E.O. Wilson once said about ants "we need them to survive, but they don't need us at all." The same, in fact, could be said about countless other insects, bacteria, fungi, plankton, plants, and other organisms. This central truth, however, is
largely lost to most of us. Rather, we act as if we were totally independent of Nature, as if it were an infinite source ofproducts and services for our use alone, and an infinite sink for our wastes.
Available electronically|A project of the Center for Health and the Global Environment Harvard Medical School
This document presents a national plan for the implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Republic of the Fiji Islands. Fiji was the second country in the
world to ratify the Stockholm Convention, having done so on 20 June 2001. The Convention entered into force on 17 May, 2004.
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Call Number: 363.7287 NAT [EL]
Physical Description: v, 61 p. ; 29 cm
Local trees in the Northern Mariana Islands are some of our most precious resources. For centuries our people have relied on native trees and plants for food, medicine, building materials, and countless other uses. Trees also provide much-needed shade, help control soil erosion and serve as watershed areas which store our life-giving water. Birds, fruit bats and other animals also depend on plants for food and habitat needs. Today, much
Guam is the largest and southern-most island in
the Marianas chain. It lies about.13° North latitude
and has a wet and dry season of approximately equal
lengths. The island is about 30 miles long and ranges
from four in the middle to eight miles in width and is
oriented in a northeast, southwest direction. The pre-
vailing winds are easterly and bring an average annual
rainfall of about 85 inches. A range of hills extends
from the waist toward the south on the western side.
The highest of these hills, 1300 feet, is Mt. Lamlam
Field and Garden Plants of Guam is designed as a botanical field
guide and its purpose is to provide a way for interested people to learn the names of the plants that they see around them. Like most other places, Guam has a flora that is well documented for use by specialists of the scientific world. Reliable reference tools for students and interested amateurs, however, are almost nonexistent and it is for these individuals that this book is intended.
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This book comprises the offerings of sixteen indigenous Pacific writers and presents the first publication of its kind in the region in terms of profiling the direct experiences of Pacific indigenous communities who have had an acrimonious encounter with science, biotechnology and intellectual property rights
Climate variability is the variation around the average climate, including seasonal variations as well as large-scale variations in atmospheric and ocean circulation such as the EI Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Climate change operates over decades or longer. Changes in climate occur as a result of internal variability within the climate system and external
factors (natural and anthropogenic). Although climate is always changing, over the past 10,000 years it has been both relatively stable and warm.
Call Number: [EL]
The purpose of this paper is to set out the essential requirements for a successful regional agreement for sea turtles in the South Pacific. To achieve this, the current Regional Marine Turtle Conservation Program (RMTCP)2 which runs under the
auspice of the South Pacific Regional Environmental Program (SPREP) will be juxtaposed against the 'best practice' in this area, as evinced by current development in international environmental law and a number of other regional agreements which focus exclusively on sea turtles.
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The shallow coastal zone of Fiji is comprised of three major, interrelated habitat types: marine algae and seagrass: large areas of mangroves; and extensive coral reefs. The marine resources include approximately 1000 coral reefs with representatives of all major reef types (Vuki et al 2000). Although marine biodiversity is lower than the 'coral triangle' of Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and northeastern Australia. Fiji does support approximately 200 species of coral (Veron. 2000).
The maintenance and enhancement of arboreal biodiversity, especially forest and tree genetic resources, is vital for sustainable development in the Pacific Islands. For Pacific peoples, their forest and tree genetic resources are not just a matter of scientific, economic (in monetary terms), recreational or ecological value. They are a capital inheritance that, until recent times, was passed on, relatively intact or in some cases enhanced, by past generations to current generations.
The Convention on Biological Diversity CBD recognises that humans are a major force in changing nature. Vast parts of the earth's surface are transformed to meet human needs and wants for agricultural production, water, energy, urbanisation, construction, tourism, transport and industry. In the process humans are causing threats to and massive extinction of
The community based conservation (CBC)paradigm predicts that sustainable biodiversity can only be achieved if local people perceive benefits from conservation. Through interviews,
The Marshall Islands are critically dependent on the health of their coral reefs: every rock and sand grain on the islands are the remains of coral reef organisms. Only actively growing coral reefs can protect the islands against ocean waves and global sea level rise, and provide fish to feed the people. These crucial services are rapidly deteriorating because global warming is
Solomon Islands consists of many islands extending over 1,400 kilometers of ocean in the western equatorial Pacific
between 5 and 13 degrees south and 155 and 158 degrees east. It has an estimated total land area of 29,000 square
kilometers, a 12 mile territorial sea and approximately 1.3 million square kilometers of ocean within its 200 mile
Solomon Islanders rely heavily on marine resources and have one of the highest per capita rates of seafood consumption in the world. In 1982, the national average annual consumption of fish per person was estimated to be 25.7 kg, ranging from <10 kg in rural Guadalcanal and San Cristobal, to 54 kg in the Western Province (Cook, 1988). Another survey conducted in Honiara in 1992, found that 31 per cent of households consumed fresh fish each day and that 82.4 per cent of meals containing animal protein were based on fish.
In summary, the coast is part of an emergent, Holocene reef-carbonate system, with the beach being comprised entirely of carbonate sediments developed on phosphate-rich, cavernous, dolomite limestone bedrock. The coastline is partly rocky with classic karst limestone pinnacles found throughout the bay. The reef is a coral dominated system and is narrow and well-flushed, with many closely-spaced reef channels. The coastline at Anibare Bay is an active and dynamic one. The relatively coarse admixture of abraded sand and gravel and highly abraded karts pinnacles testify to this.
American Samoa is a U.S. Territory located approximately 4,200 km south of Hawai'i. It is the southernmost of all U.S. possessions and the only U.S. jurisdiction in the South Pacific. American Samoa comprises seven islands (five volcanic islands and two coral atolls) with a combined land area of approximately 200 km2 . The five volcanic islands, Tutuila, Aunu'u, Ofu, Olosega, and Ta'u, are the major inhabited islands of