The Project is entitled "Pacific Island - Climate Data Security", and was implemented in the Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga and Tuvalu.

Aims

1. Develop an inventory of digitised and un-digitised climate records, recommend action for the preservation of the records, and where appropriate, to enact immediate action to secure important paper climate records at risk of loss.
2. Provide a robust infrastructure for the collection, storage of, quality control of, and access to climate data, which are essential for mitigating the adverse effects of climate variability and change.

Rationale

To the people of small Pacific Island Countries (PICs), climate variability and long-term change pose major threats to agriculture, water supply, health, and even life and livelihood. Mitigation of these threats involves close monitoring of climate conditions, the development and implementation of climate prediction systems, and in the broader scale, climate research to better understand climate variability and especially climate change and their likely future impacts. Fundamental to all these activities is the need for adequate historical climate data and metadata, and ensuring there are sound systems in place for allowing the data to be updated. The activities described above are aimed at developing and maintaining the necessary databank and data management infrastructure.

The Project built on existing projects and initiatives in the Pacific Region, and thereby took advantage of the efforts and communication links already established (PI-CDR and PI-BRI projects funded by the Australian Greenhouse Office).

Outcomes

Access to additional meteorological records will lead to an enhanced understanding of the climate of the South Pacific, which exerts a very strong influence on the climate of Australia through the El Niño - Southern Oscillation phenomenon, and through longer-term variability.

Similarly, the records will lead to an improved documentation and understanding of climate change throughout the region, and will provide the basis for further studies on impacts and adaptation strategies in the Pacific and neighboring countries, including Australia.

Recognition by PICs of Australia's willingness and readiness to assist in practical and meaningful ways to combat the debilitating effects of climate variability and change is important in this region of high strategic importance to Australia.

Australia meets its international obligations, e.g. under WMO and UNFCCC Conventions as a Regional leader, with the capacity to assist developing countries within its Region.

Improve the potential for within-country services (e.g. seasonal climate prediction, and mitigation of the potential effects of climate change) to support important social and economic needs and help ensure sustainable development, and provide essential resources for climate change research at the national, regional and global levels by:

• Preventing loss of national heritage through the deterioration or destruction of original records.
• Providing capacity building for PIC meteorological staff in effective records management and data preservation methods.
• Support/complementing existing efforts to establish in-country climate database management systems (CDMSs) appropriate to the needs and resources of Pacific Island Countries (PICs). This will include the development of customised software and documentation to ensure data management software is used effectively and sustainably.
• Building in-country capacity and expertise in data management techniques, through in-country visits designed to ensure that data management software is properly set up and that National Meteorological Service staff are proficient in its use.
• Providing material support regarded as necessary to secure paper records (e.g. the provision of acid-free boxes, and guidance provided in preserving and organising the data in an efficient manner.
• Where appropriate, assistance will be provided in scanning, transferring from other media, or digitising the data (the latter would essentially be a capacity building exercise, as for various reasons it is preferable that PIC National Met Service staff undertake their own data entry).

In-country mission reports: