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.
As noted in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, climate change is one of the most important drivers of biodiversity loss" and is projected to further adversely affect the role of
biodiversity as a source of goods and services. The impacts of climate change on biodiversity have been of major concern to the Convention on Biological Diversity since 2002 when, following a request from the Conference of the Parties and the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), an Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group was established to carry
During the course of this century the resilience of many
ecosystems (their ability to adapt naturally) is likely to be
exceeded by an unprecedented combination of change in climate, associated disturbances (e.g., flooding, drought, wildfire, insects, ocean acidification) and in other global change drivers (especially land-use change, pollution and over-exploitation of resources), If greenhouse gas emissions and other changes continue at or above current rates (high confidence).
Since the IPCC Third Assessment Report (TAR), understanding of the implications of climate change for coa systems and low-lying areas (henceforth referred to as 'coasts has increased substantially and six important policy-relevant messages have emerged.
Available online|(* NB these materials are also available on the workshop CDROM deposited with the IRC NBSAP workshop Nadi, Feb 2009)
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Physical Description: 43 p.
While acknowledging their diversity, the IPCC Third
Assessment Report (TAR) also noted that small island states
share many similarities (e.g., physical size, proneness to natural disasters and climate extremes, extreme openness of their economies, low adaptive capacity) that enhance their vulnerability and reduce their resilience to climate variability and change.
Available online|(* NB these materials are also available on the workshop CDROM deposited with the IRC NBSAP workshop Nadi, Feb 2009)
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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
This Pacific Pelagic Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) was developed by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and represents the first step in an incremental and collaborative approach to implement ecosystem approaches to fishery management for Pacific pelagic species.
Available online
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Physical Description: 234 p.
This Pacific Remote Island Areas Fisheiy Ecosystem Plan (FEP) was developed by the Western Pacific Regional Fisheiy Management Council and represents the first step in an incremental and
collaborative approach to implement ecosystem approaches to fisheiy management in the Pacific Remote Island Areas (PRIA) of Baker Island, Johnston Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll,
Kingman Reef, Wake Island and Palmyra Atoll.
Available online
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Physical Description: 232 p.
This American Samoa Archipelago Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) was developed by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and represents the first step in an incremental and collaborative approach to implement ecosystem approaches to fishery management in American Samoa.
Available online
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Physical Description: 245 p.
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.
Available online
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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.
Available online
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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.
Available online
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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.
Available online
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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.
The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 requires Federal agencies to examine the environmental effects of their proposed actions. On behalf of the Department of Defense Representative Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Federated States of Micronesia and Republic of Palau (DoD REP) the Navy is preparing this EIS/OEIS to assess the potential environmental effects associated with continuing and proposed military activities within the MIRC Study Area. The Navy is the
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
According to conventional wisdom, small, fast-growing fish are impossible to overfish because their populations are so large and grow so quickly. Yet we are now seeing disquieting signs that conventional wisdom is wrong. Most significantly, scientists are reporting ocean predators emaciated from lack of food, vulnerable to disease and without enough energy to reproduce. Scrawny predatorsdolphins, striped bass, and even whaleshave turned up along coastlines around the world. Recreational fishermen are losing both their target fishand their bait.
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.
Available online
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Physical Description: 21 p.