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

Many requsts to extend the seagrass guides series to southern temeperate species were made following the success of A guide to the tropical seagrasses of the Indo-West Pacific and encouraged this endeavour. On embarking on this new task, the three of us, Kathryn, Paul and I, concentrated on the seagrasses of south Australia. However, we quickly realised that adding the seagrasses of New Zealand, South America and southen Africa wouldn't expand things dramatically, so we included them...

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.

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.

Although there is evidence that some populations of large whales in the Southern Hemisphere have increased in recent years, differences in feeding behaviour and migration patterns largely precludes direct competition between these and coastal pelagic fisheries in the South Pacific Ocean. In particular, many of the whales that spend at least part of their year in the South Pacific make feeding migrations in summer to Antarctic waters where some estimates put their food intake at 90% of annual consumption. Others, such as female sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), which do not migrate from tropical/subtropical South Pacific waters, feed at depths greater than that usually occupied by species that are the targets of commercial fisheries, such as the tunas (Thunnus spp.). Thus, even though consumption by whales is high, dietary overlap with commercially fished species is relatively low as much of their feeding is in waters that are not exploited by fisheries. However, there are a number of anecdotal reports that some smaller cetacean species, in particular killer and pilot whales, that take fish from longlines set in the region, although more are lost to sharks. However, it should be noted that any assessment of interactions between whales and fisheries is limited by a lack of qualitative and quantitative data. Abundance estimates, particularly for some of the smaller species in the South Pacific region, are only order of magnitude estimates. Furthermore, knowledge for food chains (and their interactions) for many cetaceans in the South Pacific is sketchy making assessment of their impact on local fisheries difficult.

Invasive species are one of the most serious threats to biodiversity. Up-to-date and accurate information on the distribution of invasive species is an important biosecurity risk analysis tool. Several databases are available to determine the distributions of invasive species and native species. However, keeping this information current is a real challenge. Ants are among the most widespread invasive species. Five species of ants are listed in the IUCN list of damaging invasive species, and many other species are also invasive in the Pacific. We sought to determine and update the distribution information for the 18 most problematic invasive ant species in the Pacific to assist in Small Island Developing States with risk analysis. We compared the information on six public databases, conducted a literature review, and contacted experts on invasive ants in the Pacific region to resolve conflicting information. While most public records were accurate we found some new records had not yet been incorporated into the public databases, and some information was inaccurate. The maintenance of public databases faces an enormous challenge in balancing completeness (~15 000 ant species in this case) with accuracy (the impossibility of constantly surveying) and utility.

"This book is the first complete pictorial atlas of the world's ray fauna. It also provides general identifying features and distributional information about this iconic, but surprisingly poorly known, group of fishes"