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We review the taxonomy, biology, and the ecological, economic, and human health impacts of the giant African snail, Lissachatina fulica, in the Pacific. Invasion of L. fulica in the Pacific has a complex history. Rapid population expansions of L. fulica on Pacific Islands, and elsewhere, in the 1930s and 1940s prompted researchers to explore its biology with a focus on understanding and minimizing its impacts in agricultural systems. Similarly, recent outbreaks of rat lungworm disease have prompted increased research exploring diseases associated with L. fulica and other snail species.

From 1–21 September 2023, the Government of Vanuatu, in partnership with the Waitt Institute through Blue Prosperity Vanuatu, conducted the most extensive coral reef survey in the nation’s history. Covering 109 sites across all six provinces, this study provides critical baseline data to guide Vanuatu’s marine protection and sustainable ocean management efforts.

From 1-21 September 2023, the Government of Vanuatu, in partnership with Blue Prosperity Vanuatu, local NGOs, and international collaborators, conducted the largest nationwide coral reef study across all six (6) provinces of Vanuatu. This study gathered information about the status of coral reefs, fish species, invertebrate populations, and water quality across Vanuatu’s waters. 

“If you can imagine walking into a huge, 1,000-kilometer square [386-square-mile] tropical forest … it’s moist and damp [with] rich soil and an overstory. You imagine walking into a 10-meter [33-foot] patch of forest and it’s just a totally different thing. It’s drier, it’s more open, it’s more harsh, and there’ll be far fewer species,” says Thomas Crowther, ecology professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich).

This report presents a summary of an Ecosystem and Socio-economic Resilience Analysis and Mapping (ESRAM) project in three communities in South Malaita, Malaita Province in the Solomon Islands; Tapa'atewa, Eliote and Ori Pre.

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Wiawi is an important turtle-nesting site in Vanuatu known for hawksbill and green turtles. The significance of the area came to light after independence in the 1980s following forest conservation interests by the Forestry Department, which resulted in the setting up of the Wiawi Conservation Area. With the support of the Wan Smolbag (WSB) turtle monitoring programme in the 1990s, the community of Wiawi embarked on interventions towards strengthening sea turtle monitoring and conservation in Wiawi through the request from Chief Timothy and his brother Chief Konel Nihapi.

The objective of an Ecosystem and Socio-economic Resilience Analysis and Mapping (ESRAM) process is to generate a robust planning baseline to inform the identification of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) options for strengthening the socio-ecological resilience of communities to the impacts of climate change and other direct anthropogenic impacts.

The objective of an Integrated Ecosystem Management Plan process is to generate a robust planning baseline to inform the identification of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) options for strengthening the socio-ecological resilience of communities to the impacts of climate change and other direct anthropogenic impacts.

he objective of an Ecosystem and Socio-economic Resilience Analysis and Mapping (ESRAM) process is to generate a robust planning baseline to inform the identification of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) options for strengthening the socio-ecological resilience of communities to the impacts of climate change and other direct anthropogenic impacts.

The objective of an Ecosystem and Socio-economic Resilience Analysis and Mapping (ESRAM) process is to generate a robust planning baseline to inform the identification of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) options for strengthening the socio-ecological resilience of communities to the impacts of climate change and other direct anthropogenic impacts.