The need for a Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum to provide a venue and support for biodiversity information needs in the Pacific Basin was established during the GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) meeting on Maui in May of 2002. Interested parties met again during the October 2003 GBIF meeting in Tsukuba, Japan and reaffirmed the need and began to draw up a governing structure for PBIF and identify specific biodiversity needs in the Pacific Basin that can be addressed through projects.
Since the early 1990s the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) has been promoting the use of environmental planning and assessment processes amongst its member countries and territories. SPREP's approach to environmental planning and assessment has been part of a global programme for improving environmental management and supporting sustainable development.
The report was commissioned at the end of May 2008 with delivery of the final product by end June 2008. As such, it has been
researched and written over a very compressed timeline. Considerable shortcomings and inconsistencies in data
needed to be tackled in this period, and so a rapid desk assessment approach was used with limited opportunity for peer review and feedback.
Available online|1 copy
Call Number: 333.72 PAC ,[EL]
Physical Description: 97 p.
The Regional Wetlands Action Plan (RWAP) for the Pacific Islands (SPREP, 1999) was endorsed by the 26 member countries and territories of SPREP. The Action Plan contained 28 priority actions in the areas of management, capacity building, research and monitoring for wetland ecosystems. In 2002, a formal memorandum of cooperation was signed between the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and SPREP to promote the importance of wetland conservation in the Pacific Islands region.
One of the recommendations emerging from the COP-8 (Decision XIII/8 [6]) promoted a series of regional and/or sub-regional workshops on capacity building for NBSAPs. These will
be held with the aim to discuss national experiences in implementing NBSAPs, the integration of biodiversity concerns into relevant sectors, obstacles, and ways and means
for overcoming these obstacles. It was recommended that these workshops be held (subject to the availability of funding) prior to COP-9, to provide an opportunity to directly support