Pacific Ocean Regional Office

Direction régionale océan Pacifique — © Marc Le Chélard

Consisting of more than 25,000 islands, the Pacific Islands stretch from Palau to French Polynesia. The region, which accounts for nearly one third of the world's total surface area, is heavily impacted by climate change and natural disasters. AFD Group supports 17 island states and territories and East Timor in this region. Through its "100% Paris Agreement" commitment, AFD is working in partnership to serve the Pacific island peoples.

Strategy

Based in Noumea, AFD's Pacific Ocean Regional Office covers a vast geographical area: the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, French Polynesia, Federated Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, East Timor, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna.
It includes two offices that have been based in Noumea and Papeete for over seventy-five years.

The Pacific Ocean, a unique area

With their geographical, economic, and cultural diversity, the Pacific Islands are extremely vulnerable to climate change. Due to their uniqueness, these small island states, which are truly large oceanic nations, are the guardians of a large part of the world's biodiversity. The annual cost of the effects of climate change in these countries is estimated to be about 10% of their GDP, which amounts to $1 billion per year.

AFD Group supports the Pacific region in tackling common regional challenges: climate change, biodiversity, and regional cooperation.

Climate change, the main threat to the blue continent

Although the Pacific Island countries account for only 0.03% of global greenhouse gas emissions, they are among the first victims of global warming: rising sea levels, recurring natural disasters, rising temperatures, drought, floods...

In order to bolster the region's resilience in response to these increasing challenges, AFD supports island states and territories through climate change adaptation and mitigation projects. These projects involve the development of renewable energies, making infrastructures greener, producing climate forecasts, making the most of local knowledge, and monitoring the health impacts of climate change.

Protecting vulnerable biodiversity

The Pacific Ocean and its islands are home to five global biodiversity hotspots and 30% of the world's coral reefs. Protecting this biodiversity is a key issue in combating climate change and in preserving Oceanic customs and ways of life. To meet these challenges, AFD is supporting the rehabilitation of watersheds in Melanesia, the development of agro-ecological practices, and capacity building in waste management and treatment in island environments.

Alongside the European Union, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, AFD supports the Kiwa Initiative. This regional initiative aims to strengthen the resilience of Oceania's ecosystems, economies and communities against the impacts of climate change by supporting projects focused on Nature-based Solutions (NBS).

Moving towards enhanced cooperation

Regional cooperation is crucial to identifying joint solutions to global challenges. In one of the world's most landlocked regions, the Pacific Island States and Territories must work together to build and defend their common interests.
The Pacific Ocean Regional Office supports the strengthening of regional cooperation between the French territories in the Pacific and neighboring countries facing the same challenges, but also within regional organizations such as the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).