More is known about birds response to climate change to date than for any other animal group, mostly as a result of many species- and location-specific analyses. Yet of the global or international-scale analyses of biodiversity and climate change, very few concentrate on birds in particular.
The biodiversity of the Pacific region is recognised as being globally significant. The Solomon Islands was recently included into the famous "Coral Triangle", the area of ocean considered to have the highest marine biodiversity in the world. This includes the waters of the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The Solomon Islands Rainforest Ecoregion is recognised as "one of the world's great Centres of Plant Diversity"
The Pacific region has benefited from a number of regional and national programmes to both assess the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and develop programmes to adapt to climate change. Such programmes are critical considering that the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 1/ states that the Pacific region has already experienced temperature increases of as much as 1°C since 1910.
Who are we? UN Environments specialist biodiversity assessment centre, based in Cambridge, UKAvailable online|Powerpoint presentationCall Number: [EL]Physical Description: 16 p
Climate change is a major threat to global biodiversity. From the tropics to the Poles, the worlds ecosystems are all under pressure. A study published in the scientific journal Nature posited that 15 to 37% of terrestrial animal and plant species could be at risk of extinction because of human-induced impacts on climate (Thomas et al., 2004). Scattered across the four corners of the Earth, European Union overseas entities, are home to a biological diversity that is as rich as it is vulnerable.
The First United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 (also known as the Earth Summit) acknowledged that SIDS
are a special case for sustainable development (given their unique and particular
vulnerabilities).This gave rise to the First International Conference on SIDS in 1994
and the Barbados Program of Action (BPOA) which is the main policy framework
addressing the economic, social and environmental vulnerabilities facing SIDS. The
sustainable development of SIDS was also at the heart of the Second International
Life on Earth is disappearing fast and will continue to do so unless urgent action is taken. Well designed and effectively managed systems of protected areas are a vital tool for reducing biodiversity loss while delivering environmental goods and services that underpin sustainable development. There are currently over 130,000 protected areas worldwide, covering around 13.9 % of the Earths land surface and 5.9 % of the territorial marine surface. These areas represent a tremendous resource for conserving biodiversity and for protecting vital ecosystem services.
Landscape conservation, and management of protected areas in particular, needs leadership, knowledge, practical skills, science, innovation, creativity and collaboration.Available onlineCall Number: [EL]Physical Description: 58 p
Scientists have advocated for local interventions, such as creating marine protected areas and implementing fishery restrictions, as ways to mitigate local stressors to limit the effects of climate change on reef-building coralsAvailable online.Call Number: [EL]Physical Description: 30 p
This report examines the role of the ecosystem services in reducing the vulnerability of the people of the Pacific Islands to climate change. Specifically, it describes the decision-making frameworks and the current state of knowledge of specific ecosystem-service/development relationships that are relevant to EbA.
