Search the SPREP Catalogue

Poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation are basic social goals and part of the policy agenda of postcolonial states and international agencies. It is not surprising therefore that a large number of programmatic interventions have aimed to achieve the two goals at the same time. These interventions are funded by governments, conservation NGOs, bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, and private sector organizations. In this paper, we first examine the conceptual discussion around poverty and biodiversity, and then analyze three such interventions: community-based wildlife management, extractive reserves, and ecotourism. Our discussion shows that the literature on these programmatic interventions depends on relatively simplified understandings of poverty and biodiversity in stark contrast to the theoretical literature on the two concepts. Further, writings on programmatic interventions tend to operationalize poverty and biodiversity in distinct and quite different ways.

While development of natural non living resources such as minerals and water can better the lives of Pacific islanders, it needs to be managed to ensure a safe and healthy environment. And as any resource manager today knows, to manage resources we need to manage the people who use them. A number of projects in the Pacific have recently turned to economic tools to help manage the way people use non living natural resources. In this paper selected case studies will be used to: ? demonstrate the different ways that economic tools are helping to improve the governance of a variety of non living natural resources in the Pacific: and ? consider the prospects for using these tools more generally in the Pacific in the future. To highlight the ways in which economic tools can improve the governance of non living natural resources, a simple project cycle is used. A number of case studies including the following are used to show how economic tools are improving management of non living natural resources in different sectors including water, disasters, oceans., minerals and energy. Details of case sftidies are provided in the paper accompanying the presentation. Following discussion of the case studies, the implications for using economic analysis to support the management of 11011 living resources in the Pacific is discussed.

The Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004 and its tragic and devastating consequences were a wake-up call for the global community, dramatically drawing attention to the vulnerability of tropical coastal ecosystems and the dangers of undermining the services they provide to humankind. This was further emphasized by the catastrophic hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico in 2005 when Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma caused much publicized and extensive damage to coastal areas. The numerous other tropical storms that affected coastal communities and ecosystems in other parts of the world in the same year received much less attention, but were also notable.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is in the process of conducting an Eco-regional assessment of the Bisniarck Sea, to use as the basis for expandmg its conservation efforts in this important area. The goal is to develop a network of coral reef Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for the Bismarck Sea with Kimbe Bay as a platform site. Physical oceanographic data can be used more effectively in the design of MP As. This is often difficult to achieve in many remote regions that yield few actual direct observations.

Research findings of the past decade have led to mounting concern that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations will cause changes in the ocean’s carbonate chemistry system, and that those changes will affect some of the most fundamental biological and geochemical processes of the sea. Thanks to the efforts of large-scale physical and biogeochemical ocean programs such as WOCE, JGOFS, and OACES, ocean-wide changes in the carbonate system are now well documented. Since 1980 ocean uptake of the excess CO2 released by anthropogenic activities is significant; about a third has been stored in the oceans. The rate of atmospheric CO2 increase, however, far exceeds the rate at which natural feedbacks can restore the system to normal conditions. Oceanic uptake of CO2 drives the carbonate system to lower pH and lower saturation states of the carbonate minerals calcite, aragonite, and high-magnesium calcite, the materials used to form supporting skeletal structures in many major groups of marine organisms.

Government policy is to raise the welfare of the people of Vanuatu. Achieving this requires formal development planning. Vanuatu has been working on this since 1997 when the Comprehensive Reform Program was initiated. There was a summit in 2002 during which the Prime Minister announced five priorities. This was followed in 2003 by a Prioritised Action Agenda (PAA) which built upon these five priorities. This document is an update of the PAA, building on the experience of the past, taking account of what has been achieved and the challenges that remain.

The Cook Islands is a unique small island developing state in the Pacific. It is an independent island nation comprising 15 islands, which cover a total land area of 240 sq. km and are scattered across an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 2 million sq. km. In 1965, the Cook Islands exercised its right to self-determination and entered into a relationship of free association with New Zealand.

The Strategic Development Plan (SDP) 2007-2011 for Fiji is the culmination of consultations with a wide range of stakeholders in the private sector, non-government organisations and Government. The plan draws extensively on the Manifesto of the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua Party and consensus reached with the Fiji Labour Party on issues of national importance to the achievement of the Vision of a Peaceful and Prosperous Fiji. Lessons learnt from the mid-term Review of the Strategic Development Plan 2003-2005, planning document released in November 2004, has contributed to Government’s decision on this Strategic Development Plan for 2007 to 2011.

In 1989, the kakerori (Pomarea dimidiata) was one of the ten rarest bird species in the world, with a declining population of just 29 birds living in south-eastern Rarotonga. As a result of conservation management, the kakerori population has rebounded, with a minimum of 281 birds on Rarotonga and 19 birds on Atiu in summer 2004/05. Since 2001, the emphasis of management in the Takitumu Conservation Area (TCA) on Rarotonga has shifted from the ‘recovery’ of kakerori to ‘sustaining’ the population at 250–300 individuals. In 2004/05, all rat bait stations were filled fortnightly, and so the labour costs were reduced by 30% to 34 person days, and toxin use (57 kg of Talon®—active ingredient brodifacoum) was reduced 81% from the peak year during the ‘recovery phase’. Kakerori breeding productivity was unusually high in 2004/05 because several pairs raised two broods. In the poisoned area, apparent breeding success was significantly higher (1.35 fledglings/breeding territory) than in the unpoisoned area (0.55 fledglings/ breeding territory); however, this difference was at least partly due to more effort being spent searching for fledglings in poisoned areas. A minimum of 59 fledglings was detected in 2004/05; however, some territories were not checked during the breeding season, and then a series of five tropical cyclones struck Rarotonga in a 4-week period in February/March 2005, which halted our fledgling searches, and caused severe damage to some habitat in the TCA. We expect that many kakerori perished during these cyclones; however, the population on Atiu, which was only affected by two of the five cyclones, survived unscathed. These catastrophic weather events highlighted the vulnerability of single-island endemic birds, and underlined the value of establishing an ‘insurance’ population on Atiu. We recommend that the poisoning regime should return to that used during the ‘recovery phase’ of the kakerori management programme if the August 2005 census reveals that the population has fallen below 220 birds (a 20% decline), otherwise the recent programme of fortnightly poisoning should continue.