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The Third Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the convention on conservation of Nature in the south pacific (apia Convention) was convened in Apra. Western Samoa, on 5 october 1995. Representatives of the following contracting parties attended: Australia. Fiji. France and western Samoa. Other SPREP members represented were New Zealand. United States of America nad Vanuatu. Also in attendance were observers from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). A list of participants is at Annex I.

Samoa was first sighted by Roggerwein in 1722,. He gave the Samoa Islands the name the Isles of the Navigators, when he noted how much the natives used canoes.

To assess the sand and gravel resources in Vaiusu Bay mapping of bathymetry and drilling of 60 jetprobe holes to a maximum penetration depth of 5.0 metres was completed. From the jetprobing data a subsurface of impermeable reef pavement was encounted in the eastern portion of the survey area. This in part has controlled the direction of where the existing dredging has taken place. Dry sieve analysis shows the sediments to be classified into three textural sub-groups, gravel, sandy gravel and gravelly sand. Examination of the composition indicates a dominance of coral rubble and detritus, shell fragments and whole gastropods, echinoid spines and some Halimeda present. Foraminiferal faunas usually a significant component of beach sands were noticeably few. Calculated volume of aggregate in the resource area is 3 million m3 for water depths ranging between 0 and 3 metres.

Endemism refers to species unique to a certain area. Endemism tends to follow biogeographic boundaries determined by geographic factors and evolutionary history. It is important to note that biogeographic boundaries do not correspond with the political boundaries of Papua New Guinea. The western half of the island of New Guinea is the Indonesian State of Irian Jaya. The island of Bougainville is part of Papua New Guinea, but is biogeographically most similar to the Solomon Islands. The same conflict between biogeographic and political boundaries arises across the Torres Strait between the southern part of Papua New Guinea and the northern tip of Queensland, Australia (Kikkawa et al. 1981). Another factor which affects apparent endemism is the level of study which has taken place on particular taxonomic groups, for example, the relatively visible bird species are well-documented, whereas only limited information exists on many invertebrates. Thus, some organisms are known only from a particular place simply because they have not yet been identified elsewhere. At individual sites, high species diversity (absolute number of species) does not necessarily correlate with high numbers of endemic species. Additional information on species which are endemic to Papua New Guinea may be found in the Conservation Needs Assessment report and maps.

Report of the Third Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the SPREP Convention

Turtles belong to the reptile family, the same family as lizards, geckoes and snakes. Like all reptiles, turtles have scaly, dry skin, but unlike their crocodile and snake relatives, turtles have no teeth. Turtles have a shell, called a carapace, that protects it from its enemies .

The proposed Conservation Area is centred on an area of mangrove forest (c75 hectares) in the customary ownership of Saanapu and Sataoa villages on the south coast of Upolu. This area is one of five Grade 1 sites identified by a 1991 survey of lowland ecosystems as the best remaining in Western Samoa (Park et al. , 1992) . It is given priority as the best mangrove ecosystem in the country, acknowledging that mangroves have a key role to play in sustaining lagoon fisheries on which many Samoans in coastal villages depend. The two villages involved have made a commitment to conservation of this area dating back to 1992 when the results of the survey were presented to them. The project also hopes to extend conservation and sustainable development principles to other lands owned by these villages, and in the long-term to the whole Safata District.