Progress Towards Protected Area Targets
Protected Area targets have been set globally, regionally, and sometimes at a country level. During the last decade, the global protected area targets that all country signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) committed to were the CBD's Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Specifically, Aichi Target 11 which stated that:
Terrestrial Biodiversity of Manuae Atoll, Cook Islands
The most common and numerous island type across the Pacific basin are atolls. Even though these island systems harbor only a few endemic species, atolls are globally important nesting sites for seabirds and sea turtles, roosting sites for migratory shorebirds, and refugia for Oceania's unique lowland flora and fauna. While atolls were extensively surveyed for their island biodiversity in the second half of the twentieth century, many remain unmapped, leaving important knowledge gaps for Pacific biodiversity, biogeography, and conservation.
Biology and Impacts of Pacific Island Invasive Species. 17. Lissachatina fulica, the Giant African Snail (Mollusca: Achatinidae; Achatininae)
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.
Blue Prosperity Vanuatu FINAL SCIENCE REPORT
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.
Blue Prosperity Vanuatu 2023 Coral Reef Study Preliminary Science Report
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.
More than half the world’s forests fragmented in 20 years — but protection works: Study
“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).
Standards, methods and guidelines for cross-referencing ecosystem classifications and maps to the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology
This publication establishes a structured, rigorous standard for cross-referencing ecosystem types to the GET. It first reviews the need for reliable interoperability among ecosystem classifications and the role of the GET as a framework for synthesis. Second, it reviews the conceptual foundations of ecosystem classifications and introduces the structure of the GET. Third, the guidelines introduce key principles for cross-referencing the units of other ecosystem classifications to GET Ecosystem Functional Groups.
Ecosystem and Socio-economic Resilience Analysis and Mapping (ESRAM) for three Communities of Southern Malaita & Maramasike Passage, Solomon Islands : Summary Report
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.
Wiawi Community Turtle Management Plan
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.
