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The Pacific Islands Regional Marine Species Programme (Marine Species Programme) of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is a regional strategy for conserving and managing dugong, marine turtles, whales and dolphins, sharks and rays, and seabirds, referred to thro

The Pacific Islands Species Forum provides an opportunity for scientists, researchers, policy-makers, and conservation practitioners to share scientific knowledge relating to species research

Pacific Wetlands

Accelerating ecosystem degradation has spurred proposals to vastly expand the extent of protected areas (PAs), potentially affecting the livelihoods and well-being of indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) worldwide.

Climate-driven redistribution of tuna threatens to disrupt the economies of Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and sustainable management of the world’s largest tuna fishery.

Different perspectives to best manage the Pacific Ocean in the interests of all who live there.

Polymetallic Nodules

The term Blue Economy has become increasingly used over the past decade, despite its lack of definition, with a multitude of agents and agencies finding the name acceptable to frame their ‘economy’ strategies, regardless of the hue.

During the planning phase the efficacy of different strategies to manage marine resources should ultimately be assessed by their potential impact, or ability to make a difference to ecological and social outcomes.

This review represents an analysis of literature addressing the predicted and potential impacts of mining deep sea nodules in the Southwest, Central, and Northeast Pacific.

We report on preliminary observations of the abyssal megafauna communities in the exclusive economic zone of Kiribati, a huge abyssal area with few previous studies.

Anthropogenic activities threaten global biodiversity and ecosystem services. Yet, area-based conservation efforts typically target biodiversity protection whilst minimising conflict with economic activities, failing to consider ecosystem services.

Demonstrating the remarkable power of collaboration and big thinking that Palau so often exhibits, in 2016 a diverse partnership produced the nation’s 1st National Environment Symposium.

Gender equality, a universal agreed principle and value has been adopted widely but implemented to varying levels in different sectors.

The question of how to efficiently and effectively manage ocean resources in a sustainable way has reached the forefront of discussion at an international level, but women's contributions to this process have been underestimated or unrecognized.

Marine protected areas are increasingly touted for their role in conserving large marine predators such as sharks, but their efficacy is debated.

This Toolkit offers a suite of simple tools for collecting the sound scientific data needed for the conservation and sustainable management of shark and ray populations.

A BIORAP is a biological inventory programme undertaken in marine and terrestrial environments, and is designed to rapidly assess the biodiversity of highly diverse areas.

Sustainable Development Goal 14 of the United Nations aims to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”.

A new paradigm has emerged for management of coral reefs in an era of changing climate – managing for resilience. A fundamental need for such management to be effective is our ability to measure and map coral reef resilience.

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.

Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear, also referred to as ALDFG or ghost gear, is the most harmful form of marine plastic litter for marine animals and habitats: it can impede safe navigation, damage beaches and reefs, and lead to economic losses for fisheries and other marine-depe

Fijians have been at the forefront of ocean action and leadership because it i our responsibility as an oceanic people. Fiji is a nation of over 300 islands whose past, present and future are intrinsically linked to the ocean.

The present study, commissioned by the French Agency for Biodiversity (Agence française pour la biodiversité, AFB), is part of the "Pacific Biodiversity Blue Belt" project.

The ocean puts food on the table and underpins trillions of dollars of economic activity worldwide. It does all this freely. But not for long. The ocean is heading for a collapse.

The degradation of coastal habitats, particularly coral reefs, raises risks by increasing the exposure of coastal communities to flooding hazards.

Marine coastal ecosystems (MCEs) provide a myriad of services on which governments, businesses, and society depend. MCEs include coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass, oyster beds and reefs, salt marshes, and sandy beaches and dunes.

The ocean contains an abundance of biodiversity that is vital to global food security. However, marine biodiversity is declining.

This report examines the marine biogeography of the Samoan Archipelago (~14º S latitude along the international date-line) with a focus on regional ocean climate, connectivity among islands

Samoa has long recognised the Pacific Ocean as a source of social and economic benefit which has sustained its communities for generations. The ocean remains a primary resource for food and livelihoods that requires responsible stewardship.

Ocean threats: acidification, deoxygenation, warming, heatwaves. Do we have anything useful to bend, change, or reverse the results?

This chapter focuses on the temporal dynamics, spatial extent and cumulative impacts of current and future drivers of change on Great Barrier Reef water quality, and subsequent impacts on marine ecosystems in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

This manual is not a summary of all that is known about sea turtles. There are already very good books and resources that do that. It is also not exhaustive about research and monitoring. Nor it is the global synthesis of all turtle research options.

The 2020 IUCN/MTSG Regional Report for Sea Turtles in Oceania was recently finalized and approved. The report consists of 675 pages and was three years in the making.  There are 25 chapters written by 23 dedicated knowledgeable authors and coauthors.  For the purposes of this repor

Seagrass - keeping Pacific marine life alive

The future vulnerability of low-lying atoll nations is inextricably linked to the production of carbonate sediments by organisms living in their adjacent marine environments.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are being implemented worldwide, yet there are few cases where managers make specific predictions of the response of previously harvested populations to MPA implementation.

Implementing CITES Listings of Sharks and Manta Rays 2013-2016

This booklet is part of a series of compilations assembling PANORAMA solution case studies on a defined topic. “Solutions in Focus” zooms in on a topic of interest covered by PANORAMA, allowing to explore common elements and shared learnings across success stories.

Understanding the value of fishers’ Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge (ITK) and of fishers’ spatial use of customary fishing grounds is an important contributing factor to marine resource management.

Catastrophic overfishing of small-scale coastal fisheries through the Pacific poses a major threat to regional food security and biodiversity. Globally, approaches to fisheries assessment and management that were developed for industrial fisheries, are failing small-scale data-poor fisheries.

Previous research has cast doubt on the potential for marine protected areas (MPAs) to provide refuge and fishery spillover benefits for migratory species as most MPAs are small relative to the geographic range of these species.

State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2016

Status and Potential of Locally-Managed Marine Areas in the South Pacific: Meeting nature conservation and sustainable livelihood targets through wide-spread implementation of LMMAs

This report of 220 pages written by nearly 90 authors clearly presents the summation of an enormous amount of data and information on 19 of the 23 nations and states of the Pacific and outlines both the problems and stresses on these thousands of reefs, and the potential that these reefs will pro

This paper reviews the provisions and efforts to implement the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) and the 1980 Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) are focused on identifying innovative ways to effectively protect and restore critical ecosystems, such as coral reefs, in Asia and the Pacific.

Ocean health is critical to all life on this planet.

The Cook Islands (CI), South Pacific, has one of the highest ratios of ocean to land area of any ocean island state in the world.