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In 2015, 2016, the Government of Papua New Guinea (PNG), through its Conservation and Environmental Protection Authority (CEPA) and with the support of United Nations Development Program (UNDP), organised an evaluation of its protected areas, as part of the process to improve management effectiveness. PNG’s Policy on Protected Areas commits to regular evaluation of management effectiveness and to taking remedial action to improve effectiveness over time.

Papua New Guinea contains more than 7% of the world's biodiversity in less than 1% of the land area. PNG has more than 18,894 described plant species, 719 birds, 271 mammals, 227 reptiles, 266 amphibians and 341 freshwater fish species. But this extremely rich biodiversity on which the PNG people depend is under threat. The current status of species in PNG includes: 1 extinct, 36 critically endangered, 49 endangered, 365 vulnerable and 288 near threatened. Morever, 1 in 5 assessed species in PNG is endemic, that is they only occur in PNG.

Papua New Guinea is committed to the establishment of a network of marine protected areas to fulfill national and international commitments. In order to assist this, the conservation priority areas analysis identified a range of areas of high conservation interest in the PNG marine environment, based on the principles of comprehensiveness, adequacy, representation and resilience (CARR). The analysis collated available national-scale data on biodiversity features and biodiversity surrogates.

The Conservation Needs Assessment (CNA) for Papua New Guinea was requested by the government of Papua New Guinea and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The CNA was implemented by the Biodiversity Support Program, a USAID-funded consortium of World Wildlife Fund, World Resources Institute, and The Nature Conservancy, in collaboration with
local and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), museums, and academic institutions.

The management plan describes the priority strategies for the upland areas of the Lake Lanuto'o National Park that will best maintain and improve the key conservation values in these areas by reducing the impact of threats, including from climate change. The management planning process began in 20-24 August 2012 with the Site management planning workshop for climate resilience of Samoa's forest. This workshop involved application of the Conservation Action Planning (CAP) Process of the Open Standards for the practice of conservation.

The management plan describes the priority strategies for the Ijuw/Anabar wetlands Proposed Conservation area (PCA) that will best maintain and improve the key conservation values in this area by reducing the impact of threats, including from climate change.

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This report presents the results of the 2016 Funafuti Community-Based Ridge-to-Reef (R2R) Rapid Biodiversity Assessment (BIORAP) of biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES), hereafter referred to as the BIORAP.

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A Biological Rapid Assessment Program (BIORAP) was conducted from July 16 to August 3, 2016 in three Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) in Samoa: the Central Savai’i Rainforest KBA, and the Falealupo Peninsula Coastal Rainforest KBA on Savaii; and the Uafato-Tiavea Coastal Rainforest KBA on Upolu. A literature review of biodiversity information was also conducted on a fourth site - the Apia Catchments KBA (see Fig.1 for the location of survey sites).

The Biological Rapid Assessment Programme (BIORAP) is a biological survey based on a concept developed by Conservation International and designed to use scientific information to catalyse conservation action. BIORAP methods are designed to rapidly assess the biodiversity of highly diverse areas and to train local scientists in biodiversity survey techniques. The BIORAP can be considered a spatial and temporal ‘snapshot’ of Vava’u’s full range of biodiversity.

SPREP presents these guidelines for undertaking rapid biodiversity assessments in its Pacific island member countries and territories: Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. These assessments are referred to as BIORAPs. The guidelines are recommended to be used by SPREP members for the planning and implementation of terrestrial and marine BIORAP surveys, and subsequent monitoring of important sites.

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