This is the presentation that the NES and the TCA Working Group used, to report back on our updates and the final OECM assessment form for the TCA
The Code of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) was amended to include the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), to increase the size of its Territorial Sea and to be inclusive of the current political status of FSM and other purpose as it deem fit (16 December 1988)
Chapter 1 of Title 18 of the Code of the Federated States of Micronesia, as amended by Public Law No. 19-172 on April 28, 2017 established a Contiguous Zone, comprising those areas of the sea that are beyond and adjacent to the Territorial Sea. The inner boundary of the contiguous zone is the seaward boundary of the Territorial Sea. The outer boundary of the Contiguous Zone is a line, every point of which is not more than 24 M seaward of the nearest point of the baseline as defined in section 101 of this title.
Based on section 102 and 103 of the Act that amends the Code of the Federated States of Micronesia, it describes the territorial sea as being established by twelve nautical miles' breadth. The inner boundary of the Territorial Sea of each island or atoll is the baseline. The outer boundary is a line, every point of which is twelve nautical miles seaward of the nearest point of the baseline.
The 24 nautical miles Contiguous Sea for FSM is defined under section 105A in the Code of the Federated States of Micronesia and it states that comprising those areas of the sea that are beyond and adjacent to the Territorial Sea. The inner boundary of the contiguous zone is the seaward boundary of the Territorial Sea. The outer boundary of the Contiguous Zone is a line, every point of which is not more than 24 M seaward of the nearest point of the baseline as defined in section 101.
The world is facing a biodiversity crisis. Nowhere is that more apparent than on oceanic islands where invasive species are a major threat for island biodiversity. Rats are one of the most detrimental of these and have been the target of numerous eradication programmes; a well-established conservation tool for island systems.
The impacts of house mice (Mus musculus), one of four invasive rodent species in New Zealand, are only clearly revealed on islands and fenced sanctuaries without rats and other invasive predators which suppress mouse populations, influence their behaviour, and confound their impacts. When the sole invasive mammal on islands, mice can reach high densities and influence ecosystems in similar ways to rats.
Following the incursion of rats (Rattus rattus) on Taukihepa (Big South Cape Island; 93.9 km²) off southern New Zealand in 1963, and the subsequent extirpation of several endemic species, the New Zealand Wildlife Service realised that, contrary to general belief at the time, introduced predators do not reach a natural balance with native species and that a safe breeding habitat for an increasing number of at risk species was urgently needed.
Rat eradication is a highly effective tool for conserving biodiversity, but one that requires considerable planning eff ort, a high level of precision during implementation and carries no guarantee of success. Overall, rates of success are generally high but lower for tropical islands where most biodiversity is at risk. We completed a qualitative comparative review on four successful and four unsuccessful tropical rat eradication projects to better understand the factors influencing the success of tropical rat eradications and shed light on how the risk of future failures can be minimised.
The Baja California Pacifc Islands, Mexico, are globally important breeding sites for 22 seabird species and subspecies. In the past, several populations were extirpated or reduced due to invasive mammals, human disturbance, and contaminants. Over the past two decades, we have removed invasive predators and, for the last decade, we have been implementing a Seabird Restoration Programme on eight groups of islands: Coronado, Todos Santos, San Martín, San Jerónimo, San Benito, Natividad, San Roque, and Asunción.
Considerable bene?ts can be achieved for indigenous biodiversity when invasive vertebrates are removed from islands. In New Zealand, two logistically challenging eradications were undertaken, one to remove cats (Felis catus) and the other Paci?c rats (Rattus exulans) from Te Hauturu-o-Toi/Little Barrier Island (Hauturu). Here we document the short- and long-term impacts of these interventions on the biodiversity of Hauturu. We also assess the extent to which predicted outcomes were re?ected in the measured responses for a wide range of species.
Who are we? UN Environments specialist biodiversity assessment centre, based in Cambridge, UK
Available online|Powerpoint presentation
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 16 p
The Pacific region has benefited from a number of regional and national programmes to both assess the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and develop programmes to adapt to climate change. Such programmes are critical considering that the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 1/ states that the Pacific region has already experienced temperature increases of as much as 1°C since 1910.
Climate change is a major threat to global biodiversity. From the tropics to the Poles, the worlds ecosystems are all under pressure. A study published in the scientific journal Nature posited that 15 to 37% of terrestrial animal and plant species could be at risk of extinction because of human-induced impacts on climate (Thomas et al., 2004). Scattered across the four corners of the Earth, European Union overseas entities, are home to a biological diversity that is as rich as it is vulnerable.
Tongas marine ecosystems are worth at least TOP 47 million per year, exceeding the countrys total export value. We are strongly committed to sustaining these values to build an equitable and prosperous blue economy.
Available online
Call Number: [EL],363.94 MAR
ISBN/ISSN: 978 82 7701 174 5
Physical Description: 84 p
During the period 1958-1964, the authors undertook soil and vegetation studies in the northern Marshall Islands as part of the University of Washington Radiation Biology Laboratory surveillance team. This team was responsible for monitoring levels of radiation in various components of the island environment and any effects on plant and animal life. The authors of this report were charged with the soils and vegetation components but assisted with collections in the aquatic ecosystems and some food plant materials.
Phosphatic limestones and associated soils occur on eight of the nine islands of Tuvalu, central Pacific. Deposits range from gram-size to >500,000 tons. Carbonate hydroxyapatite, dahllite, forms crustose cement about calcareous bioclasts which it sometimes replaces. Precise genetic relationship of rock to soil is unclear. Consolidated rock occurs as hardpan within phosphatic soil profiles, with unconsolidated phosphatic layers above and below. Phosphatization has occurred either as a continuous or episodic process within the vadose zone for at least 4000 years.
Jonathan Sauer (1961) remarked, in his Coastal Plant Geography of Mauritius, that the chance to study the coastal vegetation there was like being "admitted to a field worker's paradise"
and stressed that "most tropical coasts are beautiful and exciting, particularly to people concerned with natural processes . . .." The same can certainly be said for the tropical coasts of the often Edenized islands of the Pacific Ocean. Their "beauty and excitement" is considerably enhanced,
Coral atolls are natural laboratories within which to examine ecological processes (Sachet, 1967; Lee, 1984). They are often isolated, in some cases little disturbed, and have a geologically recent history of terrestrial plant colonisation. Reef islands around the rim of most atolls are Holocene in age. They are composed of biogenic skeletal sediments and have developed since reef growth caught up with sea level which stabilized after post-glacial sea-level rise. Plant colonisation of most of these islands must have occurred over a period of no more than 6000 years.
This monograph sheds light on the status of secondary plant cover, heretofore little known, on slopes between sea level and about 750m in the Marquesas Islands, a remote tropical Polynesian archipelago of high islands of volcanic origin situated in the dry tradewind zone of the South Pacific. Plant cover types are described and assigned to xerotropical, transitional and pluviotropical floristic zones determined in part by comparison with similar zones previously devised for Oahu Island, Hawaii.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]