system is based on organisations responsible for doing what they do for day-to-day business and planning together for how they will coordinate a multi-agency approach to disasters, (including international assistance for large disasters). These agencies (listed in the Act) are required to have business continuity plans in place in order to be able to continue to operate during disasters and to plan for whatever is necessary to manage their set of responsibilities during and post emergencies. This driving of the accountability down to businesses and agencies, rather than stand-alone specialist disaster management agencies provides a cost effective and sustainable approach to disaster management over time.

7.14 Integrated planning is the key to combined agency preparedness. Coordination is the key to New Zealand’s management of significant emergencies, coordination of existing structures and systems through an agreed multi-agency framework. Local government, emergency services, central government, lifeline utilities and scientific agencies, are formally bound together through this coordination.

7.15 New Zealand in the last 10 years has moved to a comprehensive emergency management approach that links hazard analysis and impact assessment with land use planning and resource management; to one that takes a multi-agency, all hazard approach to planning for managing significant disasters; and where recovery planning is focussed on community, economic, environmental, utility reconstruction and psychosocial development, rather than simple reinstatement of what was there before. The frameworks and the theory have been accepted. New Zealand recognises that it still has a long way to go to fully implement the approach and bed it down into the normal way of doing business.

7.15.1 Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Act, 2002 The purpose of the Act is to: (a) improve and promote the sustainable management of hazards in a way that contributes to the social, economic, cultural and environmental well-being and safety of the public; (b) encourage communities to achieve acceptable levels of risk including, identifying, assessing, consulting about risks, and managing risks, identifying and implementing cost-effective risk reduction measures and managing risk, (c) provide for hazard-based planning and preparation for emergencies and for response and recovery in the event of an emergency, (d) require local authorities to co-ordinate, through regional groups, planning and activities related to civil defence emergency management across the areas of reduction, readiness, response and recovery and encourage co-operation and joint action within those regional groups, (e) provide a basis for the integration of national and local civil defence emergency management planning and activity through the alignment of local planning with a National Strategy and National Plan, and (f) encourage the co-ordination of emergency management across the wide range of agencies and organisations preventing or managing emergencies under this Act and other Acts.

7.15.2 The CDEM Planning Framework The CDEM Act legislates for: q a National CDEM Strategy, agreed by Parliament, q a National CDEM Plan, approved by the Governor General, q Director’s Guidelines (best practice guidelines for the sector), q CDEM Group Plans, approved by the regional CDEM Groups

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The CDEM planning framework

National CDEM S trategy

Approved by Minister of CDEM

Guidelines

Issued by Director of CDEM

CDEM Group Plans National CDEM Plan

Approved by CDEM Group Approved by Governor-General

7.15.3 The National CDEM Strategy The Government’s vision for CDEM is that New Zealanders will understand and routinely act to reduce and avoid the adverse effects of hazards because they value the enduring social, economic, cultural and environmental benefits of doing so. This is encapsulated in the vision statement as:

“Resilient New Zealand – communities understanding and managing their hazards”

7.15.4 The 10 years National CDEM Strategy contains four goals, each with its own objectives and targets for action. The goals are to: q increase community awareness, understanding and participation in CDEM; q reduce the risks from hazards to New Zealand; q enhance New Zealand’s capability to manage emergencies; and q enhance New Zealand’s capability to recover from disasters.

7.15.5 The National CDEM Plan The Plan provides for q hazards and risks to be managed at the national level; q arrangements necessary at the national level to manage the hazards and risks; and q coordination of civil defence emergency management during a state of national emergency

CDEM Structures

7.16 There are two levels of structure: q CDEM Groups – equal partnerships between civil defence, fire, police and health services, lifelines utilities; and q central government, including the Ministry.

7.17 The structures are responsible for planning and response. Local government is largely responsible for mitigation and central government works alongside local government in recovery.

7.18 The key structure under the 2002 legislation is the Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Group, based on Regional council boundaries (of which there are 16 in New Zealand). These statutorily include local government, Fire, Police and Health services and Lifeline Utilities.

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7.19 The following diagram shows the structure at regional and local level. The CDEM Group (the governing body) is composed of all the elected Mayors of the region. The Coordinating Executive Group (CEG), responsible for Group Plan and the implementation of the plan, is composed of the Chief Executives of district local government and the senior executives of the regional emergency services. Groups all have a working party structure under the CEG, supported by the Group CDEM office, which covers, variously: Reduction (linked into other local government accountabilities); Preparedness and Response; and Recovery (linked into central government and Non-Government Agency welfare and other agencies).

Local Authorities Administering Authority CDEM Groups CDEM Group Elected Representatives Participants CDEM Group Emergency Services Welfare agencies Co-ordinating Executive Group (CEG) Plan Lifeline Utilities (CEOs of local authorities & emergency Researchers services) Volunteer Groups - regional Community Groups CDEM Office - local others Professional Services - agency

Emergency Operations Recovery Centre(s) Managers EOC Group Controller Local Controller(s) Emergency Response & Recovery

The Role of the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management

7.20 The 28-person central government Ministry provides leadership to the disaster management sector, promotes a risk management approach across the reduction, readiness, response and recovery aspects of disaster management, encourages and supports the implementation of the CDEM Planning framework, builds commitment to the goals and purposes of the Act, facilitates whole-of-government involvement and supports regional structures in both peace time and during emergencies.

CDEM Planning

7.21 In addition to the National Plan, each CDEM Group has been required to produce a Group Plan covering: q the hazards and risks to be managed by the Group; q the arrangements necessary to manage the hazards and risks; q apportionment between local authorities which make up the Group of liability for financial and other resources for the activities of the Group; and q arrangements for declaring a state of emergency and for cooperation and coordination within and with other Groups.

7.22 The planning mechanism must include a process of formal consultation with the public.

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7.23 The Act requires a risk management approach be taken when dealing with hazards. As part of the comprehensive approach to emergency management, all hazards, not only natural hazards, must be considered when planning. Regional hazards are identified with respect to both likelihood of the event occurring and its consequences. Community vulnerabilities are then matched against the consequences so that impacts are understood. Appropriate resources can then be allocated and plans made for coordinated management of possible events.

7.24 The strength of consequence planning is that roles and responsibilities are allocated on a functional basis, whatever the hazard, so the plethora of specific-hazard-type planning that one sees overseas, is avoided.

7.25 Community resilience and responsibility. The primary goal of the CDEM Act is for communities to be self-reliant. Communities are most affected by emergencies. Therefore, communities should aim to reduce the likely impact of, prepare for, and be able to respond effectively to, emergency events on their own. To ensure this, responsibility for CDEM is driven down to the community level and held by local government with obligatory consultation with and participation by the community. Planning is conducted on the basis of generic hazard impacts, roles and responsibilities, leading to functional plans rather than separate plans for each hazard.

Multi-agency Approach

7.25.1. At the regional level. Planning, response and recovery are based on regional multi-agency structures. While local government provides the administrative organisation, the other key agencies of emergency services, (police, fire, ambulance) and health services and lifeline utilities are legislatively mandated to participate as equal partners. New Zealand is unique in the world in bringing all these parties, particularly the health and lifeline utilities, to the planning table and requiring cooperative planning with the traditional response agencies.

7.25.2 Utilities are recognised as the fundamental infrastructure that keeps communities functioning and therefore they need to be involved in the planning for consequences of disasters with disaster managers, with exchange of information and interdependency and priority restoration planning between parties. Since local government is primarily responsible for hazard research, along with scientific partners, then this is vital information to impart to lifelines. Each region in New Zealand has an Engineering Lifeline Group, which utilities (ellecttrriiciitty,, gas,, watterr,, wasttewatterr,, ttellecommuniicattiions)) and ttrransporrttattiion nettworrks ((rroad,, aiirrporrtt,, rraiill,, porrtt)) participate in voluntarily. They take a multi-disciplinary approach to the examination of hazards and the Lifeline Projects then undertake a work programme to reduce the impacts of these hazards.

7.25.3 At the national level. For response to nationally significant disasters, New Zealand has a national disaster committee, that is, the Officials Domestic and External Security Committee (ODESC) that coordinates central government disaster response, whatever the nature of the disaster. The committee is administered by the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet (DPMC) and the agency with the relevant legislative responsibility takes the operational lead, depending on the nature of the emergency, e.g. biosecurity lead agency is the Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries (MAF); the Ministry of Health for health emergencies, the Police for security or terrorist problems.

7.25.4 The CDEM Act takes a “Whole-of-Government” approach to readiness, response and recovery. The aim is to develop a seamless continuum between central

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government, local government, non-government agencies and the community. The legislation requires central government agencies, emergency services and lifeline utilities to engage at the national as well as at the regional level. This is being implemented through a New Zealand-designed approach developed by the Ministry to encourage this multi-agency continuum of engagement in a “cluster” approach.

Clusters

7.26 Clusters include agencies at all levels of government, non-government, “not for profit” and commercial agencies that have a similar purpose and outcomes, getting together to undertake a risk management approach. There are approximately 11 clusters, including emergency services, health, welfare/recovery, agriculture and rural, lifeline utilities, scientific, business. Together they undertake risk assessment, planning and implementing improvement and development initiatives according to their gap analysis of deficiencies. To date approximately 25% of these clusters are working effectively.

Multi-agency Approaches to the 4Rs

7.27 Reduction/mitigation: Regional and territorial local authorities are required to do risk management under local government; environment; and resource management (land-use) legislation and the CDEM Act 2002. Their long-term community development plans are required to be linked to the environment and to consider natural disasters and include community safety goals. Data on risks, disaster history and hazards is available on all property. Building code legislation and standards have long been in place in New Zealand.

7.28 Regional local government employs hazard analysts and planners. With the advent of the CDEM Act 2002, there is an opportunity for the first time to effectively link disaster management with hazard management, for each to use the knowledge of the other to inform and improve the respective work.

7.29 Knowledge about hazards and their impacts is hugely supported by a range of academic and scientific agencies in New Zealand, that have been working in and researching these areas for many years. Their work and its application have been enhanced by the requirements of the new CDEM legislation that legislates for and encourages strategic partnerships between all agencies that have an involvement in disaster management. Agencies such as the Earthquake Commission (EQC), the Institute for Geological & Nuclear Sciences (GNS), the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA), the New Zealand Meteorological Service and academic institutions such as Massey, Auckland and Canterbury Universities are working with regional government. These strategic partnerships have vastly contributed to New Zealand’s knowledge of its seismicity, its land structures, its flooding & tsunami risks, sociological impacts, to mention just a few. The Foundation for Scientific & Technology Research, funded by central government, allocates significant funding to support these studies.

7.30 Hazard education is provided in New Zealand by all agencies concerned with community safety.

7.31 Readiness & Response: Clearly the National and CDEM Group Plans form the basis of New Zealand’s preparation for response in that they specify arrangements for all operational response functions. Scientific agencies are tied in with a national warning system, which involves all emergency services and local government.

7.32 In addition to the full-time emergency services of Police, Fire (both national services) & Ambulance (a regional service), the New Zealand Defence Force has an agreement with the Ministry to support disaster response and while their resources are thinly spread and

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limited they do participate strongly in disasters. All other agencies such as health and welfare services fulfil their normal functions, but with a different focus in disasters.

7.33 The New Zealand Fire Service provides most of the paid personnel for non-fire emergencies, such as evacuation, flooding clean-up, securing buildings in storms etc. CDEM Groups do have other response resources at their disposal, specifically the multi- agency specialist Urban Search & Rescue (USAR) Taskforces; voluntary community emergency response teams which are multi-skilled; welfare agencies (both state and non- government), first aid agencies such as Red Cross.

7.34 In any emergency, big or small, a huge source of personnel is the volunteers from the community, some pre-trained and others spontaneous. CDEM Groups place a significant emphasis on using and supporting volunteers. They are the backbone of any disaster in New Zealand.

7.35 Other aspects of readiness include: q Exercising; q Training; q Public Education; q Communications development & testing; and q IT applications.

7.36 New Zealand implemented the Coordinated Incident Management System (similar to a number of such integrated incident response systems around the world) a number of years ago, through a multi-agency agreement.

7.37 Other aspects of response include: q Emergency Operating Centres at National, CDEM Group and district level; q Media management; q Disaster Impact Assessment and information exchange and management; q Public information; and q All of these processes are planned for, exercised and utilised in disasters.

7.38 Recovery: Recovery has been further defined in the draft New Zealand Recovery Strategy document, “Focus on Recovery”, as covering economic, environmental, lifeline reconstruction, community and psycho-social aspects and development. It also introduces the considerations applicable to medium and long-term recovery, although New Zealand has yet to really understand and consider the implications of long-term recovery.

7.39 Recovery systems and processes include: q Damage and needs assessment processes; q Coordination of resources; q Central government funding; q Allocation and distribution of donations; q Welfare support; q Continued habitation; and q Financial support through emergency benefits.

7.40 The Earthquake Commission (EQC) is a unique New Zealand institution that uses a compulsory, universal, affordable insurance model. It is non-competitive and backed by government guarantee. It was set up to help people to recover from building damage after earthquake, landslide, volcano, hydrothermal activity, tsunami, storm and flood and fire. It assesses damage, funds repairs and organises the repair work. EQC is also a major source of research funds and runs public education programmes.

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Professional development

7.41 The legislation requires that CDEM Groups ensure they have access to appropriate skilled and competent personnel. New Zealand closed its stand-alone Civil Defence School in 1999 in favour of a regional needs-based approach to training (in addition to the normal training provided to the emergency services). Skills-based training is provided on a multi- agency basis, with all agencies taking responsibility for organising and funding regionally co- ordinated courses. Some national courses, including those for Controller, Recovery Co- ordinator, Urban Search and Rescue, and Crisis Management, are still conducted.

7.42 Other professional development is done by way of tertiary study at various institutions.

Volunteers

7.43 Civil defence, fire, ambulance and other services with emergency related functions all use volunteers. Health & Safety Legislation protects volunteers and requires agencies to appropriately train and supervise their work. In a relatively small economy like New Zealand, the use of volunteer labour is absolutely essential. The maintenance of a suitably trained volunteer force is an ongoing challenge for the sector.

Community Safety and Public Education

7.44 The CDEM legislation and other legislation in New Zealand are based upon principles of self-responsibility and resilience. In any significant disaster, emergency services will be overwhelmed. While New Zealand will seek international assistance, its distance from the rest of the world requires it to have a high degree of self-sufficiency. Public community safety education promotes the message of “looking after yourself and your family”.

7.45 Some national and international research has been done on disaster awareness and even more importantly, disaster behavioural response. New Zealand is no different from other countries in having ongoing challenges in this respect, despite being a country that is highly at risk from natural disasters from extreme weather and seismology.

7.46 There are constant community safety education programmes using the whole variety of media and through the schools. Awareness is quite high in New Zealand; however, the translation into personal preparedness is problematic.

7.47 There has been some attempt at combining agencies to consider a multi-agency approach to public education, but there is still a long way to go in this.

Pacific Region Commitments and Involvement by New Zealand

7.48 Disaster management support for regional countries is provided by the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade (MFAT) and the New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID). In the recent past and currently this assistance includes: q Disaster response missions in the Pacific; q Capacity building in Pacific Island Countries; q Reviews of national capability and planning arrangements at the request of governments; in Tonga and currently in Samoa; q Work with the World Bank on subsequent development programmes; q Support of UN OCHA in the Pacific through the Regional Disaster Response Advisor; q Membership of United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) programme;

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q Disaster readiness and response training for Pacific island country response agencies q Ongoing work in preparing a national planning template for Pacific island countries in readiness, response and recovery which ties in with hazard reduction; and q New Zealand maintains close working associations with Emergency Management Australia (EMA) and the Australian state disaster organisations, with the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) and with other Pacific and Asia disaster agencies.

7.49 The Natural Hazards New Zealand cluster of companies, research organisations and universities has been pursuing a collaborative strategy in the Pacific, including a developing partnership with SOPAC.

7.50 New Zealand is a participant in the FRANZ agreement (France, Australia and New Zealand), established 1992 to respond cooperatively to disasters in the Pacific region. The partners work cooperatively to gather and share information, to survey damage in affected countries, conduct joint relief operations and offer appropriate aid.

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CHAPTER 8: AUSTRALIAN DISASTER MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Introduction

8.1 Disaster management within Australia is commonly, although not exclusively, included in what are referred to as ’emergency management’ arrangements. In this chapter, where the term ‘emergency management’ is used, it can be taken as referring to disaster management.

8.2 Disaster management arrangements in Australia are influenced by a number of key factors:

q The country has a federal system of government with six states, two self-governing territories and a number of smaller territories. Under the Constitution, State and Territory Governments retain responsibility for the protection and preservation of their citizens and exercise control over most of the functions essential for effective disaster management; q Local government, because of its close links with the community, plays a key role in disaster management, as do the many community and voluntary organisations; q The federal government, known as the Australian Government, provides guidance and support to the States and Territories in developing their disaster management capabilities. It also provides physical and other assistance to requesting States and Territories when they cannot reasonably cope with an emergency or disaster. Under the Constitution, the Australian Government is allocated responsibility for external affairs matters, including the provision of humanitarian assistance overseas; 2 q Australia is large, 7, 682,300 km (almost as big as mainland USA), and subject to a wide range of natural hazards that vary in importance according to geographical location; q The population is relatively small, just over 20 million in 2004, and predominantly urban, living in or close to the major cities; and q Most of the population lives close to the east, southeast and southwest coasts.

National Disaster Management Arrangements

8.3 The basis of the national system for managing major emergencies and combating disasters is a partnership between Australian, State or Territory and local governments, and the community. The goals of this partnership are to:

q minimise vulnerability to hazards; q protect life, property, and minimise suffering during emergencies and disasters; and q facilitate rehabilitation and recovery.

8.4 There are four elements to this national system:

1. Australian Emergency Management Committee (AEMC) – The AEMC is the peak national consultative forum in emergency management. It meets bi-annually to consider Australian Government and State and Territory interests in national emergency management. There are a number of advisory groups that focus upon specific aspects of emergency management.

2. A working party of the AEMC with limited delegated powers, known as the Officials Working Group (OWG) meets twice yearly to review disaster and emergency management policies and agree to an agenda for the AEMC.

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3. State and Territory Emergency/Disaster Management Organisations – Each State and Territory has established a peak committee of senior members of appropriate departments and agencies to consider emergency management matters. The names and functions of these organisations differ, but they are basically responsible for ensuring that proper plans and arrangements are made at State or Territory and local government level to deal with emergencies and disasters.

4. Australian Government Em ergency Management Organisation – The Australian Government Minister responsible for disaster and emergency management matters is the Attorney General. The agency through which the Minister exercises this responsibility is Emergency Management Australia (EMA), a division of the Minister’s Department.

5. Australian Government Financial Assistance – Through an agreement for financial relief under the Natural Disaster Relief Arrangements (NDRA), the Australian Government reimburses States and Territories, local government and individuals in accordance with a funding formula for expenditure on agreed eligible measures’ including infrastructure restoration and personal hardship and distress payments.

National Emergency Management Strategy

8.5 The Australian Government, States and Territories, through the Australian Emergency Management Committee, have endorsed the following National Emergency Management Strategy as a guide for development of emergency management in Australia.

q Development – Reduce risk to the community from natural and technological hazards through the continuing development of emergency management capabilities. q Partnerships – Encourage a national approach to emergency management through cooperative partnership arrangements embracing all levels of government and the community. q Education and Training – Develop and promote emergency management education and training to meet the needs of the community. q Community Awareness – Develop a national approach to fostering and enhancing the community’s awareness of risks, and encourage involvement in prevention or mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery strategies. q Civil Defence – Promote and support the development of an Australian civil defence capability that is responsive to threats, in accordance with the national civil defence policy.

Australian Government Emergency Management Arrangements

8.6 Emergency Management Australia. Emergency Management Australia (EMA) is the Australian Government agency responsible for reducing the impact of natural and human caused disasters on the Australian community. It is also the lead agency for coordinating Australian Government disaster response.

8.6.1 Functions. EMA’s continuing functional responsibilities are: q To coordinate Australian Government physical support to the States and territories and to Australia’s region (as an agent for AusAID) in times of disaster; q To enhance national emergency management capabilities by: · developing Australian Government and national emergency management policies, plans and programmes; · working with states and territories to develop national emergency management competency standards and curriculum;

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· delivering emergency management education and training programmes; · developing and delivering emergency management information services; · generating and fostering community disaster-awareness in partnership with the States and Territories; · providing financial support for the development of capabilities through the Australian Government’s State Support Package programme; · supporting the development of Australia’s civil defence capability; · developing emergency management principles and practice; and · fostering emergency management research. · To support the development of overseas emergency management capabilities, particularly in Australia’s region.

8.6.2 EMA is organised into two main elements: an office in Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), which is responsible for policy, planning and coordination (including emergency response coordination), and an office at Mount Macedon in Victoria which is responsible for emergency management training, education, studies and research, business and knowledge management.

8.7 National Emergency Management Coordination Centre. EMA operations and coordination tasks are conducted from the National Emergency Management Coordination Centre (NEMCC) in Canberra. The small EMA permanent staff in the NEMCC is assisted in its duties by Emergency Management Liaison Officers (EMLOs) nominated by appropriate Australian Government departments, agencies and statutory authorities to act as points of contact and facilitate departmental response to tasking by EMA.

8.8 Requests for Australian Government assistance after disasters are channelled through nominated State and Territory Government contact points and the NEMCC to the Director General, EMA. When the Attorney General approves a response, the NEMCC is responsible to the Director General for coordinating arrangements for effectively responding to the need. In the urgent stage of an emergency, requests are passed by telephone to reduce response times and the response is arranged on the same basis. Confirmatory written messages follow at a later stage.

8.9 Emergency Response Plans. To provide a framework for response operations, EMA maintains six Australian Government emergency response plans. These plans, which guide the response to disasters and emergencies in Australia and overseas, are designed to cover most major natural, human-caused and technological emergencies and disasters. The Plans are:

1.COMDISPLAN For the provision of Australian Government assistance after disaster within Australia; 2.AUSASSISTPLAN For the provision of Australian assistance to overseas disasters; 3. COMRECEPLAN For the reception of large numbers of evacuees from an overseas disaster; 4. AUSCONPLAN SPRED For the response to the re-entry of radioactive space debris; 5. CAVDISPLAN For the provision of Australian Government assistance after a civil aviation incident within Australia; and 6. COMARRPLAN For the provision of Australian Government assistance in dealing with a marine radiological disaster.

8.10 Four specialised national hazard-related plans are maintained by appropriate Australian Government agencies, on behalf of the Australian Government and the State and Territory Governments. These plans cover national search and rescue arrangements (Australian

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Maritime Safety Authority); pollution of the sea by oil (Australian Maritime Safety Authority); management of communicable diseases in Australia (Department of Health and Ageing); and agricultural emergencies (relevant national industry bodies and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry).

8.11 Emergency Response Funding Arrangements. Emergency and immediate post- disaster assistance coordinated by EMA is usually provided at no cost to States and Territories. Australian Government departments are required to respond to the limit of their operating budgets before approaching the Department of Finance for further allocation of funds if necessary.

8.12 National Registration And Inquiry System. To facilitate a rapid response to inquiries from Australia and overseas about people affected by a disaster in Australia, EMA sponsors a computer-based national disaster victim registration and inquiry system known as the National Registration and Inquiry System (NRIS). When NRIS is activated, victim information registered by the disaster-affected State or Territory is entered on the national internet-based network of the Australian Department of Health and Ageing and may be accessed from any other authorised terminal linked to that network. After a disaster, designated emergency service computers within each State or Territory can supplement the normal terminals linked to the network.

8.13 Civil Defence. Civil defence is an integral part of national security. The Australian Government has a civil defence policy coordination and support responsibility, which is exercised through EMA. Support provided includes assistance with civil defence training.

8.14 The Australian Government's position is that the Australian civil defence capability is based on existing emergency/disaster management organisations that would be expanded to meet the threat if the need arises. Civil defence planning must be carried out during peacetime in conjunction with the Australian Defence Force.

8.15 The functions of civil defence are: q to protect the civilian population against the dangers of hostilities; q to help the civilian population recover from the immediate effects of hostilities; and q to provide conditions necessary for survival of the civilian population.

8.16 Australia has ratified the 1977 Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions,

Other Australian Government Departments and Agencies with Disaster Manageme nt Roles

8.17 Many other Australian Government departments and agencies have specific roles in relation to disaster management. These include:

8.17.1 The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID): Australia has always accepted that it has a responsibility to provide humanitarian assistance to countries in our region affected by major disasters. Since the early 1980s, it has also provided support to countries in the Asia-Pacific region to build their disaster management capacity. In the Pacific, the full range of mechanisms are available to assist with disaster preparedness and response, including a direct physical response under the auspices of the Government's AUSASSIST Plan which mobilises assets of other arms of government. Australian assistance can be provided on a bilateral basis or through support of regional programmes including those conducted by SOPAC, through non-government organisations or through the Red Cross movement. Many of these programmes are listed in Annex G.

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8.17.2 AusAID is also responsible for administering Australia’s disaster management development assistance to other parts of the world, particularly Asia. A comprehensive range of programmes have been undertaken in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to help develop the capacities of governments and communities to mitigate the impacts of the many natural hazards that threaten the region, and to plan for and respond effectively to those impacts when they occur. Particular attention has been paid to community-based programmes that address the needs of the most vulnerable people in these countries. Similar assistance has been provided to China, Mongolia and Sri Lanka.

8.17.3 In addition, Australia provides regular funding support for disaster management development activities throughout the Asia-Pacific region by its core funding contributions to the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in Bangkok.

8.17.4 The Australian Defence Force: Although the Australian Defence Force has no direct responsibility for any aspect of emergency management, it has a wide range of personnel and resources that are ideally suited to responding to emergencies and disasters. For this reason it is frequently called upon to deploy these resources when State or Territory authorities seek Australian Government assistance or when Australian assistance is requested to support regional countries in times of disaster.

8.17.5 The Australian Defence Force resources most frequently activated are personnel, equipment, stores, supplies and facilities. The Australian Government may deploy these resources to preserve human life, alleviate suffering, prevent extensive loss of animal life or prevent loss or damage to property, when State or Territory resources cannot meet the need. They may also be made available if assistance is required in a civil emergency or for disaster recovery not directly related to the saving of life and property. In this circumstance, cost recovery is normally sought, as State or Territory or commercial resources should be available to perform such tasks.

8.17.6 Department of Transport and Regional Services: Under arrangements administered by the Department of Transport and Regional Services (DOTARS), the Australian Government provides funding assistance to States and Territories aimed at alleviating the financial burden associated with provision of natural disaster relief and infrastructure restoration. Through these arrangements, the Australian Government undertakes to reimburse the States and Territories for expenditure in accordance with a set formula, for a range of eligible relief measures.

8.17.7 DOTARS is also the Australian Government agency responsible for coordination of mitigation activities. It administers the Natural Disaster Mitigation Programme, under which the Australian Government funds mitigation projects submitted by State and Territory and Local Governments. Priority is given to projects that contribute to strategies that address the fundamental causes, rather than the symptoms, of natural disaster related problems and that bring long-term natural disaster mitigation benefits as well as environmental, economic and social benefits. Relevant study projects may also be funded.

8.17.8 Until June 2004, DOTARS administered a Natural Disaster Risk Management Studies Programme that encouraged State, Territory and Local Governments to undertake worthwhile risk management studies to identify, analyse and evaluate risks from natural disasters. This programme has now been incorporated in the Natural Disaster Mitigation Programme, which will continue to fund worthwhile study projects.

8.17.9 Department of Health and Ageing: The Department of Health and Ageing is the lead Australian Government agency with responsibility for communicable disease outbreaks. The Department chairs the national Health Disaster Management Committee

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that addresses issues relating to major health risks and mass casualty situations throughout the country.

8.17.10 Geoscience Australia: Geoscience Australia is Australia’s national geoscience research and spatial information agency. Its roles include identifying geological hazards and assessing the national risk from a range of rapid onset natural hazards.

8.17.11 Geoscience Australia can provide rapid information on the parameters of local and regional earthquakes. Permanent networks of seismographs and accelerographs are maintained throughout the continent to provide information on the ground response to earthquakes. In addition to maintaining the National Earthquake Database, Geoscience Australia undertakes special hazard and risk assessment studies.

8.17.12 The Risk Research Group. The Risk Research Group is part of Geoscience Australia; the group undertakes applied research to assess the risks from rapid onset natural hazards to Australia. The hazards assessed include earthquakes, floods, severe winds, hail, and bushfires. Vulnerabilities of key elements of our societies are assessed and include residential, commercial, industrial and critical infrastructure as well as the social elements of our communities. The impact of the natural hazards upon these elements is assessed in terms of socia-economic measures. Key clients include State and Local Government emergency management and planning departments, and infrastructure agencies such as water, gas, and electric power utilities. Regional studies have been carried out in five major centres of population along the east coast of Australia, Perth, Western Australia will be completed in early 2005. In support of the Disaster Mitigation Australia Package a national approach will be focus of future research initiatives.

8.17.13 National Natural Disaster Risk Assessment Project. This major project, which is being conducted in association with the Department of Transport and Regional Services will provide a national picture of risks from natural hazards throughout Australia. It will consider a range of risk factors as part of the assessment process.

8.17.14 The Cities and Critical Infrastructure Project. The Cities and Critical Infrastructure Project (formerly known as the Cities Project) is a national project that undertakes applied research to assess the risks from natural and anthropogenic hazards to Australian communities. The risks assessed include earthquakes, floods, severe winds, bushfires, landslides and coastal erosion. The Cities and Critical Infrastructure Project works closely with its partners who often include State and Local Government emergency management and planning departments, and infrastructure agencies such as water, gas, and electric power utilities. The Cities and Critical Infrastructure Project is a key interface between the risk modelling activities of Geoscience Australia's Risk Research Group and the Australian community. Studies have been carried out in five major centres of population along the east coast of Australia and attention is now moving elsewhere. The current major activity of the Cities and Critical Infrastructure Project is in Perth, Western Australia.

8.17.15 Bureau of Meteorology: The Bureau of Meteorology is the national meteorological authority for Australia. It is responsible for the provision of meteorological and related services in support of the safety, security and general welfare of the community; for maintaining the basic meteorological infrastructure necessary to ensure the continuity and integrity of the national climate record; and for observing and researching the behaviour of Australia’s weather and climate.

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The Canberra Bushfires The weeks following the firestorms that struck Canberra on January 18 2003 provided the Cities and Critical Infrastructure Project with a unique opportunity to collect crucial data concerning building damage and fire behaviour. The data will provide information about the impact of this disaster and also assist accurate modelling of future events and their consequences.

Using Global Positioning System (GPS) units, digital cameras and palmtop computers with ArcPad GIS, a large team from the Cities Project recorded comprehensive information on 431 suburban properties that suffered damage to the primary residence by fire and/or wind. Over one thousand photos were also taken and linked to the GIS database. The table below gives a breakdown of the destroyed or damaged properties.

Damage Chapman Curtin Duffy Giralang Holder Kambah Lyons Rivett Torrens Weston State Destroyed 77 3 221 1 35 28 4 13 2 6 Heavy 2 1 2 - 1 4 - - - - Damage Medium 3 - 1 ------Damage Light 11 - 6 - - 2 - - - - Damage Superficial 3 - 2 - - 2 - - - - SUB 96 4 232 2 36 36 4 13 2 6 TOTAL

The large percentage of homes that were completely destroyed (91%), compared to the small percentage that showed lesser damage (9%), indicates the rapid movement and ferocity of the firestorm. Moreover, the figures show that, once ignition was established in buildings, they were, with few exceptions, completely destroyed.

The unique meteorological conditions associated with the approaching fire front caused extreme wind conditions in localised areas in southwestern Canberra. The fierce winds uprooted trees, downed powerlines, blew in house windows, stripped tiles from roofs, and even embedded pot plants in house roofs ahead of the fire front. 5% of damaged houses were severely damaged by wind alone, while another 5% were damaged by both wind and fire.

The Cities Project's data is being used by other agencies for a variety of purposes. The data is presently being integrated with other scientific data (such as data on fire spread and intensity) collected by the CSIRO Fire Research Group

All the data collected by the Project will help emergency managers, planners and engineers to develop appropriate policies and regulations for future fire management. Most importantly, this information will allow other communities to learn from the ACT's experience.

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8.17.16 A key element of the Bureau’s role is to provide weather, hydrological, climate and consultative services that monitor, warn of and advise on the potential impacts of natural hazards. These include tropical cyclones, weather conducive to extreme fire risk, severe local storms, gales, floods, drought and tsunamis.

8.17.17 The Bureau provides Regional Forecasting Centres, Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres (Brisbane, Darwin and Perth) and Flood Warning Centres. Many monitoring and warning activities are carried out in partnership with other Australian Government and State, Territory and Local Government agencies and media and community groups.

8.17.18 In addition to its national responsibilities, the Bureau provides support, including training and some equipment, for the meteorological services of Pacific island countries and; as a member of the WMO, cooperates with these services in the provision of regional forecasting and climatological products.

8.17.19 Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry: The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) is the lead Australian Government agency for agricultural risks and emergencies, including animal health, plant health, marine pests, food safety and bioterrorism. The Department coordinates national prevention, preparedness, and response to an agricultural emergency with the States and Territories, and with Australian Government supporting agencies, as well as managing international issues. The primary responsibility for pest and disease rests with the government of the affected State or Territory.

8.17.20 The Emergency Animal Disease Response Agreement includes mechanisms for formal government/industry consultation on resource allocation, funding, training and risk mitigation. It also provides certainty of funding for the initial response to a disease incursion or outbreak through a partnership of the Australia Government, State and Territory governments and major livestock industry organisations. It specifies 63 diseases classified into four categories with the share of costs between governments and industries depending on the beneficiary of control as measured against the impact on human health and socio-economic concerns, the environment and livestock production.

8.17.21 DAFF is also responsible for the operational aspects of human quarantine at points of entry to Australia, based on policy advice from the Department of Health and Ageing.

8.17.22 Australian Maritime Safety Authority: The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is responsible for aviation and maritime search and rescue operations in the Australian jurisdiction and for the protection of Australia's marine environment, including oil spill response. These activities are conducted by Australian Search and Rescue (AusSAR) and the Environment Protection Response Service (EPRS), which are agencies within AMSA.

8.17.23 Department of Family and Community Services and Centrelink: The Australian Government provides direct financial assistance to individuals affected by emergency situations. The Department of Family and Community Services, through Centrelink, the Australian Government Services Delivery Agency provides income support payments to eligible persons whose income has been affected by the emergency. It also provides information, counselling and referral services. Forms of special payments can be made to those people who ordinarily would not qualify for income support.

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State and Territory Emergency Management Arrangements

8.18 The Governments of the States and Territories that make up the Commonwealth of Australia have direct responsibility for the protection of life and property of their populations. These governments raise and maintain emergency services and can call upon a wide range of other resources to support them. State and Territory Governments also retain prime responsibility for risk management activities within their borders and work with the Australian Government on national risk management

8.19 Each of the States and Territories has a slightly different government structure and administrative arrangements. Accordingly each has its own emergency management system. Most have laws and regulations relating to emergency and risk management. These are supported by relevant plans and procedures at State and Territory and local government levels. Although arrangements, titles and procedures vary to reflect the different administrative arrangements, the systems are very similar. Regular exchange of information, particularly across State and Territory boundaries, supports the adoption of common approaches and standards.

8.20 All States and Territories have allocated responsibility for emergency and risk management to a nominated Minister. The Minister is supported by a high-level council and/or committee, with representation from relevant departments and agencies, responsible for providing advice on all aspects of prevention of, preparation for, response to and recovery from emergencies and disasters. These committees are also responsible for coordination of activities between departments and agencies, for planning and for resource allocation.

8.21 As appropriate, similar arrangements are in place at local government level with nominated officials carrying prime responsibility and committees with similar responsibilities being established and meeting regularly.

8.22 Non-government and community organisations are included in State and Territory disaster management arrangements with many being allocated specific coordination and operational responsibilities in relevant plans as well as participating in advisory and coordination committees.

National Coordination Arrangements

8.23 In 2001, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), in which Australian Government and State and Territory Government leaders meet to discuss national policy matters, commissioned a review of natural disaster mitigation, relief and recovery arrangements in Australia. In December 2003 the COAG agreed to the implementation of the commitments and recommendations arising from this review.

8.23.1 Ministerial Level: A major recommendation of the Review is the establishment of a National Emergency Management Ministerial Council to oversee national emergency management arrangements and implementation of a National Disaster Reform package. The most appropriate group to undertake this role has been agreed to be the members of the Australasian Police Ministers Council (APMC) with responsibility for wider emergency services augmented by other Ministers with responsibility for emergency services.

8.23.2 The Council will meet annually and will focus on items of strategic national significance. Matters of a procedural and technical nature will be delegated as far as possible to the Australian Emergency Management Committee (AEMC) or dealt with out of session.

8.23.3 The Terms of reference of the Ministerial Council are to:

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q agree to policy and strategic approaches for emergency management reforms and issues; q exchange information and brief other jurisdictions on significant current and emerging emergency management issues, experiences and initiatives; q promote cooperation between all levels of government and encourage harmonisation across jurisdictional boundaries in the development and implementation of public policy, strategies and programmes affecting emergency management arrangements; q foster accountability to stakeholders through the monitoring and evaluation of policies, strategies and programmes developed and implemented under the aegis of the Council; q provide leadership to all areas of government, industry and the community in working collaboratively to advance emergency management issues; and q liaise with other Ministerial Councils and other bodies on matters relevant to the activities of the Council.

8.23.4 Officials Level: The Ministerial Council will be supported by the AEMC, which is chaired by the Secretary of the Attorney General’s Department and comprises senior officials from key Australian Government and State and Territory Government agencies involved in emergency management and from the Australian Local Government Association. Membership of the AEMC may be augmented as necessary by other senior officials as relevant issues or emergencies require. In the event of a catastrophic disaster or emergency of national significance, membership can also be augmented by representatives of Heads of Government.

8.23.5 The roles of the AEMC are:

8.23.5.1. With regard to the specific terms of reference of the Ministerial Council, to: q agree on Council meeting draft agendas; q secure cooperation between members; q direct the work of its subordinate committees; and q advise Council on the initiation, review and development of AEMC’s activities.

8.23.5.2. With regard to its national strategic emergency management policy responsibility, to: q promote emergency management as a mainstream critical public safety issue on the national strategic policy agenda; q encourage ongoing and effective national emergency management capability coordination and cooperation within and across all jurisdictions and with other national bodies (eg National Counter Terrorism Committee); q as a matter of priority, oversight the implementation of the COAG High-Level Group Report Recommendations including the key areas of: natural disaster mitigation programmes; natural disaster relief and recovery arrangements; data collection; land use planning, development and building control regimes; community awareness, education and warnings; emergency management volunteers; response operations; and indigenous communities; q ensure emergency management and mitigation implications are considered by the Australian Government, State and Territory and local governments in the formulation of relevant future policy and programmes; q share and disseminate best-practice examples and lessons on domestic and international emergency management developments

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q develop issues requiring consideration at Ministerial level for submission to the Council and the existing Local Government and Planning Ministers Council; q identify strategic national emergency management issues and provide advice to governments on these; and q maintain effective working relationships with other national forums and bodies with emergency management responsibilities.

8.23.6 The Officials Working Group that supports the AEMC is chaired by the Director General of Emergency Management Australia and includes the executive officers of the State and Territory emergency and disaster organisations. It meets twice yearly to review disaster and emergency management policies and agree to the agenda for the AEMC.

8.23.7 Other national committees that address disaster management issues from time to time include the Local Government and Planning Ministers Council, the Public Safety Industry Training Advisory Board, and the Australasian Fire Authorities Council. A national critical infrastructure protection body addresses the resistance of key buildings and major community lifelines to the impact of hazards. Issues considered include security and as well as building standards.

Operational Support Arrangements

8.24 Arrangements are in place under which the Australian Government provides assistance to States and Territories during emergencies and disasters when their resources are unable to cope with the needs of the situation. Such assistance can include activation of the resources of the Australian Defence Force or of other government agencies. Agreements have also been made between adjacent States and Territories both to deal with events that transcend geographical boundaries and to provide mutual support in times of need. These are underpinned by national measures to encourage standardisation of terminology, procedures and equipment.

Training and Education

8.25 Australia’s vocational education and training system is based on agreed national industry competency standards and assessment guidelines aligned to the Australian Qualifications Framework. EMA consults with state and territory stakeholders to develop and maintain national competency standards for emergency management that are portable across jurisdictions and support interoperability (www.ntis.gov.au).

8.26 Nationally recognised training may only be delivered by Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) audited against Australian Quality Training Framework standards. EMA at Mt. Macedon in Victoria is an RTO registered to deliver emergency management competency standards at Advanced Diploma level and a Graduate Certificate in Emergency Management, which articulates with a number of tertiary qualifications. Emergency management competency standards are also delivered in the states and territories by a number of public and private RTOs.

8.27 Tertiary qualifications in emergency management are offered through a number of Australian universities and some of these offer distance learning.

8.28 Public Awareness: Public awareness programmes are continuously being conducted throughout the country. A number are national programmes aimed at raising generic hazard awareness and providing information on impact mitigation and preparedness measures. These programmes are conducted through, and in cooperation with, State and Territory

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emergency management agencies. These agencies work closely with individual communities, enhancing the local relevance of the programmes and adding location-specific elements. States and Territories also conduct their own programmes, these being regularly improved by the shared knowledge gained from regular meetings of national advisory groups.

8.29 The educational curricula at primary and secondary levels in a number of States and Territories contain disaster management-related elements. Specific programmes are designed to support these elements, which have proved to be very successful channels for transferring awareness messages into the home. (www.ema.gov.au)

8.30 The assistance of the electronic and print media is regularly sought in raising awareness of hazards and of mitigation and preparedness measures. Increasing public interest in the impact of global warming, the El Niño phenomenon and environmental issues has been a factor in the improved coverage of risk-related issues with informed print articles and ever-improving radio and television documentary coverage proving both popular and valuable.

8.31 The media is also a key participant in warning systems and there is widespread public disquiet when, as in the 2003 bushfires, media promulgation of warnings is perceived to be inadequate. The Australian Government has a memorandum of understanding with the national broadcaster (The Australian Broadcasting Corporation) to give priority to delivery of information to the public in times of emergency or disaster.

8.32 Community Involvement: There is broad community involvement in disaster management in Australia, particularly in rural areas. The relatively small population in a large continent has led people to become more involved in meeting community needs that cannot be met by government. Volunteers play a significant role in providing all manner of community services from planning committees to emergency services. Trained volunteers provide a majority of the staff of rural fire services, ambulance services and rescue services. State and Territory Emergency Services, services with a role in support of the statutory emergency services as well as specific roles in relation to floods, earthquakes and other hazards, are almost completely staffed by volunteers. Volunteers in various community organisations also have key roles in the provision of welfare and support services for those affected by disasters as well as providing training and education functions to the general public.

8.33 Communities are also being encouraged to participate in risk assessment activity. An example is the Tasmanian Emergency Risk Management Project in which specialist community groups including local health officers, fire officers, agricultural experts and others join local government affiliated groups in making assessments. Risks are identified, and evaluated then mitigation strategies are developed. Response and recovery plans are prepared and ratified through a similar community centred approach.

Traditional Knowledge and Practices

8.34 State and Territory and local government agencies involved in emergency management activities consult with indigenous communities and involve them in risk assessment and mitigation and planning in the same way as other communities. Aboriginal liaison officers are employed by many of the agencies and their expertise has been sought increasingly in recent years, particularly in collecting, transferring and implementing traditional mitigation practices.

8.35 The Australian Emergency Management Committee established a Remote Indigenous Advisory Committee whose role is to:

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q provide strategic advice on the research, development and training needs of the emergency management sector in relation to remote indigenous communities; q coordinate resource sharing and build synergies between the States and Territories working with remote indigenous communities; and q facilitate collaborative work on projects relating to remote indigenous communities as a vehicle for sharing expertise across States and Territories and also between researchers and practitioners.

Multicultural Disaster Management

8.36 Australia is a multi-cultural society in which many languages are spoken and in which communication in the English language cannot be presumed to meet all needs. Many migrants come from countries with very different cultures and from societies with very different disaster management practices. Traditions also differ markedly as do the degree of dependence on government and the expectations of the government role in relation to hazards. To meet these challenges, Emergency Management Australia, in consultation with a group of multi-cultural communities and government agencies has developed Guidelines for Emergency Managers working with Cultural and Linguistically Diverse Communities. This is a key tool for disaster management agencies working to meet the needs of a diverse community.

Natural Disaster Mitigation Programme (NDMP)

8.37 This programme was introduced in 2004 to identify and address natural disaster risk priorities throughout Australia. Funds are available under the NDMP for natural disaster mitigation works, measures and related activities that contribute to safer, more sustainable communities.

8.38 In 2001, the Council of Australian Governments commissioned a review of Australia’s approach to natural disaster relief, recovery and mitigation. The resulting report, Natural Disasters in Australia: Reforming Mitigation, Relief and Recovery Arrangements, made a number of findings and recommendations regarding those arrangements. In particular, it found that the only national programme supporting disaster mitigation measures was the Regional Flood Mitigation Programme. Other than for flood mitigation, Australian Government, State and Territory financial assistance was not available nationally to implement mitigation measures identified by disaster management studies. As a consequence, natural disaster risks that were identified through disaster management studies too often went untreated.

8.39 This led to the establishment of the NDMP, which represents a fundamental shift in focus towards cost-effective, evidence-based disaster mitigation – a shift beyond disaster response and reaction, towards anticipation and mitigation.

Australian Building Codes

8.40 Existing Australian Building Codes concentrate on building resistance to domestic fire and, according to the region, tropical cyclone and earthquake. During the period 2004-2005, the Australian Building Codes Board has undertaken to review Australian Building Codes to assess the suitability of current practices to resist the impact of a wider range of natural hazards including bushfire, earthquake, flood, storm, cyclone, storm surge, landslide, tsunami, meteorite strike and tornado.

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National Risk Assessment Project

8.41 This five-year project, which commenced in 2004, will provide a national picture of natural disaster risks in Australia. It is being coordinated by Geoscience Australia in collaboration with State and Territory Governments, leading academics and other stakeholders. The research findings will help facilitate the allocation of funds under the new Natural Disaster Mitigation Programme.

Early Warning Systems

8.42 Early Warning Systems are available for a number of hazards:

q Meteorological Hazards – The Bureau of Meteorology maintains three tropical cyclone warning centres, in Perth, Darwin and Brisbane, that provide appropriate warnings throughout the season. The Bureau also provides strong wind, thunderstorm, flood, drought and other hazardous weather warning services.

q Fire Hazard – Supplementing fire weather warnings, fire authorities in all States and Territories monitor vegetation density, ground litter volume and vegetation dryness to assess fire danger and provide appropriate warnings as well as restrictions on the use of fire in the open air.

q Tsunami Hazard – Australia receives tsunami warnings from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii. These are promulgated by the Bureau of Meteorology.

q Geological hazards – Geoscience Australia has an Earth Monitoring Group that monitors seismic, geodetic and magnetic activity in Australia and Antarctica. Data are freely available to the international community. The data are used for determining the origin and nature of seismic events, providing earthquake alerts and identifying space weather events. This activity will support the future development of a tsunami early warning alert system for the southwest Pacific.

q Human disease – Health services throughout Australia monitor national and international disease risks and provide early warnings of possible outbreaks, supported by details of appropriate precautionary measures that can be taken.

q Agricultural disease and pests – Agriculture is a major contributor to the Australian economy so, in addition to stringent quarantine measures, agriculture authorities and industries monitor agricultural activities and provide warnings of outbreaks of disease, pest infestation and other related hazards.

q Security – As in any other country, police and intelligence authorities provide warnings of potential threats to personal and property security.

8.43 Warnings are distributed widely through the electronic and print media.

International Disaster Relief Assistance Capability

8.44 Australia has a significant capability to respond to requests from other regional nations for support in times of disaster. It is capable of responding to requests for assistance to meet needs defined by a disaster-affected nation and does not support ‘scattergun’ response to anticipated needs that have not been agreed to with the relevant governments.

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8.45 Australia’s response to regional disasters is mounted in cooperation with New Zealand and France, the two other major donor response nations in the region under a long- standing agreement known as the FRANZ Agreement. The aim of the agreement is to instigate open sharing of information on regional disasters and on the assistance being provided. This reduces the chances of duplication during response and ensures that the resources of the three nations are deployed in ways that meet the needs of an affected nation in the most effective way. Situation reports are shared and discussions opened that identify available resources, response times and opportunities for cooperation. A coordinated response may include helicopters from one responder, engineers from another, transport aircraft from a third, medical teams from two responders and relief supplies from all three.

8.46 Using AUSASSISTPLAN, Australia can deploy a range of self-supporting resources to an affected country rapidly and supplement or reduce them as the situation changes or develops. Resources most readily available for deployment include:

q Australian Defence Force aircraft, ships and personnel, including medical teams, engineers and logistics experts;

q Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Teams drawn from State and Territory emergency response agencies, trained and equipped to International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) standards, for building collapse and other rescue tasks;

q Experienced assessment and coordination staff either as members of UNDAC or Red Cross FACTS Teams or as members of Australian agency teams;’

q Experienced medical and other specialist teams drawn from a range of Australian Government, State and Territory Government agencies and from NGOs; and

q Relief supplies from Australia’s ready-use stock of low-maintenance shelter and water storage materials or from industry sources throughout the country.

8.47 These resources are deployed to meet needs that cannot be met from the resources of the affected country. The assistance is normally provided to developing countries as Australian aid, at no cost to the affected nation

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References

Emergency Management Australia (for the Australian IDNDR Coordinating Committee). 1994. Natural Disaster Reduction in Pacific Island Countries: Report to the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction, 1994. Canberra.

McGregor, Andrew M. and McGregor Ian K.L. 1999. Disasters and Agriculture in the Pacific Islands. UNDMP-SPPO.

Secretariat of the Pacific Community. 2003. Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific. Suva.

SOPAC. Nd. Regional Comprehensive Hazard and Risk Management (CHARM): Guidelines for Pacific Island Countries. Suva.

SOPAC Secretariat. Nd. Country Profiles: Cook Islands; Federated States of Micronesia; Guam; New Caledonia; Niue; Samoa; Tonga; Tuvalu; and Vanuatu. Suva.

UNDMP-SPPO. 2000. Natural Disaster Reduction in Pacific Island Countries: Final report for International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction 1990-2000. Suva.

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ANNEX A

Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World

Guidelines for Natural Disaster Prevention, Preparedness and Mitigation

World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction Yokohama, Japan, 23-27 May 1994

Contents

YOKOHAMA MESSAGE Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action - Introduction

I. PRINCIPLES A. Basis for the Strategy B. Assessment of the status of disaster reduction midway into the Decade C. Strategy for the Year 2000 and Beyond

II. PLAN OF ACTION 1. Activities at the community and national levels 2. Activities at the regional and subregional levels 3. Activities at the international level, in particular through bilateral arrangements and multilateral cooperation

III. FOLLOW-UP ACTION

YOKOHAMA MESSAGE We, the States Members of the United Nations and other States, having met at the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction, in the city of Yokohama, Japan, from 23 May to 27 May 1994, in partnership with non-governmental organizations, and with the participation of international organizations, the scientific community, business, industry and the media, deliberating within the framework of the International Decade for natural Disaster Reduction, expressing our deep concern for the continuing human suffering and disruption of development caused by natural disasters, and inspired by the Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World, Affirm that:

1. The impact of natural disasters in terms of human and economic losses has risen in recent years, and society in general has become more vulnerable to natural disasters. Those usually most affected by natural and other disasters are the poor and socially disadvantaged groups in developing countries as they are least equipped to cope with them. 2. Disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness and relief are four elements that contribute to and gain from the implementation of sustainable development policies. These elements, along with environmental protection and sustainable development, are closely interrelated. Therefore, nations should incorporate them in their development plans and ensure efficient follow-up measures at the community, national, subregional, and international levels.

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3. Disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness are better than disaster response in achieving the goals and objectives of the Decade. Disaster response alone is not sufficient, as it yields only temporary results at a very high cost. We have followed this limited approach for too long. This has been further demonstrated by the recent focus on response to complex emergencies, which, although compelling, should not divert from pursuing a comprehensive approach. Prevention contributes to lasting improvement in safety and is essential to integrated disaster management. 4. The world is increasingly interdependent. All countries shall act in a new spirit of partnership to build a safer world based on common interests and shared responsibility to save human lives, since natural disasters do not respect borders. Regional and international cooperation will significantly enhance our ability to achieve real progress in mitigating disasters through the transfer of technology and the sharing of information and joint disaster prevention and mitigation activities. Bilateral and multilateral assistance and financial resources should be mobilized to support these efforts. 5. The information, knowledge and some of the technology necessary to reduce the effects of natural disasters can be available in many cases at low cost and should be applied. Appropriate technology and data, with the corresponding training, should be made available to all freely and in a timely manner, particularly to developing countries. 6. Community involvement and their active participation should be encouraged in order to gain greater insight into the individual and collective perception of development and risk, and to have a clear understanding of the cultural and organizational characteristics of each society as well as of its behaviour and interactions with the physical and natural environment. This knowledge is of the utmost importance to determine those things which favour and hinder prevention and mitigation or encourage or limit the preservation of the environment fro the development of future generations, and in order to find effective and efficient means to reduce the impact of disasters. 7. The adopted Yokohama Strategy and related Plan of Action for the rest of the Decade and beyond:

A. Will note that each country has the sovereign responsibility to protect its citizens from natural disasters; B. Will give priority attention to the developing countries, in particular the least developed, land-locked countries and the small island developing States; C. Will develop and strengthen national capacities and capabilities and, where appropriate, national legislation for natural and other disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness, including the mobilization of non-governmental organization and participation of local communities; D. Will promote an strengthen subregional, regional and international cooperation in activities to prevent, reduce and mitigate natural and other disasters, with particular emphasis on:

· Human and institutional capacity-building and strengthening; · Technology sharing, the collection, the dissemination and the utilization of information; · Mobilization of resources.

8. The Framework of action of the International decade for Natural Disaster Reduction provides all vulnerable countries, in particular the developing countries, with the opportunity to achieve a safer world by the end of this century and beyond. In this regard, the international community and the United Nations system in particular must provide adequate support to the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, and its mechanisms, especially the secretariat of the Decade to enable them to carry out their mandate. 9. The Yokohama Conference is at a crossroad in human progress. In one direction lie the meagre results of an extraordinary opportunity given to the United Nations and its Member States. In the other direction, the United Nations and the world community can change the course of events by reducing the suffering from natural disasters. Action is urgently needed.

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10. Nations should view the Yokohama Strategy for a Safer World as a call to action, individually and in concert with other nations, to implement policies and goals reaffirmed in Yokohama, and to use the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction as a catalyst for change.

Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action - Introduction

The World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction,

Having met at Yokohama from 23 to 27 May 1994, Recognizing the rapidly rising world-wide toll on human and economic losses due to natural disasters, Recalling the decision of the General Assembly in its resolution 44/236 of 22 December 1989 to launch a far-reaching global undertaking for the 1990s to save human lives and reduce the impact of natural disasters, Recalling also the forward-looking decision of the General Assembly in its resolution 46/182 of 19 December 1991 to adopt an integrated approach for disaster management in all its aspects and to initiate a process towards a global culture of prevention, Recognizing that sustainable economic growth and sustainable development cannot be achieved in many countries without adequate measures to reduce disaster losses, and that there are close linkages between disaster losses and environmental degradation, as emphasized in Agenda 21, 1 Reaffirming the Rio Declaration, 2 in particular Principle 19, which stresses the need for the international community to assist States afflicted by natural disasters and other emergencies that are likely to produce sudden harmful effects in the environment of those States, Reaffirming also the role assigned by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the emergency Relief Coordinator, Under-Secretary-General of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, through the IDNDR secretariat in charge of the Decade, in promoting and directing activities of the IDNDR in conformity with general Assembly resolution 46/182, Emphasizing the need for the United Nations system to pay special attention to the least developed and land-locked countries and small island developing States, and recalling in this regard that the outcomes of the first Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the 1990s call for giving priority attention to small island developing States and least developed countries in the activities of the Decade, Responding to the request of the General Assembly in its resolution 48/188 of 23 December 1993 to: A. Review the accomplishments of the Decade at national, regional and international levels; B. Chart a programme of action for the future; C. Exchange information on the implementation of Decade programmes and policies; D. Increase awareness of the importance of disaster reduction policies;

· Appeals to the world, at the time of reaching the mid-point of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction and in the light of increasing human losses and damage caused by disasters and acting in a new spirit of partnership to build a safer world, based on common interest, sovereign equality and shared responsibility to save human lives, protect human and natural resources, the ecosystem and cultural heritage, to reaffirm its commitment to pursuing, through national, regional and international efforts, the transformation of the International Framework of Action for the Decade into a decisive inter- sectoral Plan of Action; · Invites all countries to defend individuals from physical injuries and traumas, protect property and contribute to ensuring progress and stability, generally recognizing that each country bears the primary responsibility for protecting its own people, infrastructure and other national assets from the impact of natural disasters, and accepting at the same time that, in the context of increasing global interdependence, concerted international

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cooperation and an enabling international environment are vital for the success of these national efforts; · Adopts the following Principles, Strategy and Plan of Action.

I. PRINCIPLES

1. Risk assessment is a required step for the adoption of adequate and successful disaster reduction policies and measures. 2. Disaster prevention and preparedness are of primary importance in reducing the need for disaster relief. 3. Disaster prevention and preparedness should be considered integral aspects of development policy and planning at national, regional, bilateral, multilateral and international levels. 4. The development and strengthening of capacities to prevent, reduce and mitigate disasters is a top priority area to be addressed during the Decade so as to provide a strong basis for follow-up activities to the Decade. 5. Early warnings of impending disasters and their effective dissemination using telecommunications, including broadcast services, are key factors to successful disaster prevention and preparedness. 6. Preventive measures are most effective when they involve participation at all levels, from the local community through the national government to the regional and international level. 7. Vulnerability can be reduced by the application of proper design and patterns of development focused on target groups, by appropriate education and training of the whole community. 8. The international community accepts the need to share the necessary technology to prevent, reduce and mitigate disaster; this should be made freely available and in a timely manner as an integral part of technical cooperation. 9. Environmental protection as a component of sustainable development consistent with poverty alleviation is imperative in the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters. 10. Each country bears the primary responsibility for protecting its people, infrastructure, and other national assets from the impact of natural disasters. The international community should demonstrate strong political determination required to mobilize adequate and make efficient use of existing resources, including financial, scientific and technological means, in the field of natural disaster reduction, bearing in mind the needs of the developing countries, particularly the least developed countries.

A. Basis for the Strategy

1. Natural disasters continue to strike and increase in magnitude, complexity, frequency and economic impact. Whilst the natural phenomena causing disasters are in most cases beyond human control, vulnerability is generally a result of human activity. Therefore, society must recognize and strengthen traditional methods and explore new ways to live with such risk, and take urgent actions to prevent as well as to reduce the effects of such disasters. The capacities to do so are available. 2. In this context the least developed counties, Small Island Developing States and land-locked countries are the most vulnerable countries, as they are the least equipped to mitigate disasters. Developing countries affected by desertification, drought and other types of natural disasters are also equally vulnerable and insufficiently equipped to mitigate natural disasters. 3. In all countries the poor and socially disadvantaged groups suffer most from natural disasters and are least equipped to cope with them. In fact disasters contribute to social, economic, cultural and political disruption in urban and rural contexts, each in its specific way. Large-scale urban concentrations are particularly fragile because of their complexity and the accumulation of population and infrastructures in limited areas.

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4. Some patterns of consumption, production and development have the potential for increasing the vulnerability to natural disasters, particularly of the poor and socially disadvantaged groups. However, sustainable development can contribute to reduction of this vulnerability, if planned and managed in a way to ameliorate the social and economic conditions of the affected groups and communities. 5. Vulnerable developing countries should be enabled to revive, apply and share traditional methods to reduce the impact of natural disasters, supplemented and reinforced by access to modern scientific and technical knowledge. The existing knowledge and know-how should be studied and efforts should be made to ameliorate, develop and better apply them today. 6. Global social stability has become more fragile and reduction of natural disasters would contribute to reducing this fragility. In the effort towards effective disaster management, the full continuum from relief through rehabilitation, reconstruction and development to prevention must be the concept guiding actions towards the reduction of human and physical losses, which remains the ultimate objective. 7. Notwithstanding the full continuum, disaster prevention is better than disaster response and achieving the goals, objectives and targets of the Decade as adopted by the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly would result in greatly reducing disaster losses. This requires maximum participation at community level, which can mobilize considerable potential and traditional expertise in the application of the preventive measures.

B. Assessment of the status of disaster reduction midway into the Decade

8. Approaching the midpoint of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, the World Conference has identified, on the basis of national reports and technical discussions, the following main accomplishments and failures:

A. Awareness of the potential benefits of disaster reduction is still limited to specialized circles and has not yet been successfully communicated to all sectors of society, in particular policy makers and the general public. This is due to a lack of attention for the issue, insufficient commitment and resources for promotional activities at all levels; B. At the same time, however, activities during the first years of the Decade in training, technical applications and research at local, national and international levels and in regional cooperation, have had positive results in some regions in reducing disaster losses; C. Equally, the creation of the organizational framework called for by the General Assembly, which includes National Decade Committees and Focal Points and, at the international level, the Special High Level Council, the Scientific and Technical Committee and the Decade secretariat, has laid the basis for intensified preventive and preparedness efforts in the second half of the Decade; D. These new efforts in the field of disaster reduction have not systematically been part of multilateral and bilateral development policies; E. Education and training programmes and facilities for people professionally involved and the public at large have not been sufficiently developed with a focus on ways and means to reduce disasters. Also the potential of the information media, industry, scientific community and the private sector at large has not been sufficiently mobilized; F. It must be noted that not all entities of the United Nations system have contributed to the Decade's implementation to the extent possible and desired by the General Assembly in adopting its resolution 44/236. In recent years emphasis has again been placed primarily on disaster response both within the United Nations and beyond. This has slowed down the momentum of the Decade's initial phase, based on the consensus of the importance of action before disasters strike; G. A number of positive results have been achieved during the first five years of the Decade, although unevenly and not in the concerted and systematic way as envisaged by the General Assembly. Only if these achievements are recognized, consolidated and accelerated, will the Decade be able to reach its goals and objectives and contribute to the development of a global culture of prevention. In particular the existing tools which can yield improvements in disaster response, as part of a comprehensive approach towards disaster management, are not always utilized to the full extent of their potential; 96

H. There is a strong need to strengthen the resilience and self-confidence of local communities to cope with natural disasters through recognition and propagation of their traditional knowledge, practices and values as part of development activities; I. Experience has demonstrated that, although not a part of the mandate of the Decade, the concept of the disaster reduction should be enlarged to cover natural and other disaster situations including environmental and technological disasters (NaTechs) and their interrelationship which can have a significant impact on social, economic, cultural and environmental systems, in particular in developing countries.

C. Strategy for the Year 2000 and beyond

9. The World Conference, based on adoption of the Principles and the assessment of the progress accomplished during the first half of the Decade, has formulated a Strategy for Disaster reduction centred on the objective of saving human lives and protecting property. The Strategy calls for an accelerated implementation of a Plan of Action to be developed from the following points:

A. Development of a global culture of prevention as an essential component of an integrated approach to disaster reduction; B. Adoption of a policy of self-reliance in each vulnerable country and community comprising capacity-building as well as allocation and efficient use of resources; C. Education and training in disaster prevention, preparedness and mitigation; D. Development and strengthening of human resources and material capabilities and capacity of research and development institutions for disaster reduction and mitigation; E. Identification and networking of existing centres of excellence so as to enhance disaster prevention, reduction and mitigation activities; F. Improvement of awareness in vulnerable communities, through a more active and constructive role of the media in respect of disaster reduction; G. Involvement and active participation of the people in disaster reduction, prevention and preparedness, leading to improved risk management; H. In the second half of the Decade, emphasis should be given to programmes that promote community-based approaches to vulnerability reduction; I. Improved risk assessment, broader monitoring and communication of forecasts and warnings; J. Adoption of integrated policies for prevention of, preparedness for, and response to natural disasters and other disaster situations including environmental and technological hazards; K. Improved coordination and cooperation among ongoing national, regional and international disaster research activities, at universities, regional and subregional organizations and other technical and scientific institutions, having in mind that links between causes and effects, inherent to all types of disaster, should be investigated though interdisciplinary research; L. Effective national legislation and administrative action, higher priority at the political decision-making level; M. Placing higher priority on the compilation and exchange of information on natural disaster reduction, especially at regional and subregional levels, through the strengthening of existing mechanisms and improved use of communication techniques; N. Promotion of regional and subregional cooperation between countries exposed to the same natural hazards through exchange of information, joint disaster reduction activities and other formal or informal means including the establishment or strengthening of regional and subregional centres; O. Making available the existing technology for broader application to disaster reduction; P. Integration of the private sector in disaster reduction efforts through promotion of business opportunities; Q. Promotion of the involvement of non-governmental organization in natural hazard management, in particular those dealing with environmental and related issues and including indigenous non-governmental organizations;

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R. Strengthening the capacity of the United Nations system to assist in the reduction of losses from natural and related technological disasters, including coordination and evaluation of activities through the Decade and other mechanisms.

II. PLAN OF ACTION Recommendations for action

10. Based on the Principles and the Strategy and taking into account information provided to the Conference in the national summary reports presented by a large number of countries and in the scientific and technical presentations, the Conference adopts a Plan of Action for the future, comprising the following specific actions to be implemented at the community and national levels, the subregional and regional levels, and the international level, through bilateral arrangements and international cooperation.

Activities at the community and national levels

11. During the remaining part of the Decade all countries are called upon to:

A. Express the political commitment to reduce their vulnerability, through declaration, legislation, policy decisions and action at the highest level, which would require the progressive implementation of disaster assessment and reduction plans at the national and community levels; B. Encourage continued mobilization of domestic resources for disaster reduction activities; C. Develop a risk assessment programme and emergency plans focusing efforts on disaster preparedness, response and mitigation, and design projects for subregional, regional and international cooperation, as appropriate; D. Develop documented comprehensive national disaster management plans with emphasis on disaster reduction; E. As appropriate, establish and/or strengthen National Committees for the Decade or clearly identified bodies charged with the promotion and coordination of disaster reduction actions; F. Take measures to upgrade the resistance of important infrastructure and lifelines; G. Give due consideration to the role of local authorities in the enforcement of safety standards and rules and strengthen the institutional capacities for natural disaster management at all levels; H. Consider making use of support from non-governmental organizations for improved disaster reduction at the local level; I. Incorporate disaster reduction prevention or mitigation in socio-economic development planning based on the assessment of the risk; J. Consider the possibility of incorporating in their developmental plans the conducting of Environmental Impact Assessments with a view to disaster reduction; K. Clearly identify specific disaster prevention needs which could use the knowledge or expertise that may be available from other countries or from the United Nations system, for instance, through training programmes designed to enhance human resources; L. Endeavour to document all disasters; M. Incorporate cost-effective technologies in reduction programmes, including forecasting and warning systems; N. Establish and implement educational and information programmes aimed at generating general public awareness, with special emphasis on policy makers and major groups, in order to ensure support for, and effectiveness of, disaster reduction programmes; O. Enrol the media as a contributing sector in awareness raising, education and opinion building in order to increase recognition of the potential of disaster reduction to save human lives and protect property; P. Set targets which specify how many distinct disaster scenarios can reasonably be given systematic attention by the end of the Decade; Q. Stimulate genuine community involvement and empowerment of women and other socially disadvantaged groups at all stages of disaster management programmes in order to

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facilitate capacity building, which is an essential precondition for reducing vulnerability of communities to natural disasters; R. Aim at the application of traditional knowledge, practices and values of local communities for disaster reduction, thereby recognizing these traditional coping mechanisms as a valuable contribution to the empowerment of local communities and the enabling of their spontaneous cooperation in all disaster reduction programmes.

Activities at the regional and subregional levels

12. Considering the many common aspects of disaster vulnerability among countries of a same region or subregion, cooperation among them should be strengthened by implementing the following actions:

A. Establishing or strengthening of subregional or regional centres for disaster reduction and prevention which, in cooperation with international organizations and with a view to enhancing national capabilities, would perform one or more of the following functions: I. Collecting and disseminating documentation and information to improve public awareness of natural disasters and the potential to reduce their impact; II. Formulating education and training programmes and technical information exchanges aimed at human resource development; III. Supporting and strengthening natural disaster reduction mechanisms; B. Given the importance of vulnerability of developing countries, particularly least developed countries, technical, material and financial resources should be made available in support of concerned subregional or regional centres to strengthen regional and national capacities to reduce natural disasters; C. Improving the communications on natural disasters among the countries of the region in the context of preparedness and early warning systems; D. Establishing and/or strengthening early warning mechanisms for disaster reduction; E. Commemorating the International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction; F. Establishing mutual assistance agreements and joint projects for disaster reduction within and between regions; G. Reviewing periodically in regional political forums the progress made on disaster reduction; H. Request and enable regional organizations to play an effective role in the implementation of relevant regional plans and programmes on natural disaster reduction; I. The international community should give highest priority and special support to activities and programmes relating to natural disaster reduction at subregional or regional level in order to promote cooperation between countries exposed to the same risks; J. As decided by the General Assembly, special attention should be given to the least developed countries in support of their activities in the field of natural disaster reduction; K. Regional arrangements should be carried out in close coordination with and should supplement the national programmes for disaster reduction; L. The international community should assist the developing countries in establishing measures to integrate disaster prevention and reduction within the existing machinery and strategies at the national, subregional and regional levels for poverty eradication in order to achieve sustainable development.

Activities at the international level, in particular through bilateral arrangements and multilateral cooperation

13. In the context of global interdependence and in the spirit of international cooperation, all activities to reduce disasters, in particular those laid down by the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction should be encouraged and supported in the following ways:

1. It is recommended that extra budgetary resources be provided for implementation of the Decade and, therefore, that voluntary contributions from Governments, international organizations and other sources, including the private sector, be strongly encouraged. To

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this end, the Secretary-General is urged to ensure an effective and efficient administration of the Trust Fund for the Decade, established as requested in General Assembly resolution 44/236; 2. It is recommended that donor countries should increase the priority on disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness in their assistance programmes and budgets, either on bilateral or multilateral basis, including increasing contributions to and through the Decade Trust Fund, in order to support fully the implementation of the Yokohama Strategy, particularly in developing countries; 3. Disaster prevention and mitigation should become an integrated component of development projects financed by multilateral financial institutions, including the regional development banks; 4. Integration of natural disaster reduction into development assistance programmes, through effective means, including as suggested in subparagraph 13 (b) above; 5. Ensuring the cooperation in the area of research and science and technology development related to natural disaster reduction in order to enhance the capacities of the developing countries to reduce their vulnerability in this respect; 6. The Trust Fund for the Decade should give priority in financing the establishment and strengthening of the early warning systems of the disaster prone developing countries particularly of the least developed, land-locked and small island developing States; 7. Ensuring that from the formulation phase development projects be designed in a way to contribute to reducing, and not increasing, vulnerability to disasters; 8. Improving the exchange of information on disaster reduction policies and technologies; 9. Encouraging and supporting ongoing efforts aimed at developing appropriate indicators of vulnerability (indices); 10. Reaffirmation of the roles of the Special High Level Council and the Scientific and Technical Committee in promoting Decade activities, in particular the awareness of the benefits of disaster reduction; 11. Enhancing the activities of, and cooperation between, organizations and programmes of the United Nations system, intergovernmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector related to disaster reduction, including more efficient use of existing resources; 12. Supporting efforts of Governments at the national and regional levels in the implementation of the priority areas of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the 1990s, and the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, related to the management of natural and environmental disasters through measures referred to in paragraph 13 (b) above; 13. Providing wider support for the existing mechanism for disaster management and reduction of the United Nations system, in order to expand its capacity to give advice and practical assistance, as required, to countries facing natural disasters and other disaster situations including environmental and technological hazards; 14. Providing adequate support for Decade activities, including those of the secretariat of the Decade, in particular with a view to ensuring the timely implementation of the Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action. In this regard it is time to consider proposals on ways and means to ensure functional security and continuity of the secretariat of the Decade, to the extent possible through the United Nations regular budget; 15. Recognition of the need for adequate coordination of international disaster reduction activities and strengthening of the mechanisms established for this purpose. International coordination should relate, in particular, to the formulation of development projects which provide assistance for disaster reduction and their evaluation; 16. Establishment or improvement, as a priority, of national, regional and international warning systems and more effective dissemination of warnings; 17. Effective coordination of international disaster management, in particular by the United Nations system, is paramount for an integrated approach to disaster reduction and should, therefore, be strengthened; 18. Holding of a review conference on natural disaster reduction at the end of the Decade in order to map a strategy for continued disaster reduction activities into the twenty-first century.

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III. FOLLOW-UP OF ACTION

14. With the aim of ensuring the early and successful implementation of the Yokohama Strategy, the Conference decided to:

1. Transmit the report of the World Conference containing the Yokohama Strategy for a Safer World: Guidelines for Natural Disaster Prevention, Preparedness and Mitigation, through the Economic and Social Council, to the General Assembly at its forty ninth session; 2. Request the General Assembly to consider adopting a resolution endorsing the Yokohama Strategy and making an appeal to all countries to continue working towards the objective of a safer world for the twenty-first century; 3. Transmit the outcome of the World Conference to the midterm global review conference on the implementation of the Programme of Action for Least Developed Countries, to be held in 1995, as decided by the General Assembly in its resolution 48/171, and to the Commission on Sustainable Development in the initial review of the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, undertaken by the Commission in 1996, in accordance with the Commission's multi-year programme of work; 4. Reaffirm the crucial importance of a substantial reduction in the loss of lives and in the physical damage caused by disasters by the year 2000 and of continuing the disaster reduction process beyond the end of this century, as appropriate; 5. Request the Secretary-General to ensure that the outcome of the Conference be given as wide as possible dissemination, including transmission of the Yokohama Strategy to relevant international and regional organizations, multilateral financial institutions and the regional development banks; 6. Request the secretariat of the Decade to communicate the outcome of the Conference to national committees and focal points for the Decade, relevant nongovernmental organizations, scientific and technical associations and the private sector, and to facilitate the review of the implementation of the Yokohama Strategy and further planning by these institutions at the regional level before the year 2000; 7. Request the Secretary-General to submit an annual report to the General Assembly, based on information provided by Governments, regional and international organizations, including the multilateral financial institutions and the regional development banks, the United Nations system and the nongovernmental organization community, on progress made in the implementation of the Yokohama Strategy; 8. Recommend the inclusion of a sub-item entitled "Implementation of the outcome of the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction" in the provisional agenda of the Assembly under the item entitled "Environment and sustainable development"; 9. Request the United Nations, through the secretariat of the Decade, to provide Governments, upon request, with technical assistance in the preparation and development of disaster management plans and programmes.

1. Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992, vol.I, Resolutions Adopted by the Conference (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.93.I.8), resolution 1, annex II. 2. Ibid., annex I.

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ANNEX B

Forum Secretariat Twenty-Eighth South Pacific Forum Rarotonga 19 September 1997

Annex 2

Aitutaki Declaration On Regional Security Cooperation

(1) Forum Leaders recalled the 1992 Declaration on Law Enforcement Cooperation (the Honiara Declaration) which recognised that an adverse law enforcement environment could threaten the sovereignty, security and economic integrity of Forum members and jeopardise economic and social development;

(2) The Forum recognised the region's vulnerability to natural disasters, environmental damage and unlawful challenges to national integrity and independence and reaffirmed it's commitment to take a comprehensive, integrated and collaborative approach to maintaining and strengthening current mechanisms for cooperation among members in dealing with threats to the security, broadly defined, of states in the region and of the region as a whole;

(3) Forum Leaders, recalling their commitment to existing regional and international cooperative security arrangements, accepted the need for the region to take on a more comprehensive approach to regional security consistent with the relevant principles of the United Nation's "Agenda for Peace"

(4) The Forum noted that the most immediate risks to security in the region hinge on regional and domestic developments, including natural disasters, trans-national crime including drug trafficking, and economic, social and environmental policies;

(5) The Forum expressed concern about the vulnerability of member countries to external threats to their sovereignty;

(6) Forum Leaders also acknowledged, that security challenges could arise with little warning, and the region needs to be able to respond quickly to them;

(7) The Forum recognised that coordination mechanisms enabling the region to respond to specific types of security threats are already well developed in the region through the South Pacific Forum, other regional organisations, and sub-groupings' and that unnecessary duplication, overlap, and waste should be avoided;

(8) Forum Leaders acknowledged that existing arrangements have not provided explicit mechanisms to facilitate consultations that would enable members to respond promptly and effectively to requests for assistance;

(9) The Forum considered that the enhancement of existing mechanisms would help build confidence within the region in relation to political and security issues and agreed that dialogue on political and security issues should be broadened;

(10) Forum Leaders expressed support for the following principles governing security cooperation in the region:

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· The Forum is committed to promoting a comprehensive, integrated and collaborative approach to security in aid of the region, · Good governance, sustainable development and international cooperation, including preventive diplomacy, are among the most effective ways of overcoming the vulnerability, building mutual confidence and strengthening the overall security of states in the region, · Recognising that it is best to avert the causes of conflict, the Forum is committed to reducing, containing and resolving all conflicts by peaceful means, including by customary practices, · Forum members will give effect to their shared commitment to peace and security by engaging in practical forms of cooperation in accordance with this Declaration and international law.

(11) In line with these principles, the Forum agreed to further develop mechanism for preventive diplomacy including use of the Forum Regional Security Committee the good offices of the Forum Secretary General, eminent persons, fact finding missions and third party mediation

(12) Forum Leaders also agreed that the Forum Regional Security Committee Meeting be strengthened through the addition of a second session for consultations on broader security issues;

(13) The Forum agreed that the Forum Regional Security Committee should give early consideration to the circumstances whereby the Committee would be convened in response to emergency situations;

(14) Forum Leaders agreed that procedures should be developed and put in place, which would better facilitate responses, by the region's disciplined forces, including early consideration of Status of Forces Agreements for this purpose.

18 September 1997

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ANNEX C

“Biketawa” Declaration

Forum Leaders recalled their 1995 Vision Statement, the Forum Economic Ac tion Plan Eight Principles of Good Governance and the 1997 Aitutaki Declaration. With the aim of elaborating upon these earlier statements and in the interests of regional cooperation, Forum Leaders while respecting the principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of another member state committed themselves and their countries to a number of guiding principles and courses of actions:

(i) Commitment to good governance, which is the exercise of authority (leadership) and interactions in a manner that is open, transparent, accountable, participatory, consultative and decisive but fair and equitable.

(ii) Belief in the liberty of the individual under the law, in equal rights for all citizens regardless of gender, race, colour, creed or political belief and in the individual’s inalienable right to participate by means of free and democratic political process in framing the society in which he or she lives.

(iii) Upholding democratic processes and institutions, which reflect national and local circumstances, including the peaceful transfer of power, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, just and honest government.

(iv) Recognising the importance and urgency of equitable economic, social and cultural development to satisfy the basic needs and aspirations of the peoples of the Forum.

(v) Recognising the importance of respecting and protecting indigenous rights and cultural values, traditions and customs.

(vi) Recognising the vulnerability of member countries to threats to their security, broadly defined, and the importance of cooperation among members in dealing with such threats when they arise.

(vii) Recognising the importance of averting the causes of conflict and of reducing, containing and resolving all conflicts by peaceful means including by customary practices.

2. Forum Leaders recognised the need in time of crisis or in response to members’ request for assistance, for action to be taken on the basis of all members of the Forum being part of the Pacific Islands extended family. The Forum must constructively address difficult and sensitive issues including underlying causes of tensions and conflict (ethnic tensions, socio- economic disparities, lack of good governance, land disputes and erosion of cultural values). To this end, the Secretary General in the future after consulting the Forum Chairman should urgently initiate the following process:

(i) Assess the situation, make a judgment as to the significance of the developments and consult the Forum Chair and such other Forum Leaders as may be feasible to secure approval to initiate further action;

(ii) Consult the national authorities concerned regarding assistance available from the Forum; and

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(iii) Advise and consult with the Forum Foreign Ministers, and based on these consultations, undertake one or a combination of the following actions to assist in the resolution of the crisis:

(a) A statement representing the view of members on the situation;

(b) Creation of a Ministerial Action Group;

(c) A fact finding or similar mission;

(d) Convening an eminent persons group;

(e) Third party mediation;

(f) Support for appropriate institutions or mechanisms that would assist a resolution; and

(g) The convening of a special high-level meeting of the Forum Security Committee or an ad hoc meeting of Forum Ministers.

(iv) If after actions taken under (iii) the crisis persists, convene a special meeting of Forum Leaders to consider other options including if necessary targeted measures.

3. Any regional response to a crisis should take account of the guidelines set out in Annex A.

Annex A (i) Actions are discussed with the authorities in the country concerned;

(ii) The Forum and persons involved on behalf of the Forum should have credibility i.e. must be seen as honest and impartial brokers who are genuinely interested in bringing about a fair resolution;

(iii) There must be coherence and consistency in the strategy followed;

(iv) There must be continuity and conclusion of the process i.e. staying the course;

(v) There must be cooperation with other key international and regional organisations and national actors and coordination of all these efforts;

(vi) There must be a sufficient degree of consensus on the resolutions by those who have to implement them i.e. local players and supporters and those that support them (i.e. outside organisations and governments); and

(vii) The intervention must be cost-effective.

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ANNEX D

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals are an ambitious agenda for reducing poverty and improving lives that world leaders agreed on at the Millennium Summit in September 2000. For each goal one or more targets have been set, most for 2015, using 1990 as a benchmark:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Target for 2015: Halve the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day and those who suffer from hunger.

More than a billion people still live on less than US$1 a day: sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and parts of Europe and Central Asia are falling short of the poverty target.

2. Achieve universal primary education

Target for 2015: Ensure that all boys and girls complete primary school.

As many as 113 million children do not attend school, but the target is within reach. India, for example, should have 95 percent of its children in school by 2005.

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

Targets for 2005 and 2015: Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.

Two-thirds of illiterates are women, and the rate of employment among women is two-thirds that of men. The proportion of seats in parliaments held by women is increasing, reaching about one third in Argentina, Mozambique and South Africa.

4. Reduce child mortality

Target for 2015: Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five

Every year nearly 11 million young children die before their fifth birthday, mainly from preventable illnesses, but that number is down from 15 million in 1980.

5. Improve maternal health

Target for 2015: Reduce by three-quarters the ratio of women dying in childbirth.

In the developing world, the risk of dying in childbirth is one in 48, but virtually all countries now have safe motherhood programmes.

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Target for 2015: Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

Forty million people are living with HIV, including five million newly infected in 2001. Countries like Brazil, Senegal, Thailand and Uganda have shown that the spread of HIV can be stemmed.

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7. Ensure environmental sustainability

Targets:

• Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources.

• By 2015, reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water.

• By 2020 achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.

More than one billion people lack access to safe drinking water and more than two billion lack sanitation. During the 1990s, however, nearly one billion people gained access to safe water and the same number to sanitation.

8. Develop a global partnership for development

Targets:

• Develop further an open trading and financial system that includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction – nationally and internationally

• Address the least developed countries’ special needs, and the special needs of landlocked and Small Island Developing States

• Deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt problems

• Develop decent and productive work for youth

• In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries

• In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies – especially information and communications technologies.

Many developing countries spend more on debt service than on social services. New aid commitments made in the first half of 2002 could mean an additional $12 billion per year by 2006.

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ANNEX E

Extract From The Programme For Action For Small Island States

Agreed at the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, Barbados, 1994.

Chapter II Natural and Environmental Disasters

Basis for action:

Small island developing States are prone to extremely damaging natural disasters, primarily in the form of cyclones, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. In some islands, the range of these disasters includes storm surges, landslides, extended droughts and extensive floods. A recent study by the former Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator (currently the Department of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat) has shown that at least 13 of the 25 most disaster-prone countries are Small Island developing states. Due to climate change, such events, including drought, are perceived to be occurring with increasing frequency and intensity. Natural disasters are of special concern to small island developing States because of their small size; their dependence on agriculture and tourism which are particularly vulnerable to natural and environmental disasters; their narrow resource base; and the pervasive impact of such events on their people, environment and economies, including the loss of insurance coverage. For countries affected by such natural disasters, those particular characteristics mean that the economic, social and environmental consequences are long-lasting and that the costs of rehabilitation are high as a percentage of gross national product (GNP). For similar reasons the impact of oil spills and other environmental disasters can also be severe.

A. National action, policies and measures

1. Establish and/or strengthen disaster preparedness and management institutions and policies, including building codes and regulatory and enforcement systems, in order to mitigate, prepare for and respond to the increasing range and frequency of natural and environmental disasters and promote early warning systems and facilities for the rapid dissemination of information and warnings. 2. Strengthen the capacity of local broadcasting to assist remote rural and outer island communities within countries and among neighbouring countries during disaster events. 3. Establish a national disaster emergency fund with joint private and public sector support for areas where insurance is not available in the commercial market, taking into account the relevant experience to be gained from the operation of similar funds. 4. Integrate natural and environmental disaster policies into national development planning processes and encourage the development and implementation of public and private sector pre- and post disaster recovery plans, drawing on the capacity of the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs and bearing in mind the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. 5. Strengthen cultural and traditional systems that improve the resilience of local communities to disaster events.

B. Regional action

1. Establish and/or strengthen, where appropriate, regional institutions to complement and support national efforts in disaster mitigation, preparedness and management. 2. Establish and/or strengthen, where appropriate, mechanisms for sharing experience, information and resources, including expertise, among Small Island developing States.

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3. Increase access to telecommunication links and satellite facilities for disaster monitoring, assessment and information exchange. 4. Establish and/or strengthen existing regional mechanisms and communication systems for rapid response to disasters. 5. Facilitate, as appropriate, the setting up of necessary regional committees for the International Decade, which could serve as a platform for the exchange of ideas, information and strategies for natural disaster reduction in each region. 6. Support the operation of a national disaster emergency fund, taking into account the relevant experience to be gained from the operation of similar funds, as well as the enactment of standardized building codes and relevant legislation.

C. International action

1. Assist small island developing States in establishing and/or strengthening national and regional institutional mechanisms and policies designed to reduce the impacts of natural disasters, improve disaster preparedness and integrate natural disaster considerations in development planning, including through providing access to resources for disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. 2. Improve access to technology and relevant training to assist with hazard and risk assessment and early warning systems, and to assist with the protection of islands from environmental disasters consistent with national and regional strategies for disaster management. 3. Provide and facilitate technical support and training for disaster preparedness (including early warning) and relief programmes through the offices of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Maritime Organization, the International Telecommunication Union and other relevant international organizations. 4. Encourage the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction and the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction, which will be held in May 1994, to give special recognition to Small Island developing States so that their unique characteristics will be taken into account in developing natural disaster reduction management programmes. 5. Through the Offices of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, support and facilitate the collection, storage, exchange and dissemination of information useful for pre-disaster planning, as well as disaster preparedness (including early warning), response and recovery, and facilitate the exchange of cooperation between regions.

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ANNEX F

Extracts From The Johannesburg Declaration On Sustainable Development And Plan Of Implementation Of The World Summit On Sustainable Development

The final text of agreements negotiated by Governments at the World Summit on Sustainable Development 26 August – 4 September 2002 Johannesburg, South Africa

Chapter IV. Protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development

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37. An integrated, multi-hazard, inclusive approach to address vulnerability, risk assessment and disaster management, including prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery, is an essential element of a safer world in the twenty-first century. Actions are required at all levels to:

(a) Strengthen the role of the International Strategy for Natural Disaster Reduction and encourage the international community to provide the necessary financial resources to its Trust fund;

(b) Support the establishment of effective regional, subregional and national strategies and scientific and technical institutional support for disaster management;

(c) Strengthen the institutional capacities of countries and promote international joint observation and research, through improved surface-based monitoring and increased use of satellite data, dissemination of technical and scientific knowledge, and the provision of assistance to vulnerable countries;

(d) Reduce the risks of flooding and drought in vulnerable countries by, inter alia, promoting wetland and watershed protection and restoration, improved land-use planning, improving and applying more widely techniques and methodologies for assessing the potential adverse effects of climate change on wetlands and, as appropriate assisting countries that are particularly vulnerable to those effects;

(e) Improve techniques and methodologies for assessing the effects of climate change, and encourage the continuing assessment of those adverse effects by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change;

(f) Encourage the dissemination and use of traditional and indigenous knowledge to mitigate the impact of disasters and promoter community-based disaster management planning by local authorities including through training activities and raising public awareness;

(g) Support the ongoing voluntary contribution of, as appropriate, non-governmental organisations, the scientific community and other partners in the management of natural disasters according to agreed, relevant guidelines;

(h) Develop and strengthen early warning systems and information networks in disaster management, consistent with the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction;

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(i) Develop and strengthen capacity at all levels to collect and disseminate scientific and technical information, including the improvement of early warning systems for predicting extreme weather events, especially El Niño/La Niña, through the provision of assistance to institutions devoted to addressing such events, including the International Centre for the Study of the El Niño phenomenon.

(j) Promote cooperation for the prevention and mitigation of, preparedness for, response to and recovery from major technological and other disasters with an adverse impact on the environment in order to enhance the capabilities of affected countries to cope with such situations.

38. Change in the Earth’s climate and its adverse effects are a common concern of humankind. We remain concerned that all countries, particularly developing countries, including the least developed countries and small island developing States, face increased risks of negative impacts of climate change and recognise that, in this context, the problems of poverty, land degradation, access to water and food and human health remain at the centre of global attention. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the key instrument for addressing climate change, a global concern, and we reaffirm our commitment to achieving its ultimate objective of stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system, within a time frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner, in accordance with our common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. Recalling the United Nations Millennium Declaration, in which heads of State and Government resolved to make every effort to ensure the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, preferably by the tenth anniversary of the united Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 2002, and to embark on the required reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases, States that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol strongly urge States that have not already done so to ratify it in a timely manner. Actions at all levels are required to:

(a) Meet all the commitments and obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change;

(b) Work cooperatively towards achieving the objectives of the Convention:

(c) Provide technical and financial assistance and capacity building to developing countries and countries with economies in transition in accordance with commitments under the Convention, including the Marrakesh Accords;

(d) Build and enhance scientific and technological capabilities, inter alia, through continuing support to the International Panel on Climate Change for the exchange of scientific data and information especially in developing countries;

(e) Develop and transfer technological solutions:

(f) Develop and disseminate innovative technologies in regard to key sectors of development, particularly energy, and of investment in this regard, including through private sector involvement, market-oriented approaches, and supportive public policies and international cooperation;

(g) Promote the systematic observation of the Earth’s atmosphere, land and oceans by improving monitoring stations, increasing the use of satellites and appropriate integration of these observations to produce high-quality data that could be disseminated for the use of all countries, in particular developing countries;

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(h) Enhance the implementation of national, regional and international strategies to monitor the Earth’s atmosphere, land and oceans, including, as appropriate, strategies for integrated global observations, inter alia, with the cooperation of relevant international organisations, especially the specialised agencies, in cooperation with the Convention;

(i) Support initiatives to assess the consequences of climate change, such as the Arctic Council initiative, including the environmental, economic and social impacts on local and indigenous communities.

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Chapter VII Sustainable development of small island developing States

58. Small Island Developing States are a special case both for environment and development. Although they continue to take the lead in the path towards sustainable development in their countries, they are increasingly constrained by the interplay of adverse factors clearly underlined in Agenda 21, the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Is land Developing States and the decisions adopted at the twenty-second special session of the General Assembly. This would include actions at all levels to:

(a) Accelerate national and regional implementation of the Programme of Action, with adequate financial resources, including through Global Environment Facility focal areas, transfer of environmentally sound technologies and assistance for capacity building from the international community;

(b) Implement further sustainable fisheries management and improve financial returns from fisheries by supporting and strengthening relevant regional fisheries management organisations, as appropriate, such as the recently established Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism and such agreements as the convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean;

(c) Assist small island developing States, including through the elaboration of specific initiatives, in delimiting and managing in a sustainable manner their coastal areas and exclusive economic zones and the continental shelf, including, where appropriate, the continental shelf areas beyond 200 miles from coastal baselines, as well as relevant regional management initiatives within the context of the united Nations Convention on the Law of the sea and the regional seas programmes of the United Nations Environment Programme.

(d) Provide support, including for capacity building, for the development and further implementation of:

(i) Small Island Developing State-specific components within programmes of work on marine and coastal biological diversity:

(ii) Freshwater programmes for Small Island developing States, including through the Global Environment Facility focal areas;

(e) Effectively reduce, prevent and control waste and pollution and their health-related impacts by undertaking initiatives by 2004 aimed at implementing the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities in small island developing States;

(f) Work to ensure that, in the ongoing negotiations and elaboration of the World Trade Organisation work programme on trade in small economies, due account is taken of small

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island developing States, which have severe structural handicaps in integrating into the global economy, within the context of the Doha development agenda;

(g) Develop community-based initiatives on sustainable tourism by 2004 and build the capacities necessary to diversify tourism products, while protecting culture and traditions and effectively conserving and managing natural resources;

(h) Extend assistance to small island developing States in support of local communities and appropriate national and regional organisations of small island developing States for comprehensive hazard and risk management, disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness, and help relieve the consequences of disasters, extreme weather events and other emergencies;

(i) Support the finalization and subsequent early operationalisation, on agreed terms, of economic, social and environmental vulnerability indices and related indicators as tools for the achievement of the sustainable development of the small island developing States;

(j) Assist small island developing States in mobilising adequate resources and partnerships for their adaptation needs relating to the adverse effects of climate change, sea level rise and climate variability, consistent with commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, where applicable;

(k) Support efforts by Small Island developing States to build capacities and institutional arrangements to implement intellectual property regimes.

59. Support the availability of adequate, affordable and environmentally sound energy services for the sustainable development of Small Island developing States by, inter alia:

(a) Strengthening ongoing and supporting new efforts on energy supply and services, by 2004, including through the United Nations system and partnership initiatives;

(b) Developing and promoting efficient use of sources of energy, including indigenous sources and renewable energy, and building the capacities of small island developing States for training, technical know-how and strengthening national institutions in the area of energy management.

60. Provide support to Small Island developing States to develop capacity and strengthen:

(a) Health-care services for promoting equitable access to health care;

(b) Health systems for making available necessary drugs and technology in a sustainable and affordable manner to fight and control communicable and non-communicable diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, diabetes, malaria and dengue fever;

(c) Efforts to reduce and manage waste and pollution and building capacity for maintaining and managing systems to deliver water and sanitation services, in both rural and urban areas;

(d) Efforts to implement initiatives aimed at poverty eradication, which have been outlined in section II of the present document.

61. Undertake a full and comprehensive review of the implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States in 2004, in accordance with the provisions set forth in General Assembly resolution S-22/2, and in this context requests the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session to consider convening an international meeting for the sustainable development of small island developing States

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ANNEX G

Pacific Questionnaires

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The Pacific Islands Response to the 1994 Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World.

Activities Questionnaire for National Authorities

Agency completing the questionnaire: …………………………………………………….. Contact person for further clarification: Name: …………………………………………………………………………...…… Position: ……………………………………………………………………………... Contact Telephone Number: ………………………………………………………. Email address (if available): ………………………………………………………..

Q1. Using the first of the tables at the back of this questionnaire, please list the disasters that have occurred in your country in the period 1994-2003 in the format given below. Include all types of disasters – natural, man-made, environmental and others. If you are unable to provide the information requested in any column, make an estimate and follow it with a question mark (“?”) or just write “NA”. In Column 6, please state the currency used. Please copy the form if more space is required.

Q2. A total program of disaster risk management is more effective than just disaster response. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being poor and 5 being excellent, how would you assess the overall progress of your country from disaster response to the more proactive disaster risk management: b. Using the second table at the back of this questionnaire, please rank the major sectors listed in order of progress towards disaster risk reduction. For each, indicate the main reason from this list (1) funded programmes or (2) legislation or (3) other good practices. Finally, name the most influential program, legislation or good practice.

Q3. What type of political commitment has been made in your country to (1) disaster risk management and (2) risk assessment? (Mark “Y” for all that apply)

Policy Government Legislation Budget Other (give details) Decision Statement allocation 1 2

Q4. Does your country have A National Disaster Committee? Yes/No. b. What is the committee’s official title? c. Does the committee coordinate only disaster response and preparedness or is it responsible for the full range of disaster risk management activities including risk assessment, risk reduction (prevention and mitigation), community resilience and disaster recovery

115 d. List the major ministries and other agencies represented on the committee. e. What other national disaster risk management related committees exist in your country?

Q5. Mark “Y” and give the dates of each of the current versions of each of the following documents in your country. If a document does not exist, write “NA”:

1 2 3 4 5 6 National National Divisional or Village or Ministry or Standard Disaster Disaster Plan Provincial local Department Operating Response covering Plans Disaster sub-plans procedures Plan preparedness, Plans response and mitigation

Q6. Is disaster risk taken into consideration in the preparation of national and other development plans? Yes/No. What is the name of the agency responsible?

Q7. Are Hazard or Disaster Impact Statements prepared for new developments? b. Are hazard risks considered in the preparation of Environmental Impact Statements for new developments? Which hazards are considered?

Q8. Does your country have hazard-resistant building standards legislation? Ye s/No b. What hazards are considered? c. What measures have been taken to upgrade the resistance of key buildings and the main community lifelines (water, electricity, communications, transport systems etc)? (Consult as necessary with the relevant agencies)

Q9. What is the role of divisional/provincial authorities in enforcing safety standards and rules?

Q10. Which NGOs are involved in disaster risk management activities in your country and what is the role of each at national and community levels? )

Q11. Has there been any hazard assessment or hazard mapping carried out in your country? Please give brief details including approximate dates.

Q12. What early warning systems are in place for hazards in your country? b. How are the warnings passed to the public and to relevant ministries and agencies?

116 c. Please give details of any problems experienced with early warning and of any lessons learned.

Q13. Is disaster risk management incorporated in any way in educational curriculum in schools? If so, at what levels and how?

Q14. Are any academic, educational or research institutions linked to disaster risk management arrangements and systems in your country? Yes/No. If so, please name them.

Q15. What disaster risk management training has been carried out in your country since 1994?

Q16. What public awareness programs have been conducted in your country since 1999? (If you have examples of any posters, pamphlets or booklets, please supply a copy, as some will be used as illustrations in the final report.)

Q18. What part does the media (radio, TV and newspapers) play in awareness-raising or opinion building about disaster risk management?

Q17. Please provide details of community involvement at all stages of disaster risk management in your country. What specialist groups (women’s groups, youth groups, etc) are involved and in what way?

Q19. Are there any measures taken to apply traditional knowledge and practices to disaster risk management in your country? Please give examples.

Q20. You have probably identified disaster risk management development needs that are not being met in your country. Please give a brief list and description of any major needs identified.

Q21. Please provide details of any emerging threats that are being identified in your country

Q22. Please list up to five international or regional programs designed to strengthen disaster risk management that have had an impact on your country in the last ten years. Show briefly how these have brought government and community closer together and give details of any major improvements you think would make the programs more effective.

Q23. Please indicate the new institution that has made the most effective contribution to disaster risk management:

A. In your country ......

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B. In the region ......

Q24. Please list your closest partners in the development, dissemination and application of disaster risk management knowledge.

Please add any comments relating to regional disaster risk management that you think might be valuable for the review.

Many thanks for your help!

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World Disaster Risk Reduction Conference Pacific Questionnaire

Q1 Disaster summary 1994-2003

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Disaster Type Date Deaths Number of Homes Estimated Significant effects (Month & People Destroyed damage costs Year) Affected

World Disaster Risk Reduction Conference Pacific Questionnaire

Q2. Sectoral progress in disaster risk management

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Agriculture Health Water Roads & Housing Power Telecomms Environment Bridges

Sector Rank (1-7) Main reason for success 1. Funded programs 2. Legislation 3. Good practice

Name of most important Program or Legislation or Good Practice

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The Pacific Island Response to the 1994 Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World.

Regional Activities Questionnaire for Agencies and Donors

Donor/Agency completing the questionnaire: ………………………………………….

Contact person for further clarification: Name: …………………………………………………………………………...…… Position: ……………………………………………………………………………... Contact Number: …………………………………………………………………… Email address (if available): ………………………………………………………..

Q1. Please describe the major disaster risk management development programs and projects conducted in Pacific Island Countries since 1994 (Training programmes are covered in Question 2). A preferred format for reports is shown below. Comments on the success or otherwise of each project and the lessons learned would be particularly useful. (Photographs illustrating successful projects would be welcome, as a selection will be needed for the final report.) Project Title: ……………………………………………………………………………………… Country/Countries Assisted: …………………………………………………………………….. Receiving Agencies/Organisations: ……………………………………………………………... Programme Period: ……………………………………………………………………………… Brief Description of the Project:

Lessons learned (if any):

Q2. Please give details of any training provided for people from Pacific Island Countries since 1994. Details should including titles of courses, location of the training (in-country or overseas), numbers trained and whether the training is continuing. A preferred format for reports is shown below. Comments on the success or otherwise of each project and any lessons learned would be particularly useful. Photographs of training in progress would be welcome for the final report.

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Training provided: …………………………………………………………………………….. Countries assisted: ……………………………………………………………………………... Number of people trained (by country if possible): ………………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. Typical agencies and organisations attending:

Lessons Learned:

Q3. Using the format below, please give details of any education or public awareness assistance provided to Pacific Island Countries since 1994. Copies of posters or booklets produced would be very useful to illustrate the report. Country: …………………………………………………………………………………… Years in which support was provided: …………………………………………………. Details:

Lessons Learned:

Q4. In your support activities for Pacific Island Countries you will probably have identified disaster risk management development needs that are not being met. Please give a brief listing and description of any major needs identified.

Q5. Please describe any emerging risks to the region that you may have identified.

Warm thanks for your assistance!

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ANNEX H

Disaster Management Support Projects In The Region 1994-2004

Period Country (ies) Project Support Remarks

1991-1994 Regional Preparation of a Regional Hazard Potential Map and AGSO/GA, Aus Explanatory Booklet IDNDR 1991-2000 Regional South Pacific Disaster Reduction Program UNDP, OCHA, Comprehensive regional AusAID, USAID, development programme 1992 Regional Regional Disaster Management Meetings Aus IDNDR, EMA, Annual meetings 1992 to 2001 then ongoing OCHA SPPO, every two years. SOPAC 1992-2000 Regional Distribution of the IDNDR publication “Stop Disaster” in the Aus IDNDR South Pacific and Australia 1993 Solomon Production of Cyclone Action Guide in local language Aus IDNDR Islands 1993 Vanuatu Preparation of Cyclone Safety Procedure brochures in Aus IDNDR English and Bislama 1993 Vanuatu Production of Cyclone Action Guide in Bislama Aus IDNDR 1993 Vanuatu Production of Disaster Damage Assessment Forms in Aus IDNDR Bislama for local government officials and traditional leaders 1993-1996 Regional Development and production of a Hazards and Disaster Aus IDNDR, NHRC Research Directory 1993-2000 Regional Distribution of Australian Emergency Manuals to Pacific (and Aus IDNDR, DHA other) countries SPPO 1994 Vanuatu Preparation of Cyclone Safety Procedures in French Aus IDNDR 1994-1995 Papua New Landslide risk education programme Aus IDNDR Guinea 1994-1997 Tonga Re-evaluation of the Volcanic History and Hazards of the Aus IDNDR, Univ of Volcanic Arc in Tonga Qld 1994-2003 Regional Emergency Weather Information Network (EMWIN) AusIDNDR, SOPAC, Satellite broadcasting of SPREP, UNDP, meteorological and emergency management information. Used by national meteorological services and NDMOs

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Period Country (ies) Project Support Remarks

1994-2003 Regional Weather Satellite Receiving System for Pacific island nations SPREP, WMO Receiving system for weather satellite images in 14 islands 1994- Regional Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research AusAID, ACIAR ongoing support in identifying and solving agricultural problems. 1995 Cook Islands Revision of National Disaster Management Plan Aus IDNDR 1995 Niue Technical Assistance with preparation of the National Aus IDNDR Disaster Plan 1995 Papua New Survey and documentation of the 1994 Eruptions of Tavurvur ANU, Aus IDNDR Guinea and Vulcan volcanoes near Rabaul 1995 Solomon Preparation of a new National Disaster Management and Aus IDNDR, OCHA- Islands Cyclone Support Plan SPPO 1995 Vanuatu Development of an Operational Support Plan for Ambae Aus IDNDR Volcano 1995 1998 Regional Project to establish, develop and strengthen national Red AusAID, ARCS, Project targets disaster preparedness Cross Societies in the Pacific IFRC and response, first aid, community health and welfare services 1996-1998 Tonga Reducing Coastal Vulnerability to Tropical Cyclones and Aus IDNDR Flooding 1996-2000 Regional Cyclone Warning System Upgrade Project EU, SPREP, WMO Covered system upgrades, risk assessment, training. 1996-2000 Cook Islands Aitutaki Water Supply AusAID, AVI Provision of safe water 1996-2003 Papua New ‘Pigbel’ (gastro intestinal) disease vaccine programme AusAID, CSL Disease has been a major cause of ill Guinea health and death among children 1997-1998 Cook Islands Translation and Recording of Disaster Prevention and Aus IDNDR Preparedness Messages into Community Languages 1997-1998 Regional Development of a Regional Disaster Management Aus IDNDR, CSTC Curriculum Framework 1997-1998 Tuvalu Disaster Preparedness Workshop Aus IDNDR 1997-1999 Regional Preparation of Guidelines for Disaster Preparedness of Aus IDNDR, SOPAC Water and Sanitation Systems in Small Island Developing States 1997-1999 Tuvalu Preparation and distribution of a household disaster Aus IDNDR awareness and preparedness handbook in Tuvaluan 1997-2000 Tonga Diabetes prevention and treatment AusAID, Aust Centre for Diabetes Strategies

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Period Country (ies) Project Support Remarks

1997-2001 Regional (10 Pacific Climate Change Assistance Programme (PICCAP) SPREP Building and enhancing national countries) capacities to undertake studies and report to UNFCCC. Includes Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Mitigation Analysis, Vulnerability & Adaptation Assessment, National Communications. 1997-2001 Niue Water supply and waste management AusAID, AVI 1997-2002 Fiji and Postgraduate medical training AusAID, RACS Training specialists in obstetrics, Regional gynaecology, anaesthetics, paediatrics and general medicine 1997-2002 Kiribati Water supply and sanitation AusAID, Kiritimati Island 1997-2004 Papua New Support for the Peace Process in Bougainville AusAID, NZAID, Peace monitoring and development Guinea ADF, NZDF, ARCS, projects following civil war in ADRA, MMC, AVI, Bougainville Province. IWDA, 1998 Papua New Volcano and Tsunami Mitigation Workshop Aus IDNDR Guinea 1998-1999 Regional Workshop on Development of a Spatial Disaster AGSO, Aus IDNDR Infrastructure and GIS Capability to support Disaster Management in the South Pacific 1998-1999 Tuvalu Community Introduction to Disaster Management Workshops Aus IDNDR prepared and presented in Tuvaluan 1998-2000 Palau Support for Public Education and Awareness Aus IDNDR 1998-2004 Regional Pacific Ocean Pollution Prevention Programme (PACPOL) COMSEC, IMO, Focal areas are marine spills, ships’ SPREP, waste management, port operations, invasive marine species, and pollution from WW2 wrecks. Includes model legislation 1998-2004 Fiji Community Health training and development Fiji Ministry of Designed to reduce incidence and Health, AusAID prevalence of disease that is causing high rates of morbidity and mortality particularly to outer islands 1998-2004 Vanuatu Development of planning and management in the national Min of Health, To reduce infant mortality, improve health system AusAID distribution of health supplies outside the capital

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Period Country (ies) Project Support Remarks

1999-2000 Fiji Support for Public Education and Awareness Programs Aus IDNDR 1999-2000 Regional Production of an Awareness Community Theatre Training AFAP, Aus IDNDR Manual and Video for Cyclone Preparedness and Awareness Training 1999-2000 Solomon Volcanic Hazard Awareness and Planning Workshop Aus IDNDR, SOPAC Islands 1999-2004 Regional Assistance with Disaster Preparation Mitigation Assessment PDC, US Army, Assisted countries Samoa (1999), (DPMA) NOAA, USFWS, Cook Is. (2000), Niue (2001), CDC, USGS Marshall Is (2003), Palau (2003), Governments Vanuatu (2003) 200? Regional Support with the establishment of effective and sustainable SPC, ACIAR quarantine systems and development of legislation and pest management systems. 200? Regional Development of a Pacific Public Health Surveillance Network SPC, WHO Includes access to expertise, early warning communications system, laboratory network and a network of multidisciplinary outbreak response teams 200?-200? Regional Support to countries with animal disease surveillance and SPC reporting. Development of regional tools for animal disease outbreak response 2000-2002 Tuvalu Waste management AusAID 2000-2003 Regional SOPAC Disaster Management Unit funded to strengthen AusAID, NZODA After 2003, funding continued as part national disaster management capacities and integrate risk of regular support for SOPAC management into national development planning 2000-2003 Regional Support for the Disaster Management Unit in SOPAC AusAID, SOPAC 2000-2004 Kiribati, Tonga, Enhancing national capacities to reduce the risk of non- SPC, WHO, AusAID Vanuatu communicable diseases 2000-2004 Solomon Regional Aid Mission to Solomon Islands. Solomon Is Govt., Improving the national administration, Islands Australia, New justice system, disaster management Zealand, Fiji, PNG, structure and health system after civil Tonga, Vanuatu, unrest. 2000-2005 Regional Sea-level and climate monitoring 12 countries, Establishing archives of regional AusAID information 2001 Papua New Research into the frequency of tsunamis in the Sissano AusAID, UPNG This was the area affected by a Guinea Lagoon area near Aitape tsunami disaster in 1998

126

Period Country (ies) Project Support Remarks

2001-2004 Samoa Enhancing quarantine support to protect plants, animals and Min. of Agriculture, Samoa’s staple and export taro crops biodiversity Fisheries, Forestry & were devastated by introduced Meteorology disease after cyclones in 1990 and 1991 2001-2002 Papua New Rabaul Volcanological Observatory Twinning programme AusAID, RVO, Continued support for the Guinea AGSO Observatory following the 1994 eruption. 2001-2005 Samoa Strengthening health management and operational capacity Samoa Dept of health, AusAID 2002 Cook Islands Aviation Safety Workshop EMA, SOPAC International tourism is a key Fiji, Tonga, economic activity in the region Solomon Islands, Vanuatu 2002 Tuvalu Community Awareness Assistance EMA 2002 Papua New Establishment of a UNHCR Office in Port Moresby AusAID, UNHCR Guinea 2002 Regional Animal disease outbreak response workshop SPC 2002-2003 Vanuatu Disaster management project in Marginal Communities of SOPAC, UKDFID Port Vila 2002-2003 Regional Study into Catastrophe Insurance in the Pacific AusAID, SOPAC, World Bank 2002-2003 Fiji Research on Climate Variability and Change and Health Fiji School of Examine the relationship between Medicine local variability of rainfall and temperature, and seasonal climate variability and important diseases 2002-2003 Papua New Lae City water supply resilience project AusAID Guinea 2002-2005 Cook Islands, Capacity Building for the Development of Adaptation CIDA, SPREP To develop Pacific countries capacity Fiji, Samoa, Measures in four PICs (CBDAMPIC) Project to reduce climate related risks Vanuatu 2002-2005 Regional Enhanced application of climate prediction services AusAID, Aust BoM Establishing stand-alone services tailored to national needs and adaptable for planning

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Period Country (ies) Project Support Remarks

2002-2006 Regional Development of sustainable agriculture promoting food SPC, EU security through better use of technology, improved crop varieties and pest and disease management 2002-2006 Regional Reducing Vulnerability of Pacific ACP States EU, SOPAC Targets focal areas of hazard mitigation and risk assessment, aggregates for construction and water resources supply and sanitation 2002-2009 Regional Extreme hazard and climate change vulnerability reduction AusAID Development of regional cooperation and adaptation and enhanced national capacities 2003 Solomon Consultant for organisational development and capacity AusAID Islands building in the NDMO 2003 Vanuatu Risk and Vulnerability Assessment for Selected Building SOPAC, PDC Project assessed and visualised the Types effects of tsunami using computer modelling 2003 Fiji Risk and Vulnerability Assessment for Suva Harbour SOPAC, PDC Project assessed and visualised the effects of tsunami using computer modelling 2003 Regional 30th International Symposium for Remote Sensing of EWC, PDC Main themes: hazards and disasters, Environment global change, natural resources, and technology and infrastructure 2003 Regional Pacfest: Developing Technologies to Thwart Pacific region EWC, PDC Included participants from Fiji and Terrorism Palau. 2003-2004 Regional & Development of the Environmental Vulnerability Index SOPAC, UNEP Project is a result of the Global International Summit on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) 1994 2003-2004 Regional Development of regional community preparedness through AusAID, FSPI support for local NGOs 2003-2004 Regional Radio Internet (RANET) SPREP One-way data dissemination by satellite internet to remote and rural communities. Pilot projects in FSM, Niue, Vanuatu. 2003-2004 Regional Risk and Vulnerability Assessment for Communities FSPI Carried out with national NGOs 2003-2004 American Development of the American Samoa Hazard Mitigation Plan PDC Samoa AS Government

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Period Country (ies) Project Support Remarks

2003-2005 Regional Funding for SOPAC’s Community Risk, Community Lifelines, AusAID and Oceans and Lifelines programmes 2003-2005 Regional SOPAC Community Risk Program SOPAC 2003-2005 Cook Islands Water supply and ground water investigation AusAID Management of available water resources in outlying atolls 2003-2008 Regional HIV/AIDS Project – public awareness, prevention and victim SPC, UNAIDS, support projects UNICEF, UNDP, WHO, NZODA, AusAID 2003-2008 Papua New Support for Disaster Management at National, Provincial and AusAID Funding for NDMO core functions. Guinea Community Levels. Availability of grants to community- based organisations, churches and sub-national governments for disaster preparedness activities. Provision of 2 advisers for capacity building at national and sub-national levels. 2004 Regional Economic Impact of Disasters Research to devise a AusAID Framework to assist decision-making on the effective and efficient allocation of recourses for disaster management. 2004 Regional Leadership Seminar for Pacific island Water Managers EWC, PDC et al 10 day workshop trained participants and gave opportunities to apply the skills in disaster management 2004-2007 Samoa Infrastructure Asset Management Project World Bank, Govt of Component B covers Environment Samoa Risk and Resource Management, Natural Risk management and Emergency Management 2004-2007 Tonga Establishing a solid waste management system Min of Works, AusAID Ongoing Regional Establishment of Tropical Cyclone Regional Specialised SPREP, WMO Centres established and supported in Meteorological Centres Fiji and Hawaii to cover the Pacific Island countries

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Period Country (ies) Project Support Remarks

Ongoing Regional Community Based Self Reliance Programme IFRC Programme through national Red Cross Societies to train communities in disaster preparedness, first aid, and public health. Funds community self-reliance projects. Ongoing Regional Disaster Management Planning for Red Cross Societies IFRC Identifies national Red Cross Society mandates and supports planning.

Equipment Support Projects

Period Country (ies) Project Support Remarks

1980s Regional Disaster Preparedness Container Project IFRC Provides 60 pre-positioned onwards containers of relief supplies in 12 countries 1991-1993 Regional Development of an Australian Tropical Cyclone Workstation Aus IDNDR, Aus Designed for use in the Pacific Bureau of Region. Meteorology 1994 Fiji Backup Australian Tropical Cyclone Workstation Computer Aus IDNDR For the Regional Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre 1994 Solomon Weather Satellite Receiving Station Aus IDNDR Islands 1997-1998 Niue Meteorological communications system Aus IDNDR 2002 on Fiji Equipment support for National Disaster Management EMA Cook Islands Offices 2002-2003 Fiji, Cook Construction of Seismic Network Central Station and Supply JICA Islands and Installation of Seismic Observatory Equipment

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ANNEX I

Pacific Region National Profiles

AMERICAN SAMOA

Location: 14.20S, 170.00W Land Area: 200 km2 EEZ Area: 390,000 km2 Population: 57,291 [2000] Growth: 2.0 % [1995- 2000] Human Development Indicator: Per capita GDP: $8,000 [2000 est].

NDMO: The Territorial Emergency Management Tel: Coordinating Office Fax: Pago Pago Email: American Samoa

Disaster Plans: National Sub National: Community: Disaster Council: Legislation:

AUSTRALIA

Location: 27.00S, 133.00E Land Area: 7.7 million km2 EEZ Area: 15 million km2 Population: 20, 008, 700 [2003] Growth: 1.3% from 2002 Human Development Indicator: Per capita GDP: US$ 20,248 [2003]

NDMO: The Director General Tel: Emergency Management Australia Fax: Attorney General’s Department Email: PO Box 1020 Dickson, ACT 2602

Disaster Plans: National Yes Sub National: Yes Community: Yes Disaster Council: Yes Legislation: Yes – at State and Territory level

COOK ISLANDS

Location: 21.14S 159.46W Land Area: 237 km2 EEZ Area: 1.83 million km2 Population: 18,027 [2001] Growth: 5.6%% [1995- 2000] Human Development Indicator: Not available Per capita GDP: NZ$ 12,005 [2002]

NDMO: The Director Tel: National Disaster Management Office Fax: PO Box 101, Rarotonga Email: Cook Islands

Disaster Plans: National Yes Sub National: Community: Disaster Council: Yes Legislation: Yes

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FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA

Location: 6.55N, 158.15E Land Area: 701 km2 EEZ Area: 2.978 million km2 Population: 107,008 [2000] Growth: 0.26% Human Development Indicator: Not available Per capita GDP: US$2,046 [2002 est.]

NDMO: The Disaster Coordinator Tel: +691-320 2810/320 2649 Disaster Coordination Office Fax: +691-320 2785 FSM Government Email: [email protected] PO Box PS-32 Palikir Pohnpei, FSM

Disaster Plans: National: Yes Sub National: Community: Disaster Council: Legislation:

FIJI

Location: 15 - 22S, 174 E - 177W Land Area: 18,272 km2 EEZ Area: 1.26 million km2 Population: 775,077 [1996] Growth: 0.8 % Human Development Indicator Rank: 81 Per capita GDP: F$4,133 [2002]

NDMO: The Director Tel: +679 3211 754 or 3211 706 National Disaster Management Office Fax: +679 3318 095 Ministry of Home Affairs Email: [email protected] PO Box 2349 Govt Buildings Suva, FIJI ISLANDS

Disaster Plans: National Yes Sub National: Community: Disaster Council: Yes Legislation: Yes

FRENCH POLYNESIA

Location: 10 - 20º S, 140 - 150º W Land Area: 3,521 km2 EEZ Area: 5.03 million km2 Population: 245 405 [2002] Growth: 15.4% [1995- 2000] Human Development Indicator: Not available Per capita GDP: FPF$2 million

Hazards:

NDMO: Tel: Fax: Email:

Disaster Plans: National Sub National: Community: Disaster Council: Legislation:

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GUAM

Location: 13.28N, 144.47E Land Area: 541km2 EEZ Area: 218 000 km2

Population: 154 805 [2000] Growth: % [1995- 2000]

Human Development Indicator Rank: Not listed Per capita GDP: US$15,439 [2002]

NDMO: Tel: Fax: Email:

Disaster Plans: National Sub National: Community:

Disaster Council: Legislation:

KIRIBATI

Location: 1º 25º N, 173º 00º E Land Area: 811 km2 EEZ Area: 3.55 million km2 Population: 84,494 [2000] Growth: 1.7% [1995- 2000] Human Development Indicator: No rank Per capita GDP: $1,124[2002]

Hazards: Drought, Strong winds, Storm Surge, Non-communicable disease (diabetes, heart disease etc), waste disposal

NDMO: Ms. Tessi Lambourne Tel: (686) 21 183 Senior Assistant Secretary Fax: (686) 21 902 Office of the President Email: [email protected] Bairiki, Tarawa Kiribati

Disaster Plans: National Yes (draft) Sub National: No Community: No Disaster Council: Yes Legislation: Yes

MARSHALL ISLANDS

Location: 9.00 N, 168.00E Land Area: 181 km2 EEZ Area: 2.131 million km2 Population: 50 840 [1999] Growth: 1.5% Human Development Indicator: Unlisted Per capita GDP: US$1,890 [2000]

NDMO: The Director Tel: +692 625 5181/3234 National Disaster Management Office Fax: +692 625 6896 Ministry of Foreign Affairs Email: [email protected] PO Box 15 Majuro MI 96960 Marshall Islands

Disaster Plans: National Sub National: Community: Disaster Council: Legislation:

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NAURU

Location: 0.32S, 166.55E Land Area: 21 km2 EEZ Area: 320,000 km2 Population: 12 100 [2003 est.] Growth: 1.9% [est.] Human Development Indicator: Per capita GDP: US$3,450 [1999 est.]

NDMO: Director of Projects Tel: +674 444 3181 Ministry of Economic DevelopmentFax: +674 444 3891 Main Govt Office, Yaren District Email: [email protected] Republic of Nauru

Disaster Plans: National: No Sub National: No Community: No Disaster Council: No Legislation: No

NEW CALEDONIA

Location: 21.30S 165.30E Land Area: 18,576 km2 EEZ Area: 1.74 million km2 Population: 196 836 [1996] Growth: 1.8% Human Development Indicator: Per capita GDP: $17,441 (1999 est.)

NDMO: Tel: Fax: Email:

Disaster Plans: National Sub National: Community: Disaster Council: Legislation:

NEW ZEALAND

Location: 33 - 53S, 160E - 173W Land Area: 270,500 km2 EEZ Area: 1.3 million km2 Population: 3,82 million [2001] Growth: 3.8% Human Development Indicator Rank: 20 Per capita GDP: NZ$28,674 [2003]

NDMO: The Director Tel: +64-4- Ministry of Civil Defence and Fax: +64-4- Emergency Management Email: PO Box 5010 Wellington

Disaster Plans: National Yes Sub National: Yes Community: Yes Disaster Council: Yes Legislation: Yes

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NIUE

Location: 19.02S, 169.52W Land Area: 259 km2 EEZ Area: 390,000 km2 Population: 1,788 [2001] Growth: 3.8% Human Development Indicator: Not listed Per capita GDP: NZ$7,470 [2000]

NDMO: The Police Commissioner Tel: +683 4333 Police Headquarters Fax: +683 4324 PO Box 69 Email: [email protected] Alofi NIUE

Disaster Plans: National Yes Sub National: No Community: No Disaster Council: Yes Legislation: No

PALAU

Location: 7.30N, 134.30E Land Area: 488km2 EEZ Area: 629 000 km2 Population: 19,129 [2000] Growth: 2.1% [1995- 2000] Human Development Indicator: Not listed Per capita GDP: US$6,157 [2001]

NDMO: The Director Tel: +680 488 2249/9422 National Emergency Management Office Fax: +680 488 3312 PO Box 100 Email: [email protected] Koror, Palau

Disaster Plans: National: Yes Sub National: Community: Disaster Council: Legislation:

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Location: 6.00S, 147.00E Land Area: 462 243 km2 EEZ Area: 3.12 million km2 Population: 5,171,548 [2000] Growth: 2.7% Human Development Indicator Rank: 132 Per capita GDP: K$2,070.9 [2000]

NDMO: The Director National Disaster CenterTel: +675 301 1053/1182 Dept of Provincial and Local Government Affairs Fax: +675 325 4186 PO Box 4970 Email: [email protected] Boroko, National Capital District Papua New Guinea

Disaster Plans: National: Yes Sub National: Yes Community: Yes Disaster Council: Yes Legislation: Yes

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PITCAIRN

Location: 25.04S, 130.06W Land Area: 5 km2 EEZ Area: 800 000 km2 Population: 47 [2003 est.] Growth: negligible Human Development Indicator: Not listed Per capita GDP: not available]

NDMO: Tel: Fax: Email:

Disaster Plans: National Sub National: NA Community: NA Disaster Council: NA Legislation: No

SAMOA

Location: 13.35S, 172.20W Land Area: 2,935 km2 EEZ Area: 120,000 km2 Population: 176,710 [2001] Growth: 1.0% Human Development Indicator Rank: 70 Per capita GDP: T$5039 [2001]

NDMO: Principal Disaster Management Officer Tel: +685 32 742/23 701/23 702 Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Fax: Private Mail Bag Email: [email protected] Apia, SAMOA

Disaster Plans: National: Yes Sub National: Community: Disaster Council: Yes Legislation:

SOLOMON ISLANDS

Location: 8.00S, 159.00E Land Area: 28,370 km2 EEZ Area: 600,000 km2 Population: 409,042 [1999] Growth: 2.6% Human Development Indicator Rank: 123 Per capita GDP: SB$3,437 [2002]

NDMO: Director Tel: +677 27 936 National Disaster Management Office Fax: +677 27 937 Ministry of Home Affairs Email: [email protected] PO Box G11 Honiara SOLOMON ISLANDS

Disaster Plans: National Yes Sub National: No Community: No Disaster Council: Yes Legislation: Yes

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TOKELAU

Location: 9º 00º S, 172º 00º W Land Area: 12 sq. km EEZ Area: 290 000 sq km. Population: 1537 [2001] Growth: 0.01% Human Development Indicator Rank: Per capita GDP: $2,489 [2001]

Contact: Office of Tokelau Affairs Tel: +685 20822/71096 Apia Fax: +685 21 761 Samoa Email: [email protected]

Disaster Plans: National Sub National Community Disaster Council: Yes Legislation:

TONGA

Location: 20º 00º S, 175º 00º W Land Area: 649 sq. km EEZ Area: 700, 000 sq. km Population: 97 784 [1996] Growth: 0.3%

Human Development Indicator Rank: Per capita GDP: T$2,535.00 [2000] NDMO: Deputy Director of Works Tel: +676 23 100 National Disaster Management Office Fax: +676 23 102 Ministry of Works and National Disaster Activities PO Box 52, Nuku’alofa Email: [email protected] TONGA

Disaster Plans: National Yes Sub National Community Disaster Council: Yes Legislation:

TUVALU

Location: 8º 00º S, 178º 00º E Land Area: 26 sq. km EEZ Area: 1, 300, 000 sq. km Population: 9 561 [2002] Growth: 0.9% [estimated annual growth rate] Human Development Indicator Rank: Per capita GDP: A$2194.2 [1998]

NDMO: Disaster Coordinator Tel: +688 20 128 National Disaster Management Office Fax: +688 20113/20114 Office of the Prime Minister Email: [email protected] Private Mail Bag Funafuti, Tuvalu.

Disaster Plans: National Yes Sub National Community Disaster Council: Yes Legislation:

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VANUATU

Location: 16º 00º S, 167º 00º E Land Area: 12 190 sq. km EEZ Area: 710,000 sq. km Population: 186 678 [1999] Growth: 2.70% Human Development Indicator Rank: 128 Per capita GDP: V$162,955 [2001]

NDMO: Director National Disaster Management Office Ph: +678 22392/26570 Police Headquarters Fax: +678 24465 PMB 014, Port Vila Email: [email protected] VANUATU

Disaster Plans: National: Yes Sub National: Community: Disaster Council: Yes Legislation: In final preparation

WALLIS AND FUTUNA

Location: 13º 22º S, 176º 11º W Land Area: 255 sq. km EEZ Area: 300 000 sq. km Population: 14 166 [1996] Growth: 0.6% Human Development Indicator: Per capita GDP: CFP $2000

NDMO: Ph: Fax: Email:

Disaster Plans: National Sub National Community Disaster Council: Legislation:

Sources:

1. Geographic Coordinates. www.cia.gov/publications/factbook 2. Land Areas, NDMOs and EEZ – SOPAC 3. Population, Growth and GDP from SPC Prism site. 4. Human Development Indicator – www.hdr.undp.org 5. Australian Statistics from www.abs.gov.au 6. New Zealand Statistics from www.stats.govt.nz 7. French Polynesia Statistics from www.ispf.pf 8. Wallis and Futuna Per Capita GDP sourced from: Pacific 2004 www.pacificislands.cc/pmalmanac/index.php

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ANNEX J

List Of Abbreviations And Acronyms

ACP Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (countries assisted by the EU) ADPC Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (in Bangkok ) AEMC Australian Emergency Management Committee AEMEG Australian Emergency Management Executive Group AFAC Australasian Fire Authorities Council AGCDTF Australian Government Counter Disaster Task Force (Australia) AMSA Australian Maritime Safety Authority AusAID Australian Agency for International Development AusSAR Australian Search and Rescue BPOA Barbados Plan of Action CDEM Civil Defence and Emergency Management (NZ) CEG Coordinating Executive Group (NZ) CHARM Comprehensive Hazard and Risk Management CROP Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific DAFF Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Australia) DFID Department for International Development (UK ) DPMC Department of the prime Minister and Cabinet (NZ) EEZ Exclusive Economic Zone EMA Emergency Management Australia EMAI Emergency Management Australia Institute EMT Emergency Management Training EQC Earthquake Commission (NZ) EU European Union FACT Field Assessment and Coordination Team (Red Cross) FSM Federated States of Micronesia FSchM Fiji School of Medicine GDP Gross Domestic Product GNS Institute for Geological and Nuclear Sciences (NZ) HES Humanitarian and Emergencies Section (AusAID) IDNDR International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (1990-2000) IFRC International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies JICA Japanese International Cooperation Agency MAF Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (NZ) MCDEM Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (NZ) MFAT Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (NZ) NDC National Disaster Committee or Council NDMO National Disaster Management Office NDRA National Disaster Relief Arrangements (Australia) NEMCC National Emergency Management Coordination Centre (Australia) NEMEG National Emergency Executive Group (Australia) NGO Non-Government Organisation NIWA National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NZ) NRIS National Registration and Inquiry System (Australia) NZ New Zealand NZAID New Zealand Agency for International Development OCHA UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ODESC Officials’ Domestic and External Security Committee (NZ) OFDA Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (of USAID) PDC Pacific Disaster Center (Hawaii) PEMTAG Pacific Emergency Management Training Advisory Group PIFS Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat SIDS Small Island Developing States SOPAC South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission SPC Secretariat to the Pacific Community

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SPDRP South Pacific Disaster Reduction Programme (now closed) SPPO South Pacific Program Office (of UNDRO) (now closed) SPREP South Pacific Regional Environment Programme TCCSP Tropical Cyclone Committee for the South Pacific (and South East Asia) TCWC Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre UNDAC United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination UNDHA United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs (since replaced by OCHA) UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNDRO Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator (since replaced by OCHA) USAID Unites States Agency for International Development WHO World Health Organisation WMO World Meteorological Organisation WSSD World Summit on Sustainable Development

140

ANNEX K

Useful Disaster Management Websites

Agency Site

CROP Agencies Fiji School of Medicine www.fsm.ac.fj Pacific Islands Development Program eastwestcenter.org/pidp-ab.asp Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat www.forumsec.org.fj South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission www.sopac.org Secretariat of the Pacific Community www.spc.int South Pacific Regional Environment Programme www.sprep.org.ws University of the South Pacific www.usp.ac.fj

Other Regional Agencies Pacific Disaster Center www.pdc.org

International Agencies Asian Disaster Preparedness Center www.adpc.ait.ac.th International Federation of Red Cross and Red www.ifrc.org Crescent Societies (IFRC) IFAD ISDR Secretariat www.unisdr.org Pan-American Health Organisation www.paho.org Relief Web www.reliefweb.int UN Centre for Regional Development www.uncrd.or.jp UN Children’s Fund Emergency Operations www.unicef.org/emerg UN Development Programme www.undp.org UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia www.unescap.org and the Pacific (ESCAP) UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) www.fao.org UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian www.reliefweb.int/ocha_ol Affairs (OCHA) World Bank www.worldbank.org World Health Organisation www.who.int World Meteorological Organisation www.wmo.ch

National Agencies AusAID www.ausaid.gov.au Australian Bureau of Meteorology www.bom.gov.au Australian Dept of Transport and Regional www.dotars.gov.au/ndr/index.htm Services Disaster Management Site Emergency Management Australia www.ema.gov.au Federal Emergency Management Agency www.fema.com (FEMA) Federal Emergency Management Agency www.fema.com/regions/ix (FEMA) Region IX Fiji Meteorological Service www.met.gov.fj Geoscience Australia www.ga.gov.au Meteo, Noumea, New Caledonia www.meteo.nc National Institute for Water and Atmospheric www.niwa.cri.nz Research (NZ) New Zealand Meteorological Service www.met.co.nz

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Agency Site

New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence and www.civildefence.govt.nz Emergency Management US Geological Survey Near Real time Earthquake www.neic.cr.usgs.gov/neis Site USAID/OFDA www.usaid.gov/ofda NZAID www.nzaid.govt.nz Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences www.igns.cri.nz (IGNS) (NZ)

Non-Government Organisations

Miscellaneous University of Hawaii ‘Hurricanes, typhoons and www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/tropical tropical cyclones site (info only) Near Real Time Earthquake Bulletin www.neic.cr.usgs.gov/reis/bulletin/bulletin.html University of Hawaii Hurricanes, Typhoons and www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/tropical Tropical Cyclones Site Overseas Development Institute Humanitarian www.odihpn.org Practice Network Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre www.bghrc.com Weekly Volcanic Activity Report www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/usgs/

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SOPAC Secretariat Private Mail Bag GPO, Suva Fiji Islands. Ph: +679 338 1377 Fax: +679 337 0040 Email: [email protected] Website: www.sopac.org