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Rebuilding marine life

Sustainable Development Goal 14 of the United Nations aims to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”. Achieving this goal will require rebuilding the marine life-support systems that deliver the many benefits that society receives from a healthy ocean. Here we document the recovery of marine populations, habitats and ecosystems following past conservation interventions.

Priority Sites for Conservation in Kiribati: Key Biodiversity Areas

This KBA report outlines key recommendations for the Government of Kiribati and its people for protecting its unique biodiversity and supporting sustainable livelihoods. A total of twenty-two island KBAs were identified and suggested for immediate management. Outlined below are the identified KBAs in order of their recommended priority rankings for each island group...The finding of Kiribati's KBA analysis provides a sound link to several significant ongoing and new initiatives within the environment division and at the national level.

Use of surrogate species to cost-effectively prioritize conservation actions

Conservation efforts often focus on umbrella species whose distributions overlap with many other flora and fauna. However, because biodiversity is affected by different threats that are spatially variable, focusing only on the geographic range overlap of species may not be sufficient in allocating the necessary actions needed to efficiently abate threats. We developed a problem-based method for prioritizing conservation actions for umbrella species that maximizes the total number of flora and fauna benefiting from management while considering threats, actions, and costs.

High-profile international commitments for ocean protection: Empty promises or meaningful progress?

As 2020 approaches, countries are accelerating their commitments to protect 10% of the ocean by establishing and expanding marine protected areas (MPAs) and other area-based protections. Since it began in 2014, the Our Ocean Conference (OOC) has become a high-profile platform to announce ocean commitments. To evaluate the impact of these promises, this analysis asked: (1) What are the MPA commitments? (2) Who is making them? (3) Have these announcements been followed by action? and (4) Have they contributed significantly to ocean protection?

Assessment of management effectiveness for PNG's protected areas 2017

This is the final report prepared by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) for submission to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Papua New Guinea Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) in relation to the 2016–17 assessment of the management effectiveness of Papua New Guinea’s protected areas.