A deadly tsunami hit the Western and Choiseul provinces on the 2nd April 2007 following an earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Ritcher scale. Other parts of the pacific, including Australia and Papua New Guinea, also received Tsunami warnings. The tsunami caused a lot of damage to properties and loss of lives in the two provinces. A number of communities The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is working in partnership with in Choiseul
province have been badly affected.
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Physical Description: 8 Pages
Coral reef monitoring lias been an on-going activity in Samoa since 1997. In 1998. a pilot Village Level Coral Reef Monitoring Project (VLCRMP) was initiated in collaboration between The Fisheries Division, the Division of Environment & Conservation and the International Ocean Institute Pacific Islands. The pilot project provided monitoring equipment and assisted in training the trainers that, in nuns trained 46 villagers from six villages selected from around the country ( Mulipola 2001 ).
Western Samoa, the larger and more westerly portion of the Samoan Archipelago lies approximately centred on latitude, 13°45 ' south and longitude 1.72° West;. There are two main islands, namely Savai'i and Upolu, the smaller islands of Apolima and Manono and five uninhabited islets. The land area of Western Samoa is approximately 1,100 square miles and the archipelago lies approximately 2,500 miles from Sydney and Hawaii, 1,800 miles north east of New Zealand, with Fiji lying approximately 800 miles to the west.
The Western Samoan Turtle Hatchery Project is, as the accompanying documents will show, a low-input, high-potential stock-reviving programme aimed primarily at increasing the amount of fresh protein currently available to the local population.
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Physical Description: 13 p.
WITH UNRULY hair; a cheerful glint in his eye and a mischievous grin. Samoan-born Vili lese is passionate about conservation. Right now, he's undertaking ground-breaking research in Tuvalu's waters to help build a sustainable future for Tuvalu's community of almost 12,000 a community who rely heavily on fishing and
farming to survive.
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Physical Description: 6 Pages
Prolnvest have supported South-pacific.travel to develop a Strategic Action Plan for South Pacific Green Tourism Focus of study is on Climate Change and formulating a 'market led' response from the Tourism Sector Work Undertaken:
Literature review,Country consultations (Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Tonga).Industry surveys and country (Email and PATAMART).Findings and emerging Strategy and Actions will be
In general, leatherback turtles face serious threats at all life stages, both on the beaches where they nest and hatch and in the water where they spend most of their life time. Sea turtle eggs are collected for food, while in some areas juveniles and adults are hunted for their meat and oil. Habitats that are keys to their survival are rapidly being degraded due to coastal development. They are also killed in great numbers as incidental catch, or by catch, in fisheries.
By 2020, the Pacific Island Countries and Territories are enjoying improved livelihoods, greater food security and increased environmental protection, resulting from enhanced collaboration and coordination within and between them in the conservation, management and sustainable utilisation of forest genetic resources, while maintaining their unique Pacific cultures
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Physical Description: 23 p.
Researchers have listed fifteen areas of concern, emphasizing the need to tackle these issues. Examples include the mining of lithium form the deep sea, exploitation of species found in deep waters and the unforeseen effects of wildfires across different ecosystems.
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Physical Description: 4 p.
The biodiversity of the Pacific region is recognised as being globally significant. The Solomon Islands was recently included into the famous "Coral Triangle", the area of ocean considered to have the highest marine biodiversity in the world. This includes the waters of the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The Solomon Islands Rainforest Ecoregion is recognised as "one of the world's great Centres of Plant Diversity"
The process by which individuals, groups, organisations, institutions and societies increase their abilities to:
Perform core functions, solve problems, define and achieve objectives
Understand and deal with their development needs in a broad context and in a sustainable manner.
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Physical Description: 129 p.
Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are heavily dependent on natural resources and likely to remain so for the near future, making resource management an issue of critical importance for economic development. This chapter employs a simple neoclassical
growth model to diagnose deficiencies in current policy regimes and suggest possible alternatives. Current practices in the exploitation of the regions mineral, tuna, and forest resources are used to illustrate problems and suggest possible policy interventions.
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Principles for designing marine protected area (MPA) networks that address social, economic, and biological criteria are well established in the scientific literature. Climate change represents a new and serious threat to marine ecosystems, but, to date, few studies have specifically considered how to design MPA networks to be resilient to this emerging threat. Here, we compile the best available information on MPA network design and
Guam is the southernmost island in the Mariana Islands
Archipelago. Of all the islands in Micronesia, Guam is the
largest in terms of both land area (543 sq km) and population
The coral reefs offshore of Saipan and Tinian are most abundant on the islands' western shores. Off Saipan, the combination of fringing and barrier reefs offers the most diverse coral habitats in the Commonwealth. Rota is surrounded by fringing reefs, and newer reefs are located off the northwest and southwest coasts (30). The extent of coral reef habitat surrounding Rota, Saipan, and Tinian is presented.
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Physical Description: 6 Pages
Oceania’s humpback whales are of global conservation concern having recently been re‐
classified from “Threatened” to “Endangered” by the International Union for the Conservation
of Nature (IUCN). Although humpback whales in many parts of the world are showing
encouraging signs of recovery from past exploitation, the small breeding populations in the
South Pacific Islands region remain vulnerable to extinction.
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We found coral diversity to be relatively high, especially at both tips of the island. Here we estimated the hard coral coverage to be about 30-40% and soft coral coverage about 25%. However, dead Pocillopora and Acropora colonies, already
overgrown by algae, were scattered throughout the reef. On the northwest windward side of the island we encountered vast areas of bare rock with nibble filling the crevasses. Even in deeper zones live hard coral coverage was estimated to be only
Over the past decade since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio, there has been only modest progress in the Asia-Pacific Region towards sustainable development. Since 1992, environmental quality in the Region has deteriorated. In advance of the September, 2002, World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), a number of agencies active in the Asia-Pacific Region, including ADB, ESCAP, UNDP, and UNEP, agreed to co-ordinate a series of subregional and regional preparatory meetings.
Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have committed themselves to considering the special needs and concerns of developing countries resulting from the adverse effects of climate change in the area of insurance. The needs of small island states have been are highlighted for attention, due to their unique geographic features and exposure, and thus unique vulnerability.1
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Physical Description: 49 p.
This paper suggests that this terrestrial and marine biodiversity inheritance constitutes the foundation upon which rests the survival of the relatively benign and peaceful ways of life in the Pacific ("Peaceful") Ocean. It is stressed that this inheritance, including traditional knowledge concerning it, is endangered by modem development and education, and that if it is not maintained or strengthened, the cultures, economies and rich biodiversity inheritances of Pacific societies WILL NOT SURVIVE.
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