Home

In this article, I explore the knowledge and values that allowed the people of Oceania to develop sustainable use of their marine resources, followed by the demise of these systems after western colonization and the breakdown of traditional societies. The current renaissance of customary stewardship has resulted in not only more effective management, but also a cultural reawakening in many of these island nations. The integration of customary and contemporary management regimes holds great promise for reducing reliance on foreign goods and services, while also improving social cohesion.

This study identifies the importance of: acquiring robust baseline data, being fully protected (no-take), using ecosystembased management, community inclusion, and of adopting an ecologically connected network approach. These features are needed for large marine reserves to maximize achieving both ecological and socioeconomic goals, with particular attention to engagement of local communities.

This report outlines the process undertaken to define and describe the special, unique marine areas of Fiji. These special, unique marine areas provide an important input to decisions about, for example, permits, licences, EIAs and where to place different types of marine protected areas, locally managed marine areas and Community Conservation Areas in Fiji.

Full Report (Pdf)

This paper reviews the value of, especially, no-take marine protected areas (MPAs), specifically for protecting offshore areas. It describes open ocean habitats and explores the question of whether offshore MPAs can be effective in helping to ensure the future of the open ocean’s pelagic and benthic habitats and species including large, wide-ranging and migratory fauna that inhabit all depths of the ocean. 

Full paper (Pdf)

Palau has a rich heritage of conservation that has evolved from the traditional moratoria on fishing, or “bul”, to more western Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), while still retaining elements of customary management and tenure. In 2003, the Palau Protected Areas Network (PAN) was created to conserve Palau’s unique biodiversity and culture, and is the country’s mechanism for achieving the goals of the Micronesia Challenge (MC), an initiative to conserve 30% of near-shore marine resources within the region by 2020.

To formally launch the second phase of the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management (BIOPAMA) programme, a regional inception workshop for the Pacific was held at the Tanoa Tusitala Hotel, Apia, Samoa from 11th to 15th June 2018. The aim of the inception workshop was to ensure that all 15 countries in the Pacific ACP Group of States were engaged for the second phase of BIOPAMA. The working title of the workshop was ‘Regional Workshop on Improving Information and Capacity for More Effective Protected Area Management and Governance in the Pacific’.

The third edition of the Newsletter of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Oceania (2018). IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) is the world's premier network of protected area expertise. It is administered by IUCN's Global Programme on Protected Areas and has over 2,000 members, spanning 140 countries. 

Full Newsletter (Pdf)

This is a simple guide on the Solomon Islands Protected Areas Act 2010 and how to establish terrestrial and marine protect areas through its provisions. The guide was produced and published with the assistance of the SPREP Pacific Ecosystem-based Adaptation to Climate Change (PEBACC) project.  

Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted 20 targets, known as the Aichi Targets, to benchmark progress towards protecting biodiversity. These targets include Target 11 relating to Marine Protected Area coverage and the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) is the accepted international database for tracking national commitments to this target. However, measuring national progress towards conservation targets relies on sound data.

The EBSAs are special areas in the ocean that serve important purposes, in one way or another, to support the healthy functioning of oceans and the many services that it provides. The ocean is under increasing threat from various human activities. The most pressing threats come from overfishing, destructive fishing practices, and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities.