If current trends continue, leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles will probably go extinct in the Pacific in our lifetime. Eastern Racific hawksbills are likely past the point of
no return, while green turtles and olive Ridleys are at a fraction of their former populations. The turtle decline is clear evidence that human activities are causing loss of biodiversity on our planet. If we choose to save Pacific
The objective of the evaluation is to provide the GEF Council with an assessment of how the GEF is implemented in Samoa. It reports on results from projects and assesses how these
projects are linked to national environmental and sustainable development strategies as well as the GEF mandate of generating global environmental benefits within its focal areas.
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Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 7 Pages
The restoration of the Islands of Nuutele and Nuulua is a priority of the Government of Samoa and the communities of Aleipata District. Planning is well advanced on a key element of this, the eradication of Pacific Rats (Rattus exulans) by aerial
spreading of toxic baits in mid-2006. The Friendly Ground Dove has been identified as a non-target species that may be at risk of taking the baits and one for which the Nuutele and Nuulua populations are significant. Several approaches for safeguarding
Climate change will have significant impacts in both Australia and across the globe. Australia is one of the most arid continents in the world. It is vulnerable to risks such
as disruptions to water supply; increases in the severity of storms, floods and droughts, coastal erosion due to sea level rise; and to negative human health impacts, for example through an increase in the range and spread of disease.1 The impacts of
International treaties and national policies seek to enhance global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. While it is important to continue to strive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mitigation alone is not enough and will not be felt before the second half of the century. Global warming is already underway and adaptation strategies are now a matter of urgency, especially for the most vulnerable poor countries, which are even now being disproportionately affected.
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Call Number: [EL]
The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006 (MSRA) includes a requirement to establish the "Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology
1. A defining feature of the Pacific is the Western Pacific Warm Pool ecosystem. The limited land base of the area is distributed among 200 high islands and 2,500 low islands and atolls. All
participating islands lie in the tropical zone and experience sea surface temperatures that rarely fall below 20 degrees Celsius. In general, the islands increase in size from east to west such that over 83% of the region's land mass is situated in Papua New Guinea, and most of the rest is in the other Melanesian countries and territories.
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Climate change adaptation is vital for Pacific SIDS. Long-term effects, including the increasing frequency and severity of extreme events such as high rainfall, droughts, tropical cyclones, and storm surges are affecting the people in this region. Coupled with non-climate drivers, such as inappropriate land use, overexploitation of resources, increasing urbanization and population increase, development in the region is increasingly undermined.
The Palolo Deep Marine Reserve known for its unique shape, the deep, was established as a marine reserve in 1974 under the National Parks and Reserve Act. The reserve is a fringing reef comprising a total area of 137.5 hectares located at the northeast of Apia harbor. The proximity of the reserve to Apia town has attracted many tourists as well as local people to the reserve for recreational activities such as snorkeling, scuba diving as well as for researching
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Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 10 p.
The Territory of American Samoa lies roughly 14 degrees south of the equator between longitude 169 and 173 west and about 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii. The principal islands are Tutuila, Aunu'u, and the Manu'a islands (a cluster of three islands, Ta'u, Ofu and Olosega, located about 65 miles east of Tutuila). Swains Island, a small island with a population of less than 25 and Rose Atoll, an uninhabited atoll about 120 miles east of Tutuila make up the remainder of the territory.
The Africa Environment Information Network (AEIN) is a multi-stakeholder capacity building process that aims to harness and enhance access to information and knowledge to support the management of Africas environmental resources as assets for sustainable development. The goal is to strengthen the capacity of African countries to use good quality information on environmental assets to make informed investment choices at subnational and national levels, and manage these assets on a sustainable basis.
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Call Number: [EL]
This report presents an overview of the global assessment landscape and highlight elements of best practice with respect to the future undertaking of major assessments. It includes an analysis of existing and ongoing sub-regional and regional assessments from a multi-thematic perspective.
According to World Travel & Tourism Council research, Travel & Tourism Economy GDP totalled some US$ 5,800 billion in 2008, or close to 10% of total global GDP, and accounted for over 230 million jobs worldwide.
Over the last few years, thanks to international scientific evidence, there has been increasing recognition of the threat of climate change caused by a dramatic increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations.
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Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 36 p.
Scientists state unequivocally that the earth is warming. Climate change is happening, it is caused in large part by human activity, and it will have many serious and potentially damaging effects in the decades ahead. Greenhouse gas emissions from cars, power plants, and other human activitiesrather than natural variations in climateare the primary cause of contemporary global warming. Due largely to the combustion of fossil fuels, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal greenhouse gas, are at a level unequaled for at least 800,000 years.
There is growing evidence that seagrasses are experiencing declines globally due to anthropogenic threats (Short and Wyllie Echeverria 1996, Duarte 2002, Orth et al. 2006). Runoff of nutrients and sediments that affect water quality is the greatest anthropogenic threat to seagrass meadows, although other stressors include aquaculture, pollution, boating, construction, dredging and landfill activities, and destructive fishing practices. Natural disturbances such as storms and floods can also cause adverse effects.
This report provides the finding of the Environmental Impact Assessment conducted by Pacific Environment Consultants Ltd on behalf of Samoa Ports Authority for the proposed Aleipata Wharf Extension and Slipway. The EIA was conducted over the period of January to April 2008.
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Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 61 p.
This remote chain of 13 islands (9 inhabited) and two atolls is located 140 south of the equator near the International Date Line. It is divided into two political entities, the US Territory of American Samoa and the neighboring independent country of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa. The land area of (western) Samoa is approximately 15 times larger than the land area of American Samoa
2 copies and also available electronically
Call Number: 508.099613 CRA [EL]
Physical Description: 130 p. ; 28 cm
Coral reefs are one of the Earths most complex and diverse ecosystems. Coral reefs have evolved over long periods of geological time in response to certain natural phenomena including tectonic movements, changes in climate and associated changes in sea level. The oldest known coral reef appeared more than 450 million years ago and by 150 million years before present, corals had diversified and spread globally throughout tropical shorelines
Availble online
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 59 p.
This issues paper reviews the context and challenges to environmental mainstreaming (EM), discusses what it takes to achieve effective EM, and provides a roadmap for selecting operational EM methods and tools. Each chapter is introduced by a box summarising its scope. Supporting materials and profiles of key tools are available at www.environmental-mainstreaming.org. Chapter 1 explains why EM is needed, and considers what it means, and who should be concerned.
Streams and rivers on islands are considerably different to continental systems in that oceanic island systems are often subject to recurrent flash flooding and many fauna in continental systems are only distantly related to island fauna, rarely having an obligate marine larval phase of their life cycles. Several methods used in surveying continental systems are therefore only of limited applicability in island systems. The field procedures described herein are loosely adapted from those described in Parham, 2005 and Fitzsimons et.