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Suva Declaration on Climate Change - Issued at the 3rd PIDF Leaders Summit, 2-4 September 2015, Grand Pacific Hotel, Suva, Fiji

Sharks are the last of Earth's top predators to be hunted commercially around the world. The scale is massive - approximately 100 million sharks and their relatives are taken annually.

We have only one planet. Its capacity to support a thriving diversity of species, humans included, is large but fundamentally limited. When human demand on this capacity exceeds what is available - when we surpass ecological limits – we erode the health of the Earth's living systems. Ultimately, this loss threatens human well-being.

A project team composed of staff of the various division of MNREM was formed as a Technical Team to assist the Project Manager in the implementation of project activities. The Project Team and Manager were able to compile a Summary Report of Existing Information on Lake Lanoto’o, organized and started the initial detail surveys on the site’s flora and fauna ecologies; and prepare a list of stakeholders for engagement in the formulation of an effective management/development plan for the site.

WWF compiled “Buying Time: A User’s Manual for Building Resistance and Resilience to Climate Change in Natural Systems” for natural resource managers who are ready to confront the impacts of climate change. While far from comprehensive, this manual brings together assessments and potential initial adaptation strategies for various biomes. Written by experts, the manual addresses all of the major biomes with practical ideas of how to begin increasing the resiliency of ecosystems and plan our protected areas in response to the threat of climate change. Some of these strategies are in line with the conservation strategies we have been working on for years—reducing fragmentation, building corridors, reducing threats, and increasing resiliency in general. Natural resource managers in the field must begin planning to buy time for these biomes while the world works to switch from coal to clean power, a key strategy to reduce the causes of climate change

As we stand at the beginning of the new millennium, the threats to nature and protected areas are unprecedented. While some progress has been made and strategies such as protected areas have been successful in preserving biodiversity in some places, new threats are arising. None of these threats is as great as global climate change and none will have such large implications for the way natural resource managers plan and implement conservation strategies.