Papua New Guinea (PNG), the largest of the Pacific island nations (population 8.9 million), has not been spared from the COVID-19 pandemic. The government declared a State of Emergency in March, closing off international borders and suspending domestic air travel. Schools were closed, non-essential workers requested to stay at home, and travel between provinces limited to cargo, medicine and security personnel.
The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has had far reaching effects across the Pacific, including isolated island nations like the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), population 112,000. The national government closed international borders and state governments imposed a country-wide travel ban, which has been rewarded with no recorded cases of the virus. Knock-on effects have been reported and this survey is intended to gain rapid impressions of these effects from the urban municipalities of Kosrae (popn. 6,600) and the more remote island of Yap (popn.
The pandemic caused by the virus, COVID-19 has had wide-ranging effects on coastal and island communities throughout the South Pacific. Solomon Islands has not recorded any cases of COVID-19 but the virus and the closing of international borders have had a trickle-down effect on all aspects of life, ranging from loss of employment to the closing of schools. Staff from the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR) visited nine coastal communities in the Russell Islands to determine the immediate effects of the COVID-19 situation.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as the major international body for nature conservation is responding in multiple ways to the Covid 19 pandemic.
The global COVID-19 (or coronavirus) pandemic is having a major impact across the globe and on all segments of the population. The effects on Pacific Island countries and territories have been extremely varied; six have had to manage viral infections while others are so far managing to keep the virus entirely from their shores. The social and economic impacts across different 2 sectors has yet to be quantified.
NOAA Fisheries has announced that is canceling more fishery and ecosystem surveys that were supposed to take place in 2020, citing the complications created by COVID-19. The new survey cancellations will add to the growing list of surveys that won’t take place in 2020 due to COVID-19.
To protect people’s health, Kiribati and other Pacific countries are likely to extend the current strict rule that suspends all purse-seine fishing boats carry an independent observer.
The Pacific region is no stranger to sudden shocks. Vanuatu and Solomon Islands, for instance, are respectively ranked one and three as nations most at risk from natural hazards and societal vulnerability.
Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries ministers are to meet virtually from tomorrow with the impact of Covid-19 on the tuna fishery at the top of the agenda.
Our ongoing extinction crisis poses an existential threat to civilization, yet almost all biodiversity conservation strategies are underfunded.