Skip to main content

Mangrove ecosystems play a critical role in harbouring biodiversity and providing a variety of ecosystem services. The need for developing better techniques for classifying and monitoring mangroves is increasing, especially with the growing demand in blue carbon markets. However, many countries are challenged by the need to improve their mangrove cover estimates to inform decision-making on coastal land use and to guide local conservation efforts including restoration planning. This manual was developed to help overcome this problem by providing guidance, specifically targeted to build capacity for mangrove resource managers on how to use and take advantage of the latest technologies in mapping and monitoring mangroves. It enables collection of data that informs conservation decision-making, guiding the planning of mangrove restoration and protection activities that will ultimately lead to enhanced management and conservation of mangroves. In addition, case studies are presented on estimating mangrove extent, structure, condition and change, using a range of remote sensing-derived sources that are focused on < 5-m spatial resolution.

PDF Article

MPAth-Marine Protected Area Tool Hub

The “Marine Protected Area Tool Hub” is an educational platform that is practitioner-focused at every level and developed to help you with your personalised challenges.

National and Regional Networks of marine protected areas: a review of progress

Most of the marine protected areas (MPAs) around the world, estimated to number about 5000, have been established both on an ad hoc basis and through systematic planning processes. The

National-level evaluation of a community-based marine management initiative

Community-based approaches to conservation and natural resource management are considered essential to meeting global conservation targets.

O Le Pupu Pu'e National Park (Ramsar Site) Management Plan 2020-2030

O Le Pupu-Pu'e National Park was the first Park established in Samoa at a time when the environment movement and concerns for our unique biodiversity and natural features was still only a passing thought.

Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures: A Path Towards Equitable Biodiversity Conservation

Many people are familiar with the idea of a protected area—land or water areas set aside and kept as natural as possible, such as national parks and nature reserves. Protected areas are one of the most well-established conservation tools, playing a crucial role in protecting biodiversity.

Pacific Coral Reef Action Plan 2021–2030

Many Pacific coral reefs are being damaged by habitat disturbance, pollution, fishing and climate change. Climate change is believed to be the greatest human-induced threat to corals in the Pacific region. The region needs an action plan to make cohesive decisions that will benefit coral reefs.

Pacific Cultural Mapping Planning and Policy Toolkit

Teaiwa, K. and Mercer, C. 2011.  Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Noumea, New Caledonia.

Padezaka Tribal Rainforest Conservation Area Management Plan - Choiseul Province, Solomon Islands

This Management Plan was prepared by the representatives of the Padezaka Tribe in partnership with the Natural Resources Development Foundation (NRDF), Integrated Forest Management Program (IFMP) and Ecological Solutions Solomon Islands (ESSI) in Choiseul.

PARKS The International Journal of Protected Areas and Conservation, Issue 27 Special Issue on COVID-19 MARCH 2021

This special issue of PARKS is devoted to the impact and implications of COVID-19 on the world’s protected and conserved areas.

Participatory Coastal Resource Assessment Training Guide

Deguit, E.T., Smith, R.P., Jatulan, W.P., White, A.T. 2004.  Participatory Coastal Resource Assessment Training Guide.

PIPAP GIS Supplementary Training Video 1 : QGIS Basics

This package/collection of training materials constitute an introductory, basic-level training to open source GIS software (QGIS) targeting technical-level government officers.

PIPAP GIS Supplementary Training Video 2 : Building Maps in QGIS

This package/collection of training materials constitute an introductory, basic-level training to open source GIS software (QGIS) targeting technical-level government officers.

PIPAP GIS Supplementary Training Video 3 : Mapping GPS Data in QGIS

This package/collection of training materials constitute an introductory, basic-level training to open source GIS software (QGIS) targeting technical-level government officers.

Principles for Community-Based Marine Conservation in the Indo-Pacific.

Parks, J, Aalbersberg, W and Salafsky, N (editors). 2001. Principles for Community-Based Marine Conservation in the Indo-Pacific. University of the South Pacific Press. Suva, Fiji.

Principles for Ecosystem Restoration to Guide the United Nations Decade 2021-2030

Aware of the critical need to halt, prevent and reverse ecosystem degradation, and to effectively restore degraded terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems across the globe, through Resolution 73/284, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2021–2030 as the United Nations Decade on Ecos

Protected Area Governance and Management

This book has been prepared as a contribution to the IUCN World Parks Congress in Sydney in 2014. The global community is at the interface of ensuring the quality of protected area governance and management, together with the way that effectively managed and

Protected Area Network Expansion and Management: Economics to improve conservation outcomes

This paper identifies the Dasgupta Review’s key points about the role of protected areas (PAs) in conserving nature.

Rapid Assessment and Prioritization of Protected Area Management (RAPPAM) Methodology

Ervin, J. 2003. Rapid Assessment and Prioritization of Protected Area Management (RAPPAM) Methodology. WWF, Gland, Switzerland.

Reef-Fidelity and Migration of Tiger Sharks, Galeocerdo cuvier, across the Coral Sea

Knowledge of the habitat use and migration patterns of large sharks is important for assessing the effectiveness of large predator Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), vulnerability to fisheries and environmental influences, and management of shark–human interactions.

Reshaping Natural Resource Management in Papua New Guinea

The growing need for effective tools and new approaches for natural resource management (NRM) is being met by PNG’s NRM Hub initiative, which is already helping to centralise environmental data and make it accessible to stakeholders everywhere.

Review and Recommendations Regarding Human Activity Surveillance Technologies in Pacific Marine Protected Areas

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.

Samoa Ocean Strategy 2020-2030

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.

Saving the ocean and climate through innovative marine protected area finance mechanisms

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

Sea Turtle Monitoring Manual

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.

Sharks and rays of the Samoan archipelago: a review of their biological diversity, social and cultural values, and conservation status

Data on chondrichthyan (sharks, rays, and chimaeras) populations is largely lacking for many countries and territories in the Indo-Pacific. Aims.

Siporae Rainforest Conservation Area - Management Rules

In 2019 the Siporae Rainforest Protected Area was declared a protected area under the 2010 protected area ACT. It protects and conserves one of the last untouched rainforest ecosystems in Choiseul Province and Solomon Island.

Sirebe Rainforest Conservation Area - Management Rules

In 2019 The Sirebe Rainforest Conservation Area was declared a protected area under the 2010 protected area ACT. It protects and conserves one of the last untouched rainforest ecosystems in Choiseul Province and Solomon Islands.

Socioeconomic Fisheries Surveys in Pacific Islands: a Manual for the Collection of a Minimum Dataset

Kronen, M., Stacey, N., Holland, P., Magron, F., Power, M. 2007. Socioeconomic Fisheries Surveys in Pacific Islands: a Manual for the Collection of a Minimum  Dataset. SPC, Noumea, New Caledonia.  

Socioeconomic Manual for Coral Reef Management

Bunce, L. Townsley, P., Pomeroy, R., Pollnac, R. 2000. Socioeconomic Manual for Coral Reef Management. GCRMN, AIMS, Townsville, Australia.

Spawning potential surveys in Fiji: A new song of change for small-scale fisheries in the Pacific

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.

Spillover benefits from the world’s largest fully protected MPA

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.

Standards of practice to guide ecosystem restoration

The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030 (hereafter “UN Decade”) aims to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation and recover biodiversity, and ecosystem integrity; enhance human health and well-being, including sustainable delivery of ecosystem goods and services; and

Status of monitoring and evaluation of Tonga’s Special Management Area program

Tonga’s Special Management Areas (SMAs) have been widely supported by the people of Tonga as a successful approach to the comanagement of their fisheries and marine resources.

Testing a global standard for quantifying species recovery and assessing conservation impact

Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a“Green List of Species” (now the IUCN Green Status of Species).

The Database of Island Invasive Species Eradications (DIISE)

Islands are at the forefront of the global extinction crisis, with invasive vertebrates posing a significant threat to native flora and fauna.

The effects of protected areas on the ecological niches of birds and mammals

Protected areas are a cornerstone for biodiversity conservation, and typically support more natural and undisturbed habitats compared to unprotected lands. The effect of protected areas on intra-specific ecological niche has been rarely investigated.

The Future of Our Ocean is in Our Hands: An Update on the Palau National Marine Sanctuary

Palau’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), with a total of 500,238 km2 (over 300,000 mi2 ), became a multi-zoned national MPA in 2015, through the Palau National Marine Sanctuary Act.

The Important Marine Mammal area Network: A Tool for Systematic Spatial Planning in Response to the Marine Mammal Habitat Conservation Crisis

The Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) initiative was launched by the Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in 2016, as a response to a conservation crisis in the protection of marine mammals and wider global ocean biodiversity.

The past as a lens for biodiversity conservation on a dynamically changing planet

We are in the midst of a major biodiversity crisis, with deep impacts on the functioning of ecosystems and derived benefits to people (1, 2). But we still have time to pull back. To do so, it is imperative that we learn from plants’ and animals’ past actions (3, 4).

The role and value of science in shark conservation advocacy

Many species of sharks are threatened with extinction, and there has been a longstanding debate in scientifc and environmental circles over the most efective and appropriate strategy to conserve and protect them.

The Role of Coral Reef Small-Scale Fisheries for Addressing Malnutrition and Avoiding Biodiversity Loss

Integrated management of coral reef foods, as a highly diverse set of blue foods, can contribute to addressing the dual challenges of malnutrition and biodiversity loss.

The State of the World's Mangroves 2021

Mangroves are vital components of the planet coastal ecosystems. Mangroves sequester carbon at up to four times the rate of terrestrial forests, making them tremendous allies in our struggle for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The ‘Paper Park Index’: Evaluating Marine Protected Area effectiveness through a global study of stakeholder perceptions

Governments around the world are increasingly committed to reaching terrestrial and marine conservation goals. But achieving such commitments is challenging, and conservation targets that are reached on paper, e.g., in terms of square kilometers protected, can be misleading.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge and practices associated with the Vanate (Raggiana Bird of Paradise, Paradisaea raggiana) along the Kokoda Track in Central Province, Papua New Guinea

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is lost due to the increase of urbanisation, and the lack of transfer of this knowledge to younger generations. Aims.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge and practices associated with the Vanate (Raggiana Bird of Paradise, Paradisaea raggiana) along the Kokoda Track in Central Province, Papua New Guinea

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is lost due to the increase of urbanisation, and the lack of transfer of this knowledge to younger generations. Aims.

Tropical mammal functional diversity increases with productivity but decreases with anthropogenic disturbance

A variety of factors can affect the biodiversity of tropical mammal communities, but their relative importance and directionality remain uncertain.

Turning the Tide for Coral Reefs: the ICRI Plan of Action 2021-2024

The twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss have brought into stark relief the need for greater collaboration and action at the international level to conserve, manage, and restore coral reefs.