The Government of Republic of Kiribati has recognized the important contribution of biodiversity to the people of Kiribati by ratifying the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on 16 August 1994. In doing this, Kiribati has taken on obligations and commitments to protect and promote the sustainable use of biodiversity.
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Physical Description: 67 p.
Human well-being utterly depends on nature. Development, defined broadly to encompass social, economic, and environmental aspects
The CBD, the Ramsar Convention and the CMS recognise impact assessment as an important tool to ensure that development is planned and implemented with biodiversity 'in mind'. The CBD requires parties to apply impact assessment to projects, programmes, plans and policies with a potential negative impact on biodiversity. Considerable progress has been made in strengthening impact assessment as a tool to further the aims of the CBD and related conventions. However, practise shows
that more work is needed.
This document outlines the activities that the Secretariat plans to undertake to support the IYB. Some of these have already begun and others are in development. The paper includes suggestions as to actions that other partners may take to advance the celebrations of the IYB.
The end result of the IYB celebration will be action at various levels as a result of targeted "public awareness" campaigns in collaboration with a number of partners. A comprehensive
In April 2003, he National Marine Fisheries Service(NMFS,also known as NOAA Fisheries) transferred the responsibility for man aging the marine resources infederal waters surrounding the US Pacific Islands from NOAA Fisheries' Southwest Region based in california to the newly defined pacific islands region based in Hawaii.The Pacific Islands Region was established with the explicit intent of employing regional expertise to provide improved customer service and stewardship of living marine resources within the expansive geographic region of the western pacific.
To strengthen the governance of and programmatic and administrative support for Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) by United Nations organizations by identifying measures to promote enhanced coordination, coherence and synergies between MEAs and the United Nations system, thus increasing United Nations system's contribution towards a more integrated approach to international environmental governance and management at national, regional and international levels.
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Physical Description: 49 p.
The Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council (WPRFMC) has been funding several leatherback turtle recovery projects in Melanesia for a number of years. The major
contribution by the WPRFMC in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is the ongoing support of the Huon Coast Leatherback Turtle Conservation Project (HCLTCP) in the Morobe Province
Available online|Report prepared for the WPRFMC
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Physical Description: 50 p.
Constitution - The constitution of a country usually mentions the environment in the preamble, but not in the substance of the
constitution. E.g. Soloman Islands took into account the importance of the environment and that the resources belonged to the people. Resources are usually under common law and under the power of the state, so this was a paradigm shift. Unfortunately, the new government will not include this proposal that the environment belongs to the people.
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The Office of the Attorney General of Samoa in conjunction with the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly of Samoa initiated a project under the name of the "Legislative Drafting Handbook Project". This project was implemented with assistance from the Public Sector Improvement Facility and utilises funds provided to the PSIF by the Governments of Australia and New Zealand.
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Physical Description: 97 p.
To seek agreement regarding the need for and priorities of a learning network to support effective marine protected areas throughout the Pacific Islands a network that functions as a learning community, committed to constructive dialogue, strategic action, respect for relationships and culturally competent ways of working.
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Physical Description: 51 p.
The vast majority of the coasts throughout the Republic of the Marshall Islands are in pristine natural condition. However, as foreign aid has centralized the economy and rapidly increasing populations in several urban centers with little environmental oversight, the urban coasts and environment have become severely degraded, increasing population vulnerability, decreasing economic potential for sustainable development and increasing human health hazards.
Sustainable development projects that were supposed to insure the future of the earth's biological inheritance are currently being criticized for compromising biodiversity. Drawing on sixteen months of fieldwork with one of Papua New Guinea's most remote societies, this paper argues that more productive conservation policies will emerge when indigenous activities
are viewed as disturbance and not as vehicles for establishing equilibrium with the environment. This research demonstrates that although the Hewa play a significant role in shaping
In April, 2007, a major earthquake resulted in uplifting of the southern shore of Parara Island in the Western Province of Solomon Islands. One of the areas most affected was the lagoon to the south of the island, upon which villagers from Rarumana depend. The uplift of the fringing reef meant that channels were no longer navigable and water exchange, between the lagoon and the open sea, reduced.
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Physical Description: 21 p.
Biodiversity and ecosystem services are being degraded faster than at any other time in human history. Most of the world's biodiversity is found in Southern countries where people greatly depend on natural resources but suffer from high levels of rural poverty and often weak governance. Weak governance (eg. political marginalization and corruption) is a key underlying driver of both biodiversity loss and poverty. At the same time, the role of biodiversity in the provision of ecosystem services that underpin national economies and rural livelihoods is largely overlooked.
The NWRP provides a framework for leadership and coordinated action in the supply of safe, adequate and financially, technically and environmentally sustainable water services to rural, outer island and urban communities in Kiribati and for the protection, conservation, sustainable use and efficient management of Kiribati's water resources. It is directed at improving the welfare and livelihood of I-Kiribati and represents the vision of the Government of Kiribati (GoK) for the water sector.
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Call Number: [EL]
Water is a vital, strategic resource that underpins human well-being, health, cultural and spiritual values, sustains environments and provides development opportunities. The nature of coral islands and atolls, demographic trends, the widely dispersed villages, crowded urban centres, climatic variation and change and the impacts of human activities all combine to impose significant risks to water supplies for island communities and their environments. The challenges faced in the water and sanitation sector in Kiribati are amongst the most difficult in the world.
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