The Phoenix Islands lie in the heart of the Pacific Ocean and are one of the most remote island chains on Earth. They are located approximately halfway between Fiji and Hawaii. The largest atoll, Kanton, is 1,750 km (1,087 miles) from the Kiribati capital Tarawa. The eight islands are uninhabited except for Kanton Atoll that houses a small caretaker population.
The Resilience of Ecosystems and Societies to Climate Change (RESCCUE) project is a regional project implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community. The overall goal of RESCCUE is to contribute to increasing the resilience of Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) in the context of global changes. To this end RESCCUE aims at supporting adaptation to climate change (ACC) through integrated coastal management (ICM), resorting especially to economic analysis and economic and financial mechanisms.
This paper is based on presentations and discussions held during a marine managed areas (MMAs)2session organised by NOAA, SPREP and Conservation International (CI) as part of the “Our Seas of Islands” Regional Forum for Oceania on MMAs convened by
NOAA, UNESCO and partners held in Hawaii in January 2007. The overall objective of the session was to promote a shared understanding of the extent and diversity of MPA/MMA approaches and key lessons learned in their design, and to identify practical and strategic future actions to further apply these tools in the Oceania marine realm.
Coral reefs face threats from climate change and local pressures, but many initiatives designed to deliver conservation outcomes for them and the social-economic systems they support are limited by sustainable finance and the availability of funds over the long term. Conservation finance is viewed as part of a holistic approach to coral reef conservation that integrates science-based biodiversity, social, and economic solutions tailored to local socio-cultural, environmental, and economic conditions to ensure their effective design and implementation.
Microplastic pollution threatens marine ecosystems, especially in vulnerable regions like the Pacific Islands. This study examines temporal trends by comparing Anadara spp. specimens from Fiji's tidal flats in the 1980s and 2023–2024. Historical samples from the University of the South Pacific's Marine Collection and newly collected specimens were analyzed. Results show microplastic contamination increased from 76 % of 1980s samples (0.42 ± 0.4 particles per individual) to 100 % in 2023–2024 (0.93 ± 0.4 particles per individual).
The Mt. Panié RAP survey was led by a partnership between local communities, Province nord (Northern Province), Conservation International (CI) and Dayu Biik, an indigenous conservation non-profit organization. CI and Province nord’s relationships
with research institutes and experts, both in New Caledonia and internationally, brought together the multiple skills needed for
this comprehensive survey.
The independent state of Papua New Guinea (PNG) occupies the eastern half of New Guinea, the world’s largest and highest tropical island and one of the last major tropical wilderness areas on earth. Although New Guinea and nearby smaller islands remain substantially covered with tropical forest and are known to have an immensely rich and highly endemic flora and fauna, much of this biota remains undocumented, as evidenced by spectacular discoveries of both plants and animals during Conservation International’s recent RAP biodiversity surveys on the island (e.g. Richards 2007).
Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) is an innovative biological inventory program designed to use scientific information to catalyze conservation action. RAP methods are designed to rapidly assess the biodiversity of highly diverse areas and to train local scientists in biodiversity survey techniques. Since 1990, RAP’s teams of expert and host-country scientists have conducted 60 terrestrial, freshwater aquatic (AquaRAP), and marine biodiversity surveys and have contributed to building local scientific capacity for scientists in 26 countries.
The Republic of Fiji consists of approximately 300 islands located roughly 3000 km east of Australia in the Pacific Ocean (between 16o and 20oS, 177oW and 175oE). There are four main islands in the Fiji group: Viti Levu, Vanua Levu, Taveuni and Kadavu. The two largest islands, Viti Levu (10,544 km2) and Vanua Levu (5,535 km2) comprise 88% of the total land area (~18,300 km2). It is estimated that no more than 100 islands are permanently inhabited. Most of the islands are the remnants of once active volcanoes sitting on a piece of the Pacific Plate.
Here we report the findings from the Marine Rapid Assessment Survey of the coral reefs of the northwest lagoon (Yandé to Koumac) of Nouvelle Calédonie. For the executive summary a brief overview on the Marine Rapid Assessment Program and on New Caledonia is presented first including general information on the inscription of the tropical lagoons and coral reefs of New Caledonia as a World Heritage Site. Further background information is presented for the two communes of Poum and Koumac that lie adjacent to the reef sites surveyed.
