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Les sites d’action visé par le plan de travail font référence aux parcelles affectées par la Polynésie française à sa Direction de la Culture et du Patrimoine (DCP) pour la gestion du Paysage Culturel Taputapuātea. De par cette maîtrise foncière s’en suit un droit d’intervention dans le cadre précis sur la lutte contre les espèces exotiques envahissantes. De plus elle permet de garantir le suivi et l’évaluation des actions qui seront menées sur la période du projet et voir au-delà. Globalement, en matière de biodiversité et de la culture polynésiennne ces sites se définissent selon 3 critères: (i) chaque site présente un attrait culturel majeur avec la présence plus ou moins importante de vestiges archéologiques; (ii) la faune et la flore qui s’y développe est indigène et/ou d’introduction polynésienne “naturalisé”; et (iii) des espèces protégés par le code de l’environnement polynésien et incrites sur la liste rouge de l’UICN sont présentes. La sacralité et le respect de ces lieux par la communauté locale est un atout de préservation de ces attributs « Nature et culture ». Ces sites s’incrivents dans un paysage anthropisé, il faut néanmoins les considérés comme des points refuge pour la biodiversité.

There is a long traditional history of giant clam use in the Pacific, where they are an important source of food. They have also found much wider utility as a raw material for tools, containers and ornaments. During the 1960-1980s, there was a sharp increase in the illegal entry of foreign fishers, mostly Taiwanese fishing vessels. This activity reached its peak in the mid-1970s and then subsided in the face of strong international pressures over depleted stocks, and improved surveillance of reef areas. Giant clams are used commercially as aquarium specimens, seafood, including sashimi, shells and shell craft (especially the genus Hippopus). The majority of international trade is in giant clam adductor muscle and shells. The adductor muscle tissue is highly prized by Chinese gastronomes for its purported aphrodisiac properties.

The trade in Hawksbill Turtles Eretmochelys imbricata, medium-sized cheloniids with a pan-tropical distribution, has been recognized as a key threat to their conservation in the wild, and has greatly contributed to the species being listed as Critically Endangered in the IUCN Red List (Milliken and Tokunaga, 1987; Groombridge and Luxmoore, 1989; Meylan and Donnelly, 1999; van Dijk and Shepherd, 2004; TRAFFIC Southeast Asia Indo china, 2004; Bräutigam and Eckert, 2006; Mortimer and Donnelly, 2007; IUCN, 2009). Sought after for its thick keratinous shell plates (often referred to as bekko or tortoiseshell), eggs, and sometimes meat, unsustainable harvest levels have endangered the Hawksbill Turtle throughout its distribution. Declines in populations in the Pacific have been widely reported (Hirth, 1971; Witzell and Banner, 1980; Pritchard, 1982; Balazs, 1983; Witzell, 1983; Johannes, 1986; Groombridge and Luxmoore, 1989; Miller, 1994; NMFS and USFWS, 1998; Meylan and Donnelly, 1999; Mortimer and Donnelly, 2007). Hawksbill Turtles and their eggs are widely used in Papua New Guinea for a variety of purposes, including subsistence, sale, barter (Spring, 1980, 1981, 1982a,b,c; Pernetta and Hill, 1981; Wright and Richards, 1983; Kinch, 1999, 2002, 2003a; Koczberski et al., 2006) and for celebrations at Christmas and the end of the school year, which coincide with the peak turtle nesting period in the austral summer months (Kwan, 1994; Kinch, 1999, 2002, 2003a). In many areas of Papua New Guinea, Hawksbill Turtles are also opportunistically taken as ‘by-catch’ by fishers out on the reefs targeting lobsters, shellfish and sea cucumbers.

The Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council (WPRFMC) has been funding several leatherback turtle recovery projects in Melanesia for a number of years. The major contribution by the WPRFMC in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is the ongoing support of the Huon Coast Leatherback Turtle Conservation Project (HCLTCP) in the Morobe Province

The task given to the Evaluator was to review and assess the Initiative’s relevance, design,efficiency,effectiveness, impact and sustainability, as provided by the EC’s evaluation protocol used in the Mid-term Review (MTR). As a suitable level of funding was not available to conduct the evaluation appropriately, the evaluation was centred on a regional sharing and evaluation workshop held at Maravaghi Resort in the Solomon Islands from the 21st 24th February in which key NGOs, community representatives and government partners were brought together from participating countries.