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Status of monitoring and evaluation of Tonga’s Special Management Area program

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. However, due to the dominant focus on expansion of the program over recent years, challenges remain for theeffective and consistent monitoring and evaluation needed to understand program impacts. This review compiles all known ecological, fisheries, and socio-economic monitoring and evaluation reports related to Tonga’s Special Management Areas from 2010 onwards.

Indo-Pacific Eels (Anguilla marmorata) from the Caroline Islands Belong to the Micronesia Population Based on Total Number of Vertebrae Counts

The Indo-Pacific eel, Anguilla marmorata Quoy & Gaimard, has the widest geographic distribution of anguillid eels. At least four populations (North Pacific, Micronesia, Indian Ocean and South Pacific) of this species were estimated to exist by previous morphological and molecular genetic studies. Recent mitochondrial control region haplotype analysis of A. marmorata eels from the eastern Caroline Islands and Guam grouped them in two separated lineages with eels from the South Pacific and western Indian Ocean.

Principles for Ecosystem Restoration to Guide the United Nations Decade 2021-2030

Aware of the critical need to halt, prevent and reverse ecosystem degradation, and to effectively restore degraded terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems across the globe, through Resolution 73/284, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2021–2030 as the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (hereafter the “UN Decade”).

Standards of practice to guide ecosystem restoration

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 mitigate climate change. To create a shared vision of ecosystem restoration, UN Decade partners, through a consultative process, launched ten principles1 (Figure 1) for achieving the highest level of recovery possible through restoration projects.

Mapping the patriarchy in conservation

It is essential to ensure the effectiveness of current conservation efforts to meet the interconnected crises of biodiversity loss, habitat degradation, and climate change. In this article, we discuss one aspect that undermines conservation’s effectiveness while at the same time being underexplored in the academic and political discourse on conservation: patriarchal norms and structures. We argue that these norms and structures, which promote male supremacy and inequality, are central to driving environmental destruction.

Decent Work in Nature-Based Solutions 2024: Unlocking jobs through investment in skills and nature-based infrastructure

This report – the second in a series of International Labour Organization (ILO)–United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)–International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) publications on decent work in nature-based solutions (NbS) – aims to improve the understanding of the role of NbS in the world of work and in a just transition towards environmentally sustainable and inclusive economies and societies.

Global Biodiversity Standard

The Global Biodiversity Standard is the world’s most scientifically rigorous biodiversity certification that recognises and promotes the protection, restoration, and enhancement of biodiversity.
It provides assurance that land management interventions such as tree planting, habitat restoration and agroforestry practices undertaken by organisations and governments are protecting, safeguarding, and restoring biodiversity, rather than inadvertently causing harm.

GlobalUsefulNativeTrees (GlobUNT)

The GlobalUsefulNativeTrees species selection App combines species data from the Botanic Gardens Conservation International GlobalTreeSearch database (GTS) ( website ; Beech et al. 2017 ) with data available from the World Checklist of Useful Plant Species (WCUPS) ( Diazgranados et al. 2020 ). GTS documents the native country distribution of close to 60,000 tree species, whereas the WCUPS contains 40,283 plant species names from the Plantae kingdom, documenting human usage across 10 categories of usage that was modified from the Economic Botany Data Collections Standard.