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During the coronavirus pandemic, it’s “irresponsible” to flock to wilderness areas, experts say. Confusion about whether it’s safe to social distance at national parks was heightened by U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s announcement Wednesday that park fees would be waived.

The 10th Pacific Islands Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas, which was scheduled to take place from 19 – 24 April 2020, has been postponed to later in 2020. The decision to defer the conference to a later date, yet to be confirmed, has been made by the conference host, the

Funding for the Commonwealth Indigenous Ranger Program has been secured until 2028 with the announcement of millions from the Federal Government this week.

Environment officers in Vanuatu now have the skills to produce basic maps of protected and conserved areas of Vanuatu following training on the upgraded tools and features of the Pacific Islands Protected Area Portal (PIPAP) as well as geographic information systems (GIS).

A national training for government officers across environment and fisheries sectors, co-organised and implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Samoa Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) was completed last week.

Conservation management of the rich biodiversity across the Pacific islands region is at the core of the 10th Pacific Islands Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas. An important event, this will help protect our valuable ecosystem services that the world depends upon.

Among the vast number of native species damaged by the recent bushfire crisis, we must not forget native pollinators. These animals, mainly insects such as native bees, help sustain ecosystems by pollinating native plants. Native pollinator populations have been decimated in burned areas.

The proposed network includes six marine reserves, where marine life would be fully protected and fishing banned, five marine protected areas, which would impose a range of restrictions to fishing, and one kelp protection area and where commercial harvest of bladder kelp would be prohibited.

Smothering, strangling, aggressive – common words often used to describe the infamous vine, Merremia peltata, as it snakes up forest trees. Known locally as kebeas, this native species thrives in sunlight.

Living in harmony with nature by 2050 is the goal of a new set of global biodiversity targets to be achieved between 2020 – 2030, targets which the Pacific islands will also be committed to reaching.