This paper lists the vascular flora of the three atolls (Canton, Gardner, Hull) and five small islands (Birnie, Enderbury, McKean, Phoenix, Sydney) of the Phoenix Group,
located in the arid equatorial belt of the Central Pacific, based on extensive collections made in 1973 and 1975 and on previous records and collections. The flora includes 87
species in 36 families. Only 28 of the species (32%) are considered native. A further 60 species have been recorded in the literature, many of them deliberate introductions which
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,
At the time of the POBSP visit, cats (Felis domestica), dogs
Tuvalu, a small island nation in the Pacific, has in recent years lost about one metre of land around the circumference of its largest atoll due to changes in storm conditions and rising sea levels. Tuvalu is one of the worlds lowest lying countries, with its highest point standing a mere four and a half metres above sea level. Half of Tuvalus population of 11,000 people live just three metres above sea level
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Physical Description: 32 p.
As early as 1990 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted that the greatest single impact of climate change might be on human migrationwith millions of people displaced by shoreline erosion, coastal flooding and agricultural disruption.3 Since then, successive reports have argued that environmental degradation, and in particular climate change, is poised to become a major driver of population displacementa crisis in the making.
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Physical Description: 64 p.
The main purpose of this paper is to help policy makers,
particularly those in developing countries, think about the national policy instruments needed to contribute to the
fight against climate change, how such needs can be articulated in order to seek internal and external financial resources and how these needs may be reflected in negotiations of a future climate change agreement. This paper is an input to a series of workshops which the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will organize in developing countries with the aim of improv-
Climate change is one of the greatest threats to our
planet and its people. Reducing emissions of greenhouse
gases (GHG) is called mitigation. Responding to the impacts of climate change is called adaptation. A certain amount of adaptation will be necessary, no matter what we do. But, there will come a point where it will not be possible to adapt our way out of the problem.
In 2007, the UNFCCC Secretariat prepared a report on
"Investment and Financial Flows to Address Climate
Change".11 The report covers mitigation and adaptation in
various sectors over the period to 2030. The report defines
an investment as the initial (capital) cost of a new physical
asset with a life of more than one year, such as the capital
cost of a gas-fired generating unit or a water supply
system. A financial flow is an ongoing expenditure related
to climate change mitigation or adaptation that docs not
This report presents a set of indicators, referred to as the 'core' set. for reporting on the state of the environment across Commonwealth and State and Territory jurisdictions. The core indicators have been developed by the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC) through an extensive consultation process involving both government agencies and the general public.
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ISBN/ISSN: 0 62419479 3
Physical Description: 96 p.
More than 20 cetacean species are known to exist in the
Pacific Islands Region, which encompasses the U.S. Exclusive
Economic Zone, or EEZ (waters out to 370 km from shore) around
the entire Hawaiian Archipelago. Johnston Atoll. Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll. Baker and Howland Islands. Jarvis Island. American Samoa. Wake Island, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands, totaling some 5.8 million km2 of ocean.
Many of the species present are poorly studied throughout their
It is now widely acknowledged within the scientific community that the global rate of sea- level rise is quickening - and is likely to continue to do so as a result of anthropogenic
climate change. It is expected, therefore, that any resulting increase in the frequency or intensity of extreme sea-level events will cause serious problems for the inhabitants of low-
lying coastal communities and islands during the 21st century.
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Physical Description: 16 p.