The Pacific BioScapes Programme aims to strengthen the sustainable use of marine and coastal resources in Kiribati through the use of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) to achieve key ecological, economic, cultural and social objectives. This approach acknowledges the integration of atoll ecosystems with those offshore and will assist the government of Kiribati to develop atoll-level bioregional maps. These maps will support the management of both terrestrial and marine species habitats.
The Pacific BioScapes Programme aims to strengthen the sustainable use of marine and coastal resources through the use of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) to achieve key ecological, economic, cultural and social objectives. Under the Programme, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) will work closely with the Government of the Cook Islands to support marine conservation initiatives and sustainable planning activities.
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Through BioScapes, turtle extinction risk assessments from the Pacific-European Union Marine Partnership (PEUMP) programme will be utilised to develop regional threat reduction activities for five species of marine turtles. National turtle monitoring coordinators will be established to improved national monitoring and awareness raising for turtle conservation. A network of long-term turtle nesting survey sites will be established in selected Pacific Island countries.
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The Pacific BioScapes Programme is supporting public awareness for sea turtle protection in Papua New Guinea. The protection of sea turtles in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is an ongoing issue. The PNG Conservation and Environment Protection Authority will be assisted to raise awareness of the threats to sea turtle species in Papua New Guinea through a major turtle protection public awareness campaign.
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The Pacific BioScapes Programme aims to provide enhanced local fisheries management capacity and national harvest strategies for key grouper species in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The Nature Conservancy will work alongside Marshall Islands Conservation Society, Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority and other key stakeholders and partners to enhance management of coral reef fisheries and resilience of coral reef ecosystems by building local capacity to develop robust evidence-based harvest strategies that contribute to economic prosperity, food security and healthy reefs.
The Pacific BioScapes Programme is providing support to produce best practice guidelines and a code of conduct for tourism operators to guide how they can interact appropriately and safely with turtles in Vanuatu.
Through BioScapes, the Vanuatu Environmental Science Society is consulting with stakeholders and the government, and reviewing other global and national criterias to produce the new guidelines.
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Pacific data are limited, but existing data show high
proportions of plastic in the waste stream (Table 29.1),
as marine litter, and as microplastics present throughout Pacific marine ecosystems, including in the guts of fish and their prey (SPREP 2016, Markic et al. 2018). In a 2011 study, plastics formed 12% of the waste stream in Honiara (SPREP 2017).
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Physical Description: 6 p.
Enterococci are used as an indicator for the microbiological quality of marine waters from the standpoint of human health. The same bacterial group is also commonly used as an indicator for safe consumption of shellfish. The safety thresholds differ by the type of use, such as swimming or consumption of seafood from the marine area.
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Island biodiversity continues to be extremely vulnerable, and 47% of the known threatened Pacific species are declining towards extinction. Pacific island species have high levels of endemism combined with small land areas and therefore limited habitat. Habitat change, naiveté to predation by introduced animals, vulnerability to invasive species-driven changes, pollution, and climate change combine to influence
the abundance and population structure of Pacific biodiversity.
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Physical Description: 6 p.
The Pacific island region has diverse wetlands, such as
the classic coastal ecosystems of mangrove forests, salt marshes, coral reefs, and seagrass beds along with rivers, freshwater lakes, and swamps (SPREP 2016). However, these wetlands are understudied. Land-use change and environmental change can alter the areal extent and condition of wetlands, and the pace of these changes vary among Pacific islands.
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Physical Description: 4 p.
To date, there is no defined list of priority migratory species of concern (indicator species) at the regional level for the Pacific islands to direct efforts. The Regional Marine Species Action Plans (under revision; see below) and the regional CMS Memorandum of Understanding (2006) for cetaceans can be considered as part of regional level prioritisation. For birds, Bird Life’s Data zone includes a list of migratory species for each country in the region.
Fishing has been major source of food, income, recreation activity, employment and various other economic benefits for the people of Pacific island countries and territories (PICTs). However with increases in population, urbanisation and development of fisheries, it has been realised that fisheries resources, although renewable are not infinite. They must be properly managed if their contribution to the nutritional, economic and social well-being of the growing population is to be sustained.
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Physical Description: 11 p.
The global decline of coral reefs had led to calls for strategies that reconcile biodiversity conservation and fisheries benefits. Still considerable gaps in our understanding of the spatial ecology of ecosystem services remain. We combined spatial information on larval dispersal networks and estimated of human pressure to test the importance of connectivity for ecosystem service provision. We found that reefs receiving larvae from highly connected dispersal corridors were associated with high fish species richness.
Marine protected areas (MBA) provide place-based management of marine ecosystem through various degrees and types of protective actions. Habitats such as coral reefs are especially susceptible to degradation resulting from climate change, as evidenced by mass bleaching events over the past two decades. Marine ecosystems are being altered by direct effecrs of climate change including ocean warming, ocean acidification rising sea level, changing circulation patterns, increasing severity of storms, and changing freshwater influxes.
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The time-tested Indigenous fishing knowledge (IFK) of Fiji and the Pacific Island is seriously threatened due to the commercialization of fishing, breakdown of tradition communal leadership and oral knowledge transmission systems, modern education and the movement of the younger generations to urban areas for work and/or study.
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Physical Description: 18 p.
Integrated management of coral reef foods, as a highly diverse set of blue foods, can contribute to addressing the dual challenge of malnutrition and biodiversity loss.
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Physical Description: 16 p.
This report provides an overview of the current state of knowledge of cetacean diversity, habitat and threats in the Pacifi c Islands Region.
Tongatapu coastal zone vulnerability assessment study was conducted to examine the degree of current and future risks of projected climate change and sea level rise on the coastal zone of the main island of the Kingdom of Tonga-Tongatapu. Inundation, and flooding hazards generated by tropical cyclone storm surges are the common threats to Tongatapu coastal towns and villages because of their low-lying settings.
The Pacific Islands region is important for a great number of cetaceans (whales and dolphins), whether as a permanent habitat, a breeding ground or a migration corridor. Currently, more
than thirty species of whales and dolphins have been identified in this area.
The presence and diversity of cetaceans in our region has led to the development of whale watching, both on a commercial and recreational basis. Whale watching is defined as viewing
The Locally-Managed Marine Area (LMMA) Network is a
group of practitioners involved in various community-based marine conservation projects around the globe who have
joined together to learn how to improve their results. The