Key Biodiversity Areas

The Green Livelihoods project is being led by Samoa Conservation Society (SCS) with funding from the Civil Society Support Programme (CSSP). It has two objectives that are closely related to Samoa: 1.

Samoa has long recognised the Pacific Ocean as a source of social and economic benefit which has sustained its communities for generations. The ocean remains a primary resource for food and livelihoods that requires responsible stewardship.

Ocean threats: acidification, deoxygenation, warming, heatwaves. Do we have anything useful to bend, change, or reverse the results?

Our planet is facing an unprecedented and accelerating biodiversity crisis, driven by human activity and compounded by climate change, which is bringing ever more severe weather to a world already strained by poverty and inequality.

Our planet is facing an unprecedented and accelerating biodiversity crisis, driven by human activity and compounded by climate change, which is bringing ever more severe weather to a world already strained by poverty and inequality.

This manual is not a summary of all that is known about sea turtles. There are already very good books and resources that do that. It is also not exhaustive about research and monitoring. Nor it is the global synthesis of all turtle research options.

A lot of attention has been paid to the decrease in bee populations and other pollinators, but a recent review article makes the case that we should be equally alarmed by the declining numbers of seed-dispersing animals, which are crucial for growing healthy forests.

The Sepik River is the longest river on the island of New Guinea. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea provinces of Sandaun and East Sepik, with a small section flowing through the Indonesian province of Papua.

The Fiji Islands Marine Eco region which includes our coastal, Inshore and offshore marine environment is rich in marine biodiversity and endemism.

The Fiji Islands Marine Eco region which includes our coastal, Inshore and offshore marine environment is rich in marine biodiversity and endemism.

Data on chondrichthyan (sharks, rays, and chimaeras) populations is largely lacking for many countries and territories in the Indo-Pacific. Aims.

In 2019 the Siporae Rainforest Protected Area was declared a protected area under the 2010 protected area ACT. It protects and conserves one of the last untouched rainforest ecosystems in Choiseul Province and Solomon Island.

In 2019 The Sirebe Rainforest Conservation Area was declared a protected area under the 2010 protected area ACT. It protects and conserves one of the last untouched rainforest ecosystems in Choiseul Province and Solomon Islands.

Marine ecosystems face threats from human-induced stressors like climate change, pollution, and habitat loss. Despite international endeavors, significant gaps remain in understanding ocean dynamics.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that organized civil society and social mobilization are key, yet often unrecognized, agents of global biodiversity conservation.

Kronen, M., Stacey, N., Holland, P., Magron, F., Power, M. 2007. Socioeconomic Fisheries Surveys in Pacific Islands: a Manual for the Collection of a Minimum  Dataset. SPC, Noumea, New Caledonia.  

Bunce, L. Townsley, P., Pomeroy, R., Pollnac, R. 2000. Socioeconomic Manual for Coral Reef Management. GCRMN, AIMS, Townsville, Australia.

While the ocean covers more than two thirds of the Earth’s surface, the oceanic territory of Solomon Islands is more than 47 times larger than its land territory. With an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 1.34 million km2, Solomon Islands is a large ocean state.

Solomon Islands is composed of almost 1000 islands and has the second longest coastline and the second largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Pacific.

Solomon Islanders are ocean people. We are not separate to our ocean: we are part of our ocean. It is reflected in our history, our culture, our traditions and in our day-to-day lives.

It is through ministerial leadership with relevant stakeholders and partners’ collaboration that produces and finalizes the Solomon Islands National Plan of Action for Marine Turtles (NPOA) 2023-2027.

Reduce the risk of crocodile attack on people, while ensuring the long-term conservation and management of the species based on science, culture, and traditional knowledge for sustainable utilisation.

Some presentations refer to the term Marine Managed Area (MMA) instead of Marine Protected Area (MPA) in order to cover more management options.

Biologically, New Ireland has remained one of the least studied regions of Papua New Guinea (PNG), and the mountainous southern zone has been considered both a high priority for biodiversity conservation and a major “scientific unknown” (Beehler 1993).

Catastrophic overfishing of small-scale coastal fisheries through the Pacific poses a major threat to regional food security and biodiversity. Globally, approaches to fisheries assessment and management that were developed for industrial fisheries, are failing small-scale data-poor fisheries.

Previous research has cast doubt on the potential for marine protected areas (MPAs) to provide refuge and fishery spillover benefits for migratory species as most MPAs are small relative to the geographic range of these species.

The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030 (hereafter “UN Decade”) aims to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation and recover biodiversity, and ecosystem integrity; enhance human health and well-being, including sustainable delivery of ecosystem goods and services; and

This publication establishes a structured, rigorous standard for cross-referencing ecosystem types to the GET. It first reviews the need for reliable interoperability among ecosystem classifications and the role of the GET as a framework for synthesis.

Tonga’s Special Management Areas (SMAs) have been widely supported by the people of Tonga as a successful approach to the comanagement of their fisheries and marine resources.

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

Coral reefs are in crisis. Rising ocean temperatures driven by climate change are pushing these ecosystems to the brink, with mass bleaching events becoming more frequent and severe.  But what if nature already holds part of the solution?

The rapid expansion of kava farms, and the increase in market value for the plant, has resulted in an increased clearing of native forests in key growing zones. Cleared cultivation areas are now penetrating some of the most well preserved native forests of the Pacific region.

The sea turtle conservation community has made remarkable strides in globalscale priority setting in recent decades thanks to the collective efforts of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), universities, and local communities.

The National Environment Service worked closely with family representatives of the Takitumu Conservation Area, to submit an assessment application that will gave the TCA official international recognition as an Other Effective area-based Conservation Measure (OECM). All documents relevant to

Invasive alien species represent an insidious and pervasive threat to the environmental, economic and human well-being of the Pacific islands.

The most common and numerous island type across the Pacific basin are atolls.

Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a“Green List of Species” (now the IUCN Green Status of Species).

In a unique partnership that crosses community, language, province, and religious borders, the Arnavon Marine Park seeks to strengthen our spirit and cultural links to the environment through the preservation and protection critical habitats and species in the first and longest operating marine p

Nearly a third of seabird species are at risk of extinction, rendering them among the most threatened bird taxa globally. The decline in seabird populations has major ramifications for their associated ecosystems.

COP30 has come and gone, leaving behind a familiar mix of new commitments and renewed political promises. But amid the declarations of progress, one issue that received almost backhanded attention is the quiet abandonment of conservation projects after their high-profile launches.

Islands are at the forefront of the global extinction crisis, with invasive vertebrates posing a significant threat to native flora and fauna.

Protected areas are a cornerstone for biodiversity conservation, and typically support more natural and undisturbed habitats compared to unprotected lands. The effect of protected areas on intra-specific ecological niche has been rarely investigated.

Palau’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), with a total of 500,238 km2 (over 300,000 mi2 ), became a multi-zoned national MPA in 2015, through the Palau National Marine Sanctuary Act.

The high seas – the vast waters beyond national jurisdiction – cover nearly two-thirds of our planet.

Many Pacific Small Island Developing States are vulnerable to Tropical Cyclones (TCs) leading to an estimated average annual loss of USD 1.08 billion.

The Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) initiative was launched by the Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in 2016, as a response to a conservation crisis in the protection of marine mammals and wider global ocean biodiversity.

We are in the midst of a major biodiversity crisis, with deep impacts on the functioning of ecosystems and derived benefits to people (1, 2). But we still have time to pull back. To do so, it is imperative that we learn from plants’ and animals’ past actions (3, 4).

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.

In 2015, 2016, the Government of Papua New Guinea (PNG), through its Conservation and Environmental Protection Authority (CEPA) and with the support of United Nations Development Program (UNDP), organised an evaluation of its protected areas, as part of the process to improve management eff