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There is growing interest in using ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) to maintain or restore ecosystem services to increase humans resilience to climate change. However to date the focus on EbA has been on conceptualising the approach and encouraging its use, rather than understanding EbA in practice.

Most forests in Fiji are on native land owned by communities with tenure rights that are held largely with clans.

The Pacific Marine Climate Change Report Card 2018 and a series of supporting scientific review reports. Produced for the CME Programme.

Ocean acidification has the potential to significantly impact Pacific Island ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide. There is compelling evidence that the ocean has become more acidic in response to rising atmospheric CO2 levels. As atmospheric CO2

An expedition in 2002 to the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in the Republic of Kiribati documented an extensive and delicate community of staghorn and tabular Acropora colonies (79.4% cover) in Kanton Lagoon, in a 2 km radius from the lagoon mouth (Obura et al. 2011)

The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) is in a naturally iron- poor region in the equatorial central Pacific.

Small island developing states (SIDS) are among the most vulnerable to our changing climate. People living in the western tropical Pacific SIDS are already experiencing higher temperatures, shifts in rainfall patterns, rising sea levels and changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme climate events. Further changes on top of an existing, naturally variable climate are expected long into the future because of global warming. These changes in the climate have far-reaching consequences that will affect communities and the built and natural environment. At a national level, sectors that will be impacted include health, infrastructure, water, energy, tourism, food (fisheries, agriculture), natural resources (forestry, biodiversity) and disaster risk management. To deal with these changes, Pacific SIDS need credible, useful and accessible scientific information to inform decision-making at a sectoral level about what drives the climate in the Pacific, how it may change in the future and what the impact of these changes might be.

Asparagus asparagoides (bridal creeper) is a highly invasive noxious environmental weed in southern Australia. It poses a severe threat to biodiversity and conservation in temperate natural ecosystems. Pterostylis arenicola, a threatened terrestrial orchid endemic to South Australia, is directly imperilled by this weed in most of its remnant populations. The coincident growth phenologies of orchid and weed make for an ecologically sensitive environment when considering methods of weed control or eradication. To minimise impact on the orchid and its ecosystem, this paper examines the efficacy of herbicide application for A. asparagoides control using the weed wiping technique, comparing it to the conventional spray application method. The most prolonged control of A. asparagoides was achieved after a single wipe-application of 1.5 g a.i. (active ingredient) L 1 metsulfuron methyl, either alone or in combination with 120 g a.i.L 1 glyphosate, both treatments giving significantly better weed control five years after treatment than comparable spray applications. An investigation of the effect of glyphosate on cultures of the mycorrhizal fungus isolated from P. arenicola indicated a significant decline in mycelial growth with increasing herbicide concentration over the range 0.5–3.0 kg a.i. ha 1. These results provide further incentive for the use of ecologically sensitive herbicide application techniques, such as weed wiping, in areas of high conservation concern.

Rodents are a key pest to agricultural and rural island communities of the South Pacific, but there is limited information of their impact on the crops and livelihoods of small-scale farmers.

Where conservation status of island non-marine molluscs is known, snails tend to be one of the most threatened faunal groups. However, published information regarding island gastropod conservation status, diversity and endemism is frequently unavailable despite the importance of this information for the formulation of biodiversity action plans and conservation strategy. Fiji, for example, has a diverse native land snail fauna (.240 species) with an endemism level of ,80%, but only within the last few years has any information about any of these species been available to the national biodiversity reporting repository. For one lineage in particular, members of the tree snail family Partulidae, with four endemic Fiji Island species, the conservation status of the group has never been assessed. However, based on the alarming extinction rates documented in partulid snail species on other Pacific Islands, information about the occurrence and status of these taxa is urgently needed for Fiji’s biodiversity action plan. To redress this information void, we formulated the Fijian Partulid Tree Snail Project, consisting of five components: (1) raising awareness; (2) locating populations and monitoring population trends; (3) elucidating patterns of genetic diversity; (4) creating action partnerships; and (5) conducting disturbance gradient analyses. The overall goal was to characterise mechanisms leading to persistence of partulids in the face of increasing anthropogenic disturbance. In the initial stages of this project, existing information on Fiji’s partulids was collated and two small, remote islands in the Fiji archipelago were surveyed to investigate whether tree snails persisted there. Living populations of Partula lanceolata and empty shells of Partula leefei were found on Cicia Island in Lau, and on Rotuma Island in the Rotuma Group, respectively. DNA analyses confirm a sister relationship between the two Partula species in north-eastern Lau, P. lirata and P. lanceolata, with both sharing a sister relationship with a member of the same genus in Vanuatu – P. auraniana Hartman, 1888. Prioritisation and further sampling of additional islands, and residual native habitat on less accessible islands and islets, is needed to fully assess the conservation status of all four Fijian species via the IUCN Red List process. Moreover, the basic descriptive information and associated studies reported here will serve to raise awareness of Fiji’s endemic tree snails particularly in communities that had no prior knowledge of their special conservation status; and also at a wider national, regional and global level. Community awareness is particularly vital as the willing support of land owners in the relevant small island communities is critical to implementing any future conservation action plans.