The reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) is a highly mobile pelagic marine ray found throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-Pacific, but investigation into their behavior and ecology within Papua New Guinea has not been previously undertaken. Furthermore, the home range, dispersal characteristics, and inter-seasonal fine-scale habitat use of this species is limited.
ndonesia’s fisheries are vast, worth billions of dollars and sustaining millions of people. They are also under threat from overfishing, bottom trawling, destructive fishing practices, mangrove conversion, and a changing climate. Local governance matters in combatting these issues. We see this in the recovery of reefs and the return of life to coastal areas managed by local people in West Kalimantan where my organisation works. These fish and crustaceans spill over into adjacent waters, benefiting even more fishers.
Perched on the bow of an aluminum landing craft, Anne Cohen gazed a few yards ahead of the vessel toward a yellow robot gliding across the emerald Majuro lagoon. The unmanned surface vehicle, called Yellowfin, was quickly becoming one of the coral researcher’s most dependable guides in these Central Pacific waters.
Mangrove forests are coastal habitats that serve as nurseries for economically important fisheries. Natural disturbances such as cyclones and shore erosion, together with aquaculture, palm plantation, and rice paddy expansion, have led to global declines in mangrove forest cover, spurring national and international pledges to restore it. Zhang et al. created a 30-meter-resolution annual dataset from satellite imagery to assess how mangrove occurrence and canopy cover have changed from 1984 to 2023.
Last month, the world marked the International Day of Biological Diversity at an extraordinary moment when political will, global targets, funding, and capacity are aligned to scale up protected and conserved areas globally.
The global target to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 is on course to fail unless governments place human rights at the centre of marine conservation policy, Greenpeace International has warned in a new report published today.
Protected and Conserved Areas (PCAs) safeguard biodiversity and provide essential ecosystem services for human and animal health, from water filtration to climate regulation. Yet PCAs can also be places where infectious diseases can emerge or spread among people, wildlife, and domestic animals. These dynamics make PCAs both vulnerable to infectious disease threats and critical allies in preventing and mitigating them.
The Transformative Pathways project has created a series of four guides on environmental monitoring, both for local organisations who are supporting Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and for communities themselves.
Watch this new film and join Mareva and her community as they learn about marine spatial planning in the Pacific. They witness a ship running aground and damaging their local reef. Then they become motivated to speak up about protecting their island and the ocean around it! This film has been produced by the talented team at Only Idea Studios Fiji. through the EU/SPREP Pacific BioScapes Programme.
Places where nature thrives outside of protected areas have huge potential to help the world achieve the global pledge to conserve 30% of Earth’s lands and waters by 2030 A sacred forest in India. A community-managed fishery in the Philippines. A military training ground in Europe. What do these places have in common?
