The Pacific islands region faces increasing environmental and socioeconomic pressures exacerbated by global climate change and climate variability.1 Adaptation to climate change and variability (CCV) is ultimately an issue of sustainable development. Even without climate change, Pacific island countries are already severely affected by climate variability and extremes, and they remain extremely vulnerable to future changes in the regional climate that could increase the risks.
The Pacific Islands region faces increasing environmental and socioeconomic pressures exacerbated by global climate change and climate variability.1 Adaptation to climate change and variability (CCV) is ultimately an issue of sustainable development. Even without climate change, Pacific island countries are already severely affected by climate variability and extremes, and they remain extremely vulnerable to future changes in the regional climate that could increase the risks.
Between 4 February and 8 March 2005, the Cook Islands experienced five damaging cyclones within a period of five weeks, four of which were assigned a severity rating of Category 51 and caused damage to homes and essential public infrastructure. The Government and its agencies provided early warning information dissemination, evacuation and emergency relief to the affected population with the support of international and regional relief agencies.
Some underwater photographs of live sea cucumbers are reproduced with kind permission from the French Institute of Research for Development (IRD) and the WorldFish Center. Photographs of dried beche-de-mer are by Eric Aubry and Jipé LeBars, Noumea, New Caledonia.
Avaialable electronically|2 copies kept at vertical file collection
Call Number: VF 7005 [EL]
Physical Description: 52 p. 25 cm
The natural environment of Pacific Island countries has supported, maintained and improved the social and economic wellbeing of its people and cultures since the arrival of the first inhabitants. The importance of the regions biodiversity cannot be understated; it is present in every facet of the island way of life. Natural resources provide food, shelter, medicine and are used extensively in traditions. In the past, utilization of these resources was allowed under traditional and community management.
The Cook Islands, a self-governing country in the central South Pacific consists of fifteen islands, all islands between 8°S and 23°S and 156°W and 167°W. It is geographically divided into two groups a Northern Group comprising Penrhyn, Rakahanga, Manihiki,Suwarrow, Nassau and Pukapuka. All are atolls except Nassau. The Southern Group comprises Palmerston, Rarotonga,Mangaia, Mauke and Atiu as high islands; Aitutaki a part atoll with a volcanic peak and a large lagoon: Mitiaro an elevated coral island and Manuae and Palmerston atolls. Tukutea is a small island near Atiu.
The human drama of climate change will largely be played out in Asia, where over 60 per cent of the world's population, around four billion people, live. Over half of those live near the coast, making them directly vulnerable to sea-level rise. Disruption to the region's water cycle caused by climate change also threatens the security and productivity of the food systems upon which they depend. In acknowledgement, both of the key meetings in 2007 and 2008 to secure a global climate agreement will be in Asia.
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Research shows that marine reserves are one tool that can help to prevent, slow, or reverse negative changes in the ocean. Marine reserves are places in the ocean that are completely and permanently protected from uses that remove animals and plants or alter their habitats. Increasingly, the public, governmental agencies, commercial groups, and scientists are discussing the idea of establishing more marine reserves to complement existing ocean management. The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of the latest scientific information about marine reserves.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), in co-operation with the Government of New Zealand is formulating the Pacific Regional Environmental Strategy. This will review major environmental challenges in the region and put forward strategic objectives
and activities for ADB assistance.
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Physical Description: 109 p. ; 29 cm
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
The self-governing territory of the Cook Islands consists of 15 islands and atolls that are spread over 2 million square kilometres of the South Pacific Ocean.
The islands are geographically divided into two groups, commonly referred to as the Northern and Southern Group islands. The two groups of islands making up the country exhibit marked differences in their social, cultural and economic activities. The Northern Group islands remain relatively isolated from
the Southern Group islands.
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.
Available online
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.
Available in electronic form
Call Number: [EL]
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).
There is growing scientific and public awareness of the widespread depletion of marine habitat-forming species, such as mangroves, seagrasses, oysters, and corals [e.g., 1,2,3]. This loss inevitably leads to the decline of the plants and animals that live in the biogenic structures created by such foundation species, and contributes to the overall degradation of marine ecosystems [4]. For example, the reduction of coral cover on tropical coral reefs directly and rapidly causes a decline in the abundance and diversity of reef fish through the loss of structural heterogeneity [5,6].