Whilst the number of people globally being killed from both disasters and conflicts has generally been falling over the past twenty years, the number of people actually affected by disasters has steadily been rising1.
The very productive lagoon fisheries of Tarawa atoll changed greatly in recent decades as human development and intensive harvesting increased. Tarawa typifies the increasingly common condition of resource depletion and marine community structure change with expanding human activities and population growth. Fisheries-dependent reports have documented the change in fisher landings for nearly two decades. A comparison of fisheries-independent data collected during 1992-93 with data collected in 1977 allowed for documentation of large changes in important finfish resources in Tarawa Lagoon.
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.
There is now a consensus that there is a discernible human influence on global climate. The form these global changes will take in the Pacific is far less certain, but the most significant and more immediate consequences are likely to be related to changes in rainfall regimes and soil moisture budgets, prevailing winds (both speed and direction) and in regional and local sea levels and patterns of wave action.
This paper aims to provide an overview of the existing policy framework, activities and coordinating arrangements in the area of UN inter-agency information exchange concerning environmental capacity building. It has been prepared for the Environmental Management Group (EMG) by an independent consultant who is familiar with UN information exchange networks concerning environmental capacity building that are operating within the United Nations.
This paper is concerned with integrating adaptation to climate change with local development in the context of a climate change mitigation project for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. It is argued that integration will enhance locally appropriate and sustainable outcomes necessary for effective forest conservation in the context of rural Vanuatu.
A plan for the management of Marine Resources in the region
The injections of lime juice and vinegar offer great advantages when compared to current best practices and constitute a cheap and natural option for all reefs affected by COTS (corallivorous crown-of-thorns)
Human resource development in the Marine sector
Pacific Information brief
Each of the contributions to the Special Issue sheds light on a different aspect of the UNFCCC, international human rights law and/or the inter-relationship between these frameworks.
This volume is divided into five chapters;
* Chapter 1 provides an overview of the importance of the ocean to Pacific Island people, and describes the key challenges and opportunities the ocean presents.
* Chapter 2 outlines a strategy for managing coastal areas in the Pacific.
* Chapter 3 focuses on the management of shared tuna fisheries and on ways Pacific Island countries could optimize
their benefits under a new regional management regime.
* Chapter 4 analyzes the policy and regulatory environment for seabed mining.
The paper argues that the mainstreaming of the conservation of the unique terrestrial, freshwater and marine biodiversity of the Pacific Islands, including the traditional knowledge and uses that Pacific Island peoples have for this biodiversity, is by far the most important precondition for ecologically, economically and culturally sustainable development in the small-island states and territories of the Pacific Ocean
SPREP has now partnered with the South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) to produce these EIA guidelines for
coastal tourism development, which is defined as any physical tourism development that occurs in the area from the
upland forest out to the reef edge. Based on this definition, entire islands may be in the coastal zone, especially if they
are small low-lying islands and atolls.