This package/collection of training materials constitute an introductory, basic-level training to open source GIS software (QGIS) targeting technical-level government officers. The primary goal of the material is to provide participants with the tools to visualise, map, and collect spatial data for more effective planning and management of protected areas.
Many Pacific coral reefs are being damaged by habitat disturbance, pollution, fishing and climate change. Climate change is believed to be the greatest human-induced threat to corals in the Pacific region. The region needs an action plan to make cohesive decisions that will benefit coral reefs. This will enable leaders of Pacific Island countries, coral-reef managers and community members to coordinate their efforts to protect these valuable ecosystems.
The Integrated Management Effectiveness Tool (IMET) is an approach to support protected areas planning, monitoring and evaluation and to improve management patterns and conservation outcomes. IMET is supported by a computer-based application that collects, organizes and analyses data to facilitate informed decision-making for protected area management, operations and planning. The tool is available in both online and offline versions.
The tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris) is an endemic and highly cryptic bird of the rainforest canopy of Samoa. According to the recently released Tooth-billed Pigeon Recovery Plan (2020–2029), one of the greatest obstacles to conservation efforts is the inability of ornithologists to reliably separate its advertising coo call from that of the common and sympatric Pacific imperial pigeon (Ducula pacifica).
Many species of sharks are threatened with extinction, and there has been a longstanding debate in scientifc and environmental circles over the most efective and appropriate strategy to conserve and protect them. Should we allow for sustainable fsheries exploitation of species which can withstand fshing pressure, or ban all fsheries for sharks and trade in shark products? In the developing world, exploitation of fsheries resources can be essential to food security and poverty alleviation, and global management eforts are typically focused on sustainably maximizing economic benefts.
Setting targets for addressing major planetary concerns is an essential prerequisite for concerted global action (both inside and outside multilateral environmental agreements) and is necessarily a societal and political process, requiring negotiation and convergence among oftenconflicting interests. There is no such thing as a ‘scientific target’ applied in policy or business—operational targets are socio-political choices. However, this is not to say that targets cannot be ‘science-based’.
This publication has been developed as a contribution to Phase II of the Two-phase Strategy on Protected Areas of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and prepared pursuant to various paragraphs of COP decision XIII/2 on protected areas, in particular paragraph 5(a-e), and paragraph 10 of decision XI/24.
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).
Global support is growing for the 30 × 30 movement — a goal to conserve 30% of the planet by 2030. In May, the G7 group of wealthy nations endorsed the commitment to this target that had been made by more than 50 countries in January. It is likely to be the headline goal when parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meet to discuss the latest global conservation agreement in May 2022 in Kunming, China. So where do the sacred forests of Estonia or shipwrecks in North America’s Great Lakes come in?
More than 15% of global terrestrial area is under some form of protection and there is a growing impetus to increase this coverage to 30% by 2030. But not all protection is effective and the reasons some countries’ protected areas (PAs) are more effective than others’ are poorly understood. We evaluate the effectiveness of national PA networks established between 2000 and 2012 globally in avoiding forest loss, taking into account underlying deforestation threats using a combination of matching methods and cross-sectional regressions.