Scientists state unequivocally that the earth is warming. Climate change is happening, it is caused in large part by human activity, and it will have many serious and potentially damaging effects in the decades ahead. Greenhouse gas emissions from cars, power plants, and other human activitiesrather than natural variations in climateare the primary cause of contemporary global warming. Due largely to the combustion of fossil fuels, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal greenhouse gas, are at a level unequaled for at least 800,000 years.
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.
Mangrove forests store high amounts of carbon, protect communities from storms and support fisheries. Mangroves exist in complex social-ecological systems hence identifying socioeconomic conditions associated with decreasing losses and increasing gains remains challenging albeit important.
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 16 p.
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.
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 11 p.
The management plan describes the priority strategies for the upland areas of the Lake Lanuto'o National Park that will best maintain and improve the key conservation values in these areas by reducing the impact of threats, including from climate change. The management planning process began in 20-24 August 2012 with the Site management planning workshop for climate resilience of Samoa's forest. This workshop involved application of the Conservation Action Planning (CAP) Process of the Open Standards for the practice of conservation.
Call Number: [EL],333.7 MAN
Christmas island3, the largest atoll in the world in terms of
This issues paper reviews the context and challenges to environmental mainstreaming (EM), discusses what it takes to achieve effective EM, and provides a roadmap for selecting operational EM methods and tools. Each chapter is introduced by a box summarising its scope. Supporting materials and profiles of key tools are available at www.environmental-mainstreaming.org. Chapter 1 explains why EM is needed, and considers what it means, and who should be concerned.
The study of forest change across Papua New Guinea records that extensive and rapid deforestation and forest degradation have occurred over the thirty years from 1972 to 2002. The main human activities driving these changes are identified as commercial forestry, subsistence agriculture, fires, and the development and operations of mines and plantations.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
ISBN/ISSN: 9980-937-48-3
Physical Description: 156 p.
In the Pacific, land and sea are life; livelihoods and the natural environment are inseparable. Culture, tradition and livelihoods, are underpinned by the incredible biodiversity of the nearly 3,000 islands and atolls of the Pacific. However, high birth rates, unsustainable use of natural resources, increasing dependency on the cash economy, labour migration, and the deterioration of traditional social systems, are changing traditional lifestyles.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 36 p.
The Apia Catchment is Samoa's selected IWRM demonstration project zone. It accommodates Lake Lanoto'o and its two main tributaries - Vaisigano and Fuluasou Rivers, which are very important water sources for drinking water, hydropower, bio-diversity and tourism. Unfortunately, with increasing population and development pressures over the years, this catchment area has become significantly degraded from problems such as soil erosion, siltation, water pollution/contamination and water shortages, causing major concern to the Government.
Available online
In this report we present the results of a study carried out between May 2004 and May 2005 as a contribution to the Tropical Rivers Inventory and Assessment Project (TRIAP) of Australia's Tropical Rivers Program. The aim was to provide a framework for the analysis of the ecosystem services provided by the wetland and riverine ecosystems of northern Australia. The analyses drew heavily on the conceptual framework provided by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) where ecosystem services were defined as 'the benefits people obtain from ecosystems'.
The Ok Tedi copper-gold mine, located at the eastern end of the central mountain range of New Guinea, discharges approximately 80.000 tons of ore processing residues daily, and a similar volume of waste rock and overburden into the headwaters of the Ok Tedi River.
2 copies|Available in e-copy
Call Number: 363.709549 HET [EL]
ISBN/ISSN: 9820401259
Physical Description: vi, 71 p. ; 29 cm
This paper attempts to present a "quick snapshot" of the current status of biodiversity in the Pacific Islands and the prospects and challenges for the mainstreaming of its conservation and sustainable use by Pacific Island peoples during the 21st century. It is hoped that it will form the basis for useful discussion dining the conference. Particular emphasis is placed on providing an understanding of the status of biodiversity, not only from a scientific perspective, but also from the view of the Pacific Island peoples who have owned and used it for millennia!
The Preliminary Socio-Economic Baseline Study and Waste Stream Analysis of Bikenibeu West ward on South Tarawa atoll in the Republic of Kiribati is part of a regional programmeby the IWP to devisea suitable design of community-based waste pilot projects 111 the PSIDS. The demonstration projects are to show that there are viable, low cost alternatives that can be implementedat the community levelfor the management
This thesis is a critical ethnographic account of the Wartha people, a small group of hunter-horticulturalists living on the Torassi or Bensbach River, in the southwest corner of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG). This area is adjacent to the international border between PNG and Indonesia's Papua Province (West Papua).
Available online|A thesis submitted to the School of Social Science, the University of Queensland for the degree of Doctor or Philosophy
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 438 p.
People care about coasts. Around the world, hundreds of millions of people live their lives on and derive their livelihoods from
coasts and coastal resources. Hundreds of millions more people who don't live on the coast use them for recreation or depend on
the resources and environmental services they produce. The damage caused by human activities, whether it is from habitat loss, pollution damage or increased exposure to natural disasters caused by things such as mangrove destruction, attract great political and public concern.
Available online
The economic survival of various production sectors, and of the people depending on those sectors for their livelihoods, is intricately connected to the conservation and
In addition, the Leaders have also called for the implementation of the respective regional frameworks, regional strategies and or regional plans of actions (See Annex 1) in relation
to sectoral and cross sectoral themes, including on climate change and disaster (Initiatives 5.5 and 13.4), and energy (Initiative 5.4, and mitigation aspects of aspects of 5.5). These regional policies and frameworks of action guide the efforts of regional organisations and development partners in supporting member countries to address their respective national
The purpose of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Pacific Strategy 2005-2009 is to provide a framework for ADB operations in its 14 Pacific developing member countries (PDMCs)1 and for ADB support to regional cooperation in the Pacific. This third ADB Pacific
Strategy will allow ADB's Pacific Department (PARD) to better focus its activities, deepen its experience and expertise in key result areas (KRAs), and align resources to strategy objectives,
in order to maximize the impact of ADB support to the development efforts of the PDMCs.
Available online
This is a dataset for all protected areas in Funafuti - 2021